CT and college public safety officials meet on campus tensions

Members of college security agencies and state government met Thursday afternoon in what they called a “proactive” conversation about preventing hate crimes and hate speech on campuses amid high tensions seen across the country over the Israel and Hamas war.  Officials said that 65 members of the “higher education public safety community” from the state’s 28 colleges and universities, leadership from the state’s Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection and law enforcement from the FBI and state police met Thursday for a two-hour conversation that centered on federal and state resources available to the institutions, including additional training, outreach with student leaders, social media monitoring and best practices on how to “lower the temperature” among students with differing beliefs.