Statement on Pending Texas Senate Bill 11 and Its Implementation
October 26, 2015

We, the faculty, staff, and emeriti of the Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies, strenuously oppose the implementation of Senate Bill 11 (also known as the “campus carry” law). We urge the Task Force and the University administration to take a firm stand on keeping weapons out of dormitories, classrooms, and offices.

As intellectuals, we are convinced that this legislation is detrimental to critical thinking and the free exchange of ideas — values we hold dear.

As members of the UT community, we are concerned that the implementation of SB 11 will seriously undermine the university’s status in the academic community, making it difficult to recruit outstanding students, scholars, and administrators, and adversely affecting the day-to-day work of organizing conferences, lectures, and campus visits.

As teachers, we fear that the potential presence of guns in university classrooms and offices will breed anxiety, suspicion, and insecurity; it will inhibit the process of learning and seriously compromise the evaluation of students’ performance.

As scholars, we are persuaded by numerous existing studies that debunk the main idea behind campus carry: that the presence of guns in public buildings deters or mitigates gun violence; no substantial evidence exists to support this claim. The argument that the epidemic of shooting deaths in the United States can be remedied by putting more weapons in the hands of “good guys” is a fallacious and dangerous ideological fiction. It serves definite economic and political interests, but does not withstand critical scrutiny.

As students of Russia, Eastern and Central Europe, we are keenly aware of the effect of violence on behaviors, mentalities, and expressions; attempts by aggressive state powers to dictate rules to the intellectual sphere are ubiquitous in the histories and cultures we study; we do not believe that such attempts have a place in present-day United States.

As citizens, we are wary of a democracy that operates by legislative fiat, rather than by open public debate with the people whose lives are most directly affected by the law, in this case: university administrators, students, faculty, and staff. We urge such a debate, as we believe that it is the true and worthy image of democracy.

As individuals, we are not afraid to say that we are afraid. But we are also not afraid to stand against a law that promises to make fear a constant accompaniment of our work on campus. Continue reading Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies →

The undersigned faculty members of the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Texas-Austin, are opposed to the law allowing Concealed Handgun License holders to bring guns into our classrooms, offices, dormitories and other buildings. As artists and scholars of the arts our work challenges audiences—our students and the general public of all ages, including K-12 students—to immerse themselves in controversial ideas concerning race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, inequality, religion, nation, justice, and many other controversial topics. Additionally, artistic work is created by building connections among people—within ensembles and between performers and audience members. This can only be achieved through mutual trust in one another and confidence in our safety. In order to prepare and present our work we need to work within an environment where these ideas can be rehearsed and debated freely and energetically, without fear of threat, intimidation, or violence.

During the creative process, students artists often work in close proximity to each other and make bodily contact with other students, the floor and set pieces.  The dangers of having firearms during choreography and contact movement exercises are excessive. The Actor’s Equity Association (the union that covers theatrical performers and stage managers) rules prohibit artists from carrying prop firearms except in the presence of a technician educated in their use and safety. In order to prepare our students for their professional work we must educate them in the workings of their professions. Allowing them to engage in dangerous behavior will not make them competitive beyond the university.

In our view, there is no reasonable justification for permitting concealed guns to be taken into campus buildings. Studies that link the drop in crime rates to the rise of gun ownership have been shown to be deeply flawed and to prove that the presence of guns do not make us safer. Our colleagues at Texas A&M have convincingly shown that CHLs have no impact on crime rates. Guns will undermine our ability to teach our students if they have to fear for their safety. Students, staff, and faculty alike have told us that they will not be comfortable discussing controversial subjects if they think there might be a gun in the room.  For all these reasons, we strenuously object to this law and to the presence of concealed guns in campus buildings. Continue reading Department of Theatre and Dance Statement on Campus Carry →

Statement on Pending Campus Carry Law
October 26, 2015

In this country, which devalues black life as one of its founding principles, the expansion of citizens’ rights to bear firearms facilitates the violent deaths of Blacks. Accordingly, the faculty of the John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies stands with African and African Diaspora Studies Department (AADS) in opposing the implementation of Texas SB11. This law will allow the more than 800,000 Texas Concealed Handgun License holders to carry their concealed weapons into buildings on our campus.

