To the chagrin of many a wayward student, the departure of Mike Webster at the end of last semester has not left Campus Safety in disarray. Instead, Assistant Director Eric Immler has filled the space left by Director Webster’s departure.
Immler has a storied history with McDaniel, as well as a quite lengthy resume. He started his career at McDaniel in 2001 as the community-policing supervisor and as a shift supervisor, and worked with the college until 2006.
He then went on to work the State House detail with the Maryland Capitol Police, patrol with the Manchester Police, and as a major cases detective with the Westminster Police Department. Immler returned to Campus Safety as Investigations Manager in 2013. He was promoted to Assistant Director in October of 2014, before ultimately filling the role of Acting Director at the beginning of this semester.
We spoke with Immler, wondering if any changes could be expected under his leadership. He stated that students should expect Campus Safety to “keep the status quo and maintain all our services to the community.”
He did mention however that changes planned prior to Webster’s departure would continue, including the expansion of the Campus Safety office. The office recently expanded to include a new conference room, which Immler stated would be undergoing a number of technology upgrades to serve a dual role as a command center.
Immler was then presented with a series of hard-hitting questions, aimed to establish the kind of leader he will be for the McDaniel Campus Safety community.
When asked what disappointed him most about the most recent Super Bowl, Immler stated that the final play by the Seattle Seahawks was definitely a letdown. He explained that he could “partially understand the strategy behind throwing and not running on that down,” but ultimately stated that “when you have Marshawn Lynch as your running back, just put that ball in the end zone.”
In regards to new styles for McDaniel’s thriving hipster population, he stated that were he forced to decide between seeing said individuals adopt man Uggs or frosted tips, he stated that as “a child of the ’90s, I would have to go with the frosted tips,” and further stated he was “kind of a ’90s alt-rock guy.”
Lastly, Immler was asked how he would face a number of potentially disastrous crises.
In the event of a full-scale squirrel invasion, he would “implement the incident command system, and refer critical incident management plan and handle it as appropriate,” or would simply contact Dean Gerl given that “she’s a big fan of squirrels.”
In the event of a chemistry teacher channeling their inner Heisenberg and “Breaking Bad” on campus, he stated that Campus Safety would be “instrumental in a full investigation,” in order to “work together, for a safe campus–as goes the motto.”
