While Texas is heading towards becoming the next state that allows licensed guns to be carried on campus, the University of Texas System deals with another issue, which is the banning of guns from faculty departments. According to reports, the board of regents' hesitation is due to concerns regarding the upholding of the right to carry arms while also ensuring that the new policy will not encourage violence in the campus.
According to Professor Lisa Moore, the university is a sacred place for learning, wherein professors must not be anxious about the way it should deal with a population that could be armed. Although UT students like Hayden Henry is in favor of allowing guns inside the campus, he also thinks that guns must be allowed in dorms and that professors must also be able to make their office a gun-free zone, Chron reported.
The hesitation on the campuses and at the board of regent's meeting across Texas come after "campus carry" was signed into law in June of 2015. The law requires the 14 public universities of the state to allow concealed guns in classrooms and campus buildings beginning August.
Soon, Texas will be joining Colorado, Arkansas, Kansas, Oregon, Idaho, Mississippi, Utah and Wisconsin. The Texas campus carry law also covers private universities and colleges like Baylor, Rice, Texas Christian and Southern Methodist, AJC reported.
Every public university may draft their own policies regarding campus carry prior to becoming effective this summer. They are allowed to establish gun-free zones on their campus provided that they have valid reasons. According to reports, the universities have given much consideration if they should permit handguns inside the classrooms, faculty offices, gyms, dorms, sporting events and laboratories.
Based on surveys, the universities will let licensed guns be carried in classrooms, except in sporting events. But according to some reports, the University of Texas at Austin is considering granting the professors the right to disallow handguns from their faculty offices.
Professor Charles Haywood of the Purdue University in Indiana said that an agreement on gun safety is the best revised policy. The professor proposed that the University must revise the policy to allow faculty and staff, and not the students to exercise the rights inside the campus.
