In wake of knife incident, CSULB president says new policy would ban them

In the wake of a male student who was seen with a small knife in a sociology class, Cal State Long Beach officials are working on a policy that would ban knives of any size on campus, the university president said during a campus safety forum Wednesday night.

New knife policy

“We will be making a change to our policy,” CSULB President Jane Close Conoley said to the more than 275 people who attended the forum at the University Ballroom inside the University Student Union.

Conoley said the university’s policy - which allowed knives under 2.5 inches on campus - was based on the state penal code, but instead the policy should adhere to the educational code, which bans all knives from campus.

The policy is expected to be in place for the 2016-2017 academic year.

Student forum

The forum was organized and hosted by a coalition of student groups, including Black Student Union, La Raza, Sociology Student Association, Chicano and Latino Studies Students Association and Muslim Student Association and Students for Justice in Palestine.

The forum was organized in response to ongoing student safety conces following a Feb. 25 incident in which a professor and one student saw a male student holding a 2.2-inch knife in a sociology class on race, class and gender.

The university organized a March 10 forum with students and administration officials, but it didn’t achieve the productive dialogue that student groups wanted, according to a written statement.

The university sent an email on Tuesday inviting all employees and students to the forum.

Apart from Conoley, Vice President Carmen Taylor and CSULB police Chief Feando Solorzano also attended.

Student reaction

“This forum was better than the first one,” said Norberto Lopez, 21, a sociology and Chicano and Latino Studies major and board member with La Raza. “I’m glad they listened, but the most important thing is they need to be transparent and give us information in a timely maer. That’s not happening now.

“There will be unrest with students if there is a lack of information and they not transparent,” he said. “We have our eyes on them and we’ll call them out.”

• VIDEO: CSULB forum on race relations

After the forum, Conoley, who has apologized to the campus for how the university initially handled information about the knife incident, said she will look into other ways of communicating information with students.

In the past few weeks, Conoley has been meeting with the various student groups who hosted Wednesday’s meeting.

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CSULB police initially conducted the investigation, but on Feb. 29, the case was tued over to Long Beach police due to a potential conflict of interest. The student who pulled the knife is a relative of a campus police employee, Marlene Arrona, a spokeswoman with Long Beach police, said. The LBPD investigation is ongoing.

Conoley said police want to conduct one more interview this week and are still trying to contact five people.

The university is investigating the incident through its Office of Student Conduct and Ethical Development,