ATHENS – Plans to have unarmed campus security forces at Greek universities across the country will be restricted only to the largest to try to deal with violence and drug dealers, after a backlash from student unions.

The forces will, when deployed, patrol only the outdoor areas of the biggest campuses, including the University of Athens campus in Zografou and Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, a hotbed of trouble, not inside, said Kathimerini.

That means that the central buildings at the National Technical University of Athens, the University of Economics and Business and Panteion will have to call the police to deal with crime and violence.

That’s a setback for Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ New Democracy government after he vowed to crack down on trouble at the schools, with even academics who have been targets of violence not wanting the campus cops.

Some school grounds have been used for drug using and dealing and had been hideouts for criminals before the government revoked a sanctuary law which had kept all police out of universities except in some extreme cases.