UB will host the 11th annual Safe Schools Initiative Seminar for law enforcement and schools from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 17 in the Center for the Arts, North Campus.  

The event is free, but registration is required.

This year’s seminar — “The Role of Leadership in Making our Schools Safe” — will be led by retired U.S. Army Col. Danny R. McKnight, a distinguished and highly decorated veteran who served 28 1/2 years as a U.S. Army Ranger. 

McKnight’s presentation will highlight the unparalleled commitment and leadership required to be successful when executing operations in the most difficult and severe situations. Many key values associated with successful leadership will be demonstrated and referenced throughout the presentation. The real world experiences associated with his involvement in the event of October 1993 in Mogadishu, Somalia, will be expounded on to relate the commitment and leadership necessary to achieve mission success. His efforts as the commander of the 75th Ranger Regiment elements assigned to Task Force Ranger in Mogadishu were chronicled in the book “Black Hawk Down” and the movie by the same name.

"We need to make schools safer and that can happen when we better prepare those working in the schools and in law enforcement to lead on this critical issue,” says Dennis Black, UB vice president for university life and services. “Change for the better does not happen because we want it to. It happens when we have strong leadership. Our hope is that the Safe Schools program leads to safer schools."

The U.S. Secret Service, Buffalo Field Office, along with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of New York, and UB are founding program sponsors of the Annual Safe Schools Seminar, which is free and open to all who deal with school safety issues, including grade school, middle school, high school and district faculty, staff and school board members; college/university administrators, police officers and other law enforcement officials; and school transportation professionals.

For more information or to register, visit the event’s website.