Allowing firearms on campus places UT’s Black population in a particularly vulnerable position. Many of us are concentrated spatially, politically, and intellectually in Black Studies. Ours is a particularly controversial discipline that deals with provocative themes such as anti- blackness, white supremacy, patriarchy, homophobia, economic oppression, and crosscutting differences and power. Black Studies grapples with these issues and the Black experience in general as a part of scholarly endeavors that aim to promote social justice and equity. Educational exchanges around such subject matter are often highly charged, difficult, and consequential. It is not uncommon for Warfield Center faculty to be the object of documented threats and harassment in our offices and lecture halls. The presence of firearms will not only stifle the free exchange of ideas but can be the basis for deadly violence against us in these often fraught settings.

Moreover, African Americans are disproportionality affected by the saturation of our society by firearms. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention the death rate due to gun violence for Blacks is more than twice that of whites. Vigilante and extra-judicial killings of Black people, as well as the police-involved shootings that saturate our news coverage and our daily lives, point to the distinctly vulnerable position of Black people when it comes to firearm violence. Applied to our situation here at UT, in the presence of firearms the probability that bullets will find us is higher than for any other campus population. At the same time, racial bias functionally excludes Black people from accessing the rights afforded by campus carry legislation, as we would be more likely than our white counterparts to be perceived as actionable threats by fellow citizens and police officers alike.

When it comes to Black lives and the matter of guns on campus, the State and the University have a responsibility to protect and defend those who are most vulnerable. Therefore, we demand that firearms be banned in all spaces occupied by Black people on our campus.

We stand in solidarity with other groups on our campus who are often impacted by firearms and other forms of violence, particularly members of the University’s LGBTQ community, other people of color, and all women. Accordingly, we would join with them in any request that guns be completely banned from the UT campus.

Near Unanimous Endorsement by Faculty of John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies

With thanks to Dr. Edmund T. Gordon and the faculty of AADS for their work drafting this document.

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The faculty and staff of the Department of Germanic Studies register their adamant opposition to the concealed carrying of guns on our campus beginning August 1, 2016. The presence of guns in our classrooms, offices, and places of study and research will make us physically less safe. It will undermine the free and open expression of ideas that is central to the educational and research missions of our institution and of our department. The topics we discuss in our classes—ranging from violence, genocide, racism, to gender, sexual, and social identity, immigration, and integration — include controversial information and views. We believe such discussions will be threatened by the presence of concealed handguns.

Our department’s deep and long-standing commitment to Texas German language and culture allows us a unique historical perspective on the situation. Allowing guns in classrooms is not about re-establishing an historical right. For most of its history the State of Texas had strict gun control laws. Only recently have opponents of gun control been able to overturn them. Comprehensive gun control passed by the Twelfth Legislature in 1870 prohibited the carrying of weapons into schools, churches, or any kind of public assembly. The following year, the legislature strengthened the law making it illegal for all but law enforcement personnel and “civil officers” to carry weapons anywhere, anytime in public (Gammel, Laws, VI, 927-929). The Twelfth Legislative session was dominated by so-called ‘Radical Republicans,’ who were determined to put an end to the rampant violence and mayhem that had plagued the state for a number of years. Their sound logic was that fewer, not more guns were the answer. When conservative Democrats regained control of state government in 1874, these gun laws were not repealed. In 1887 a revised law increased the penalty for a first offense by mandating a jail term, in addition to a fine (Gammel, Laws, IX, 805). These laws (with amendments for hunting and sport) endured until 1995. The present legislation represents a major departure from a tradition of sensible gun regulation that the majority of Texans supported for over 120 years.

We urge our colleagues across the state and nation to take a firm stand against Campus Carry. No guns in our offices, no guns in our classrooms!

Continue reading Germanic Studies Department Statement →

The undersigned faculty and staff of the Butler School of Music are extremely alarmed by the Campus Carry law passed by the Texas Legislature and oppose the presence of concealed firearms in our classrooms, offices, social spaces, and concert halls. We consider this law to be an existential threat to our core mission of “making profound contributions to the future of music” and preparing “students for productive careers as performers, teachers, composers and scholars, and for satisfying lives as informed and responsible members of a democratic society.” Guns on campus are a direct threat to the freedom of speech which is a fundamental cornerstone of academic discourse; the atmosphere of fear derived from the presence of guns directly conflicts with UT’s mandate for “creating a community working together to solve challenges facing society, blending research and discovery with learning.”

