In an effort to encourage student interaction and increase campus safety, Saint Mary's has expanded its security department by adding an assistant director. Stan Klimczak was promoted to this role last month after joining the security department in March.
Klimczak said the assistant director position will cover many duties that were previously performed by the investigator/programmer. He said the new role is essentially "an expansion of the investigator/programmer position."
"The position was created to enhance the security department to make it more efficient and to give the director more help with some of the things he needed assistance with," he said.
Director of Security David Gariepy echoed Klimczak's description of the role of the assistant director.
"The assistant director is not actually a new position," he said. "It is a position which used to be called investigator, but has new and expanded responsibilities. The assistant director will continue with investigative responsibilities, but will be more heavily involved with training of officers and creating informational programs for staff and students."
Gariepy also said the assistant director will serve as the director of security in his absence.
"My hope is that through the expanded duties of the assistant director, we, as a security department, will be better able, through training, to provide for a safer and more secure campus," Gariepy said.
Klimczak said he will face several challenges as he adjusts to his new job, beginning with the task of defining exactly what his role as assistant director will be.
Increasing student involvement and attendance is one of Klimczak's primary goals. He said the College currently has programs to educate students on domestic violence, alcohol abuse and drug abuse.
"The same basic programs that pretty much everyone has because those are the main things that are a threat or concern," he said.
However, Klimczak said he would like to change the way this information is relayed to the student body.
"Instead of dictating from the top down, saying you do this, I'd like to work with students and have involvement to create ways to present those programs," he said. "I guess some of the classes and programs haven't been well attended and we want to increase attendance. I think the way to do that is to increase interest and involvement and make it more relevant to students."
Klimczak said he will be meeting with Vice President of Student Affairs Karen Johnson next week to discuss ways to encourage student interest and participation.
Changes to the current system could include the creation of committees within each residence hall that would interact with security to generate programs for smaller groups within their hall.
"I think you get more across in the smaller group than the discussion where you try to concentrate everyone in a large group at the same time," Klimczak said.
Another area Klimczak said he would like to focus on is training for security personnel.
"One of the goals of myself and the director is to work on officer training in the security department," he said. "We want to provide more and better training to make them more efficient and to better serve the community. We are always looking to upgrade and improve ourselves."
Gariepy also stressed the importance of the College community and the security department working together to ensure the department continues to fulfill the community's needs.
"The assistant director and I share a common desire to promote safe habits by students, to provide timely information and tips to [the College] community and to foster a desire by all to help in the effort to make the campus a safer, healthier environment for all to prosper," he said.
Prior to his employment at the College, Klimczak served as an officer for nearly 33 years in the LaPorte County Police Department, where he was the assistant chief for the past two-and-a-half years.
After retirement from the force, Klimczak said he was "looking for another challenge. So that's why I came here," he said. "A second career I guess."
Lbaumg01@saintmarys.edu
cell 630-299-9616
