| Campus shootings and severe natural disasters have resulted in the call for increased safety and security on the part of institutions of higher education in the United States. To address public school safety concerns, the Texas Legislature amended Chapter 37 of the Texas Education Code, through House Bill (HB) 1831, to include the state public junior colleges in the requirements for developing multi-hazardous emergency operation plans (see Appendix A). Even though Texas legislators have taken proactive measures to improve safety and security on college campuses, the problem is some of the state public community colleges remain noncompliant with all the requirements of HB 1831 (TSSC, 2013). The purpose of this descriptive correlational study was to examine the levels of awareness, the perceptions of the effectiveness, and the level of influence HB 1831 has made on campus safety policies and procedures initiatives at the 50 community colleges in Texas, and to determine if awareness, perception, and influence of state legislation are correlated with actual compliance (Burrell & Heiselt, 2012; Piotrowski & Guyette, 2009; Zantal-Wiener & Horwood, 2010). The institutional characteristics of school size, level of control, and residency status, were also examined in the study (Akers, 2008 & NACUBO, 2008). Descriptive and correlation statistics were used to analyze the survey data and answer the research questions. The targeted population for this study was all 50 public community colleges in Texas. Based on the responses received from the 49 community colleges that agreed to participate in this study, awareness and perception of effectiveness the HB 1831 mandates were significantly correlated with compliance while influence of the legislation was not. The participants' responses also revealed that school size, level of control, and residency status were not significantly correlated to compliance with the HB 1831 mandates. It is recommended that further research be conducted to determine if state legislation is influential in safety and security policy development at other institutions of higher education across the United States. |
