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JANUARY 23 AND 24, 2016
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MAJORITY RESPONSE: NO TO GUNS
By Jessie Wagoner
[email protected]
Regent universities throughout Kansas, including Emporia
State University, will have to begin enacting a state law making
it legal to carry concealed weapons into campus buildings. The
Kansas Legislature granted universities a delay in implementing the law until July 2017.
Beginning July 1, 2017, campuses must allow students, faculty, staff and visitors to carry
concealed weapons unless security measures, including metal
detectors and security guards,
are installed at the building
entrances. According to the
Personal and Family Protection
Act, passed in 2012, guns can
only be banned if a building has
adequate security measures to
keep all weapons out.
“We have a new law, and we
have a new policy,” said ESU
president Allison Garrett. “At
Emporia State, our focus is to
draft the best policy for us that
enables us to be fully compliant
with the state law that goes into
effect July 1, 2017.”
Gwen Larson, assistant director of Marketing and Media
Relations at ESU says the university is evaluating what steps
to take.
“The direction that the university is moving is to determine
how to implement the law that
is currently on the books,” Larson said.
Larson confirmed that at this
time ESU is not lobbying for an
amendment to the law but is preparing for the law to be in effect
on campus in July of 2017.
“At this point it is evaluating
what policies and procedures
might need to change in order to allow concealed carry in
our buildings beginning July 1,
2017,” Larson said.
On Wednesday the Kansas
Board of Regents provided direction to universities about
policies they will need to draft.
University presidents plan to
have those policies drafted by
October with staff training occurring in the spring of 2017.
Each university must enact
polices that:
✦✦Allow for the safe possession
and storage of lawfully possessed handguns.
✦✦Determine which buildings
will be fitted with adequate
security measures. Concealed
handguns will be prohibited
only in those buildings.
✦✦Authorize printing of information about gun policies on
tickets to events where weapons may be prohibited.
✦✦Inform students who live on
campus of dormitory gun
polices. Students who live on
campus must store the guns
out of sight in a safe location.
Though the law has been
passed and universities are preparing, there is strong opposition to the law among faculty
and staff. In a survey recently
conducted by The Docking Institute of Public Affairs at Fort
Hays State University the majority of faculty and staff at Regents
universities were opposed to
guns in campus buildings. Seventy percent of those surveyed
indicated that they would prefer
that guns not be allowed in campus buildings.
The Regents Council of Faculty Senate Presidents, in collaboration with the Regents University Support Staff Council,
commissioned the Docking Institue to gather
faculty and staff opinions and policy preferences regarding guns
on their campuses.
The survey, which
was launched on Dec.
3, was sent to a total
of 20,151 faculty and
staff. A total of 10,886
responses were received
or 54 percent. ESU had a
response rate of 50.3 percent.
Seventy-one percent of ESU
faculty and staff indicated they
would like the law amended so
that guns are not allowed on
campus. Forty-seven percent
were in favor of ESU expending
resources for “adequate security
measures.” Ninety-three percent
would prefer that a permit be required to carry a concealed gun
on campus.
Students at Regents universities were also surveyed regarding guns on campus. The results
of that survey, released in December, indicated that students
are split on the issue of concealed carry on campus. Fortythree percent of ESU students
said they would be less likely
to attend a Kansas university
if concealed carry was allowed
while 44 percent said that concealed carry would not affect
their decision to attend.
Graduate student May Ingram supports concealed carry
on campus and says she believes
that it increases the safety of
students and faculty alike.
“If a person is trained and
experienced with firearms I
think concealed carry should
be allowed on campus,” Ingram
said. “I would rather someone
be armed and trained and able
to help in a situation if needed.”
Becky Summers, undergraduate student, also agrees that
concealed carry should be allowed on campus but for different reasons.
“The law says that concealed
carry is allowed in the State of
Kansas,” Summers said. “If I
can carry a concealed gun at the
grocery store or in the parking
lot it only makes sense that I
be allowed to carry it in a campus building. The university
shouldn’t get an exception.”
Other results from the survey
include:
✦✦When asked how seeing a
screening station as they
enter a university would affect their sense of safety, 45
percent said they would feel
safer.
✦✦The majority of respondents
favored the prohibition of
guns in all buildings, at
sporting events and in open
areas of campus.
✦✦About half of the respondents
said they would be less likely
to work at their university
if concealed carry were allowed.
“The healthy response rate
from each institution and the
overall response rate of 54 percent are proof of the concern
campus employees have with
the current weapons policy,”
Lorie Cook-Benjamin, associate
professor at Fort Hays State,
president of the FHSU Faculty
Senate and chair of the Council of Faculty Senate Presidents