UT Tyler Awarded National Grant from Department of Homeland Security

August 20, 2008

The University of Texas at Tyler has received a $32,000 grant from the United States Department of Homeland Security to help with critical incident planning, Mike Medders, UT Tyler chief of police, announced.

UT Tyler is one of 20 universities in the country to receive the National Domestic Preparedness Coalition Incorporation grant, which is given to small communities as well as higher education institutions to assist with and enhance critical facilities, infrastructure and events planning, safety and security.

“The grant consists of some equipment to help with the vulnerability assessments of their facilities, such as laptop, camera, a GPS system, range finder and some other tools, in addition to a three-day training course,” said Russell Lewey, NDPCI consultant, who serves as a co-instructor of the training session held Aug. 18 – 20. “The neat thing about this program is that there are folks who are not just with UT Tyler, but other neighboring jurisdictions such as UT Health Science Center and Tyler Junior College.

“Because of the network that Chief Medders has already established, they’re able to bring those folks in, and that helps correlate the regional security awareness,” Lewey added.

In all, 109 out of 2,000 applicants received grants.

For more information, call 903.566.7060 or visit http://www.ndpci.us.