UF president names members to event safety task force

October 3, 2007

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — University of Florida President Bernie Machen today appointed five faculty members and four students to a task force that will review police protocols and events management practices.

The President’s Ad Hoc Committee On a Civil, Safe and Open Environment will develop recommendations for the university to ensure a civil and secure environment at public and community events conducive to a free and lively discourse. Machen called for the creation of the committee after the arrest of a student following U.S. Sen. John Kerry’s speech at UF on Sept. 17.

The following faculty members were named to the committee: Chairwoman Kim Tanzer, architecture; Mike Seigel, law; Sandra Chance, journalism; Mark Rush, economics; and James Klausner, engineering.

Three undergraduate students will join law student Brian J. Aungst Jr. on the committee: Lola Sophia Bovell, Steven Hoffstetter and Leslie Nicole Jean.

The committee will meet for the first time from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Tuesday at a location yet to be selected. The meeting is open to the public.

Machen’s letter to Tanzer charging the task force with its duties is available on the president’s Web site at www.president.ufl.edu. Meeting notices and committee findings also will be posted there.

Machen has asked the committee to provide him an initial report by the end of December.