WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security will provide the University of Southern Mississippi with nearly $3.5 million to train key personnel responsible for security management of intercollegiate athletic events throughout the nation, Senators Thad Cochran and Trent Lott announced today. The funding will take advantage of expertise at the university’s Center for Spectator Sports Security Management to educate and train an estimated 5,370 officials at 1,055 institutions by conducting 95 regional workshops.
“The growing attendance at intercollegiate sporting events makes our stadiums and arenas on campuses across the country a vulnerable target for potential terrorist attacks,” Senator Cochran said. “The University of Southern Mississippi has been leading the way to help mitigate this unique and complex threat. This new partnership between the Department of Homeland Security and the University of Southern Mississippi is welcome news at a time of year when students, families, and children across Mississippi and throughout the nation gather to celebrate college sports.”
The university’s Center for Spectator Sports Security Management will use the funding to design, develop, and deliver a national risk management training certification to officials responsible for security management of college sporting events. Targeted personnel will include athletic facility administrators, campus police, emergency medical officials, fire department, hazardous materials experts, and local emergency management directors. Certification components will include a pre-training online package, onsite training involving risk analysis simulation models, a three-day athletic conference workshop, and a take-home transition package.
The Center for Spectator Sports Security Management is an interdisciplinary academic center affiliated with the University of Southern Mississippi’s School of Human Performance and Recreation. It was created through the support of the Mississippi Office of Homeland Security and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. The Center cultivates partnerships with other institutions of higher learning, professional associations, and corporations to build security awareness within the intercollegiate athletics community, improve sport security policies and procedure, enhance emergency response and evacuation, and develop procedures for recovery operations related to terrorist incidents, natural disasters, and crowd management.
The funding is provided through the Department of Homeland Security’s Competitive Training Grant Program, which supports innovative training programs addressing high priority national homeland security needs. Senator Cochran is the top Republican on the Senate’s Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee.