None of us believes that allowing more guns into our facilities will increase the safety of our faculty, students or staff; on the contrary, this legislation puts at risk hundreds of UT students present in our building on any given day. Moreover, our school also functions as a major community outreach resource. Carrying concealed weapons creates physical and psychological risks for the many children who are taking lessons in our building on a daily basis basis (two nationally recognized outreach programs, the Piano Project and the String Project, have about 300 students regularly enrolled every semester) and to high school students who attend the events of the University Interscholastic League (UIL). Since the announcement of the law, some community outreach events have been cancelled due to perceived risk. With its more than 600 annual concerts and other public events that are attended by hundreds of people from around Austin and beyond, we cannot entrust security to anyone other than trained officers of the peace. Continue reading UT Butler School of Music – Statement On Campus Carry Law →

October 23, 2015
To President Gregory L. Fenves and Campus Carry Working Group:

The Executive Committee of the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS) of the University of Texas at Austin, strongly objects to the campus carry legislation that will take effect next year. We enthusiastically endorse the recently issued statement of the Latin American Studies Association, the major association of Latin Americanists, opposing campus carry on the grounds of free speech and security.

As faculty, we are dedicated to researching and educating about a region that has long been plagued by violence, war, and social inequities. Many of us have also lived in this region and thus have experienced firsthand the effects of such violence on individuals, families, and communities. In contexts where violence is a major problem, experience has demonstrated that adding easier access to weapons, even with the intent of protection, makes things worse, rather than better. Having seen firsthand the effects of the presence of guns and other weapons in the region we study, we are deeply distressed that this is what is currently envisioned for the University of Texas at Austin.
More specifically, our faculty, staff, and students are fearful because on a daily basis, we teach, research, and discuss topics that are by their very nature emotionally and ideologically charged. Increasing the number of guns in our classes, libraries, labs, lounges, dormitories, and offices, promises either to shut down such difficult dialogues altogether, or worse, to increase the chances of them turning deadly. In order to preserve the ability of students, staff, and faculty members to freely express their opinions and collectively explore the complex nature of the contemporary and historical Latin America, everyone participating in academic discourse must feel safe from political or physical pressure to conform to any one line of thinking. Legally permitting weapons in campus buildings can only negatively affect academic freedom.

This law will also adversely affect UT Austin’s competitiveness. Since many faculty and students both inside and outside the university have a negative view of this law, it will become significantly more difficult to recruit and retain the best faculty and students nationally and from around the world. We are particularly concerned about the effect of the law on the recruitment and retention of minority faculty and students from the United States and from the Latin America. They would understandably feel that their safety could be compromised in settings where they may be viewed – rightly or wrongly – as representatives of the sensitive viewpoints that are the object of our study.

For all these reasons, we strenuously object to this law and to the presence of concealed guns in campus buildings. Continue reading The Executive Committee of the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS) →

The undersigned faculty, emeriti and staff of the Department of French and Italian at The University of Texas at Austin strongly oppose “campus carry” legislation, Senate Bill 11. The presence of firearms in classrooms, dormitories, offices, auditoriums and other campus spaces puts members of the UT community at risk of physical and emotional harm. The possibility of gun violence will inhibit the free exchange of ideas and information that is essential to the mission of an American university. The law is certain to undermine recruitment and retention of outstanding students, faculty, and staff. Continue reading Department of French and Italian Statement on Campus Carry →

Normalizing the presence of guns normalizes their use. For this reason among many others the following faculty and staff of the Department of Classics are opposed to ‘campus carry’. Continue reading Department of Classics Statement on Campus Carry →

16 October 2015

Dear President Fenves:

We represent a group of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in the University of Texas at Austin’s History Department who are deeply concerned by the implementation next August of “campus carry” law S. B. 11. We oppose its implementation on a number of grounds, not least of which is that it is our belief that it will endanger the lives of the students and employees—as M.A. and Ph.D. candidates we often represent both groups—that the university is bound to protect.

We believe that this is not a fight about second amendment rights, but about the right of our staff and students to work, teach, and learn, without fear. In the Supreme Court case DC v. Heller (2008), which has been widely interpreted as protecting an individual’s right to possess a firearms, including handguns, for lawful self-defense, Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, noted that the “Court’s opinion should not be taken to cast doubt on longstanding … laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings…” We recognize that the Texas Legislature disagrees, and allows concealed weapons inside the Capitol. But it is our belief that the majority of the campus community disproportionately affected by this law would agree with Scalia; Chancellor William H. McRaven expressed those wishes clearly earlier this year, when he spoke to the legislature opposing concealed campus carry, in UT’s best interests.

We believe that allowing weapons of any kind in the classroom will cause a chilling effect upon our students’ ability to grapple un-self-consciously with the complexities of history, and hamstring our ability to teach them. As Teaching Assistants, the ‘front line’ of the history department, we engage with UT’s student body in ways that blur the line between teachers and peers. We direct discussions in sections and seminars, and meet with students one-on-one; to guide our students in their intellectual pursuits, we must also navigate their disappointments. