Officials at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa looked to peer universities when trying to decide how to improve campus safety, and found that many of them have trained police forces with full arrest powers.

Arrest powers proposed for Manoa's 30 security officers by interim President David McClain are still a ways off and will require approval from the Board of Regents, as well as the governor and the Legislature.

But authority isn't the only place where the University of Hawai'i-Manoa is lagging.

Security staffing at Manoa has remained unchanged over the past five years, even as enrollment has increased nearly 22 percent.

Manoa officials requested an additional 16 guards last year, but those positions weren't funded.

UH-Manoa's ratio of security personnel to students lags that of its peer universities nationally. They range from 1-to-352 students at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, 1-to-485 students at Iowa State University and 1-to-667 students at UH-Manoa.

Carolyn Tanaka, UH associate vice president for external affairs, noted that the campuses do not necessarily offer good comparisons.

"While they may be peer institutions, they may not be comparable," she said. Factors like the size of the school, location, enrollment, even costs must be considered.

While these campuses are different from UH-Manoa in many ways, they deal with largely the same security issues.

The proposal to grant security officers arrest authority is still being drafted, but personnel at UH-Manoa have begun training with the state Sheriff's Department, said UH spokesman Jim Manke. They're learning to deal with arrests, report writing, management of aggressive behavior and simply to understand the law, he said.

"This really is not an unsafe environment," said Manke, referring to the Manoa campus. And, indeed, sexual assaults on campus decreased from seven in 2002 to three in 2004.

"The issue is one of perception," Manke said. By giving security better training, making them more visible and possibly arrest power, it will help change the perception of safety on campus and make people feel safer.

Safety on campus has been in the spotlight since several sexual assaults on or near campus last year.

Manoa's campus security force — 30 guards — has not changed in more than a dozen years, Manke said. But in 1993, enrollment reached a peak at 20,037 students and declined through the rest of the '90s. Enrollment has steadily increased since 2000.

Kathy Cutshaw, vice chancellor for administration, finance and operation at UH-Manoa, has said she is putting in a request for 16 more guards again after the request was not approved last year.

"Manoa's campus is made up of acres and acres of land and is supervised by security that have no authority," said Kathryn Xian, executive director of GirlFest Hawaii who sits on a UH ad hoc security committee advising McClain.

But that may change, Manke said. The need for a more professional, better-equipped, better-trained security force has grown, he said. And this is what the proposal from McClain would provide.

Meanwhile, peer universities — colleges of similar size and classification — have become a source of ideas for improving security.

At the University of California-Davis, the campus is patrolled by a police force of 50 officers with full law-enforcement rights, said Paul Pfotenhauer, UC-Davis police and fire information officer.

"Our officers are pretty experienced and handle anything from drunkenness to rape to murder," Pfotenhauer said.

The UC-Davis police department has a criminal investigation division, SWAT technicians and a K-9 unit.

Pfotenhauer said while a full police department on the 5,300-acre campus works for Davis, it may not work elsewhere.

"Other colleges in the UC system have a department but maybe not as extensive," he said.

But Pfotenhauer said there may be unexpected situations on campus that a police department would be more effective at handling than security guards would.

For instance, last year when an armed man came on campus, three police officers responded. The gunman shot at the officers and they returned fire.

"Can you imagine if we had a security (force)? They wouldn't have been able to stop him," Pfotenhauer said.

The University of Carolina-Chapel Hill has a police force of 50 officers but also an additional 26 security guards that have no arrest authority, according to Terry Juers of the UNC department of public safety.

At Hawai'i Pacific University, not a UH-Manoa peer institution, there is a force of 21 security guards split between the Downtown and Hawai'i Loa campuses, said Rick Stepien, HPU vice president of administration. But the university has a ratio of about one guard to every 309 students.

"We want a student to be able to spot a guard within a matter of seconds," Stepien said.

On the windward Hawaii Loa campus, Stepien said security is easier to control with the one-way-in, one-way-out access.

"If that campus had more than one entrance, we would need much more security," he said.

Some UH-Manoa students said they like the idea of granting security guards arrest authority, while other students say it's a bad proposal.

Melanie Marciel, 21, who frequently uses the campus escort service to her dorm, said arrest authority would make people take security guards seriously.

"People would feel more safe knowing they (security guards) can do something like arrest someone or write someone up," Marciel said.

Katie Barry, a student senator with the Associated Students of UH-Manoa, said she doesn't think "deputizing" security guards is the answer. Barry said the existing security guards don't make enough rounds and are untrained.

"I've been asking the security to put in a checkpoint system," said Barry, adding it would force security guards to make rounds.

Xian, the ad hoc security committee member, has expressed support for McClain's proposal, saying if something were to happen on campus that security may not be the most effective first responders.

"They receive no comprehensive training," Xian said.

Reach Loren Moreno at lmoreno@honoluluadvertiser.com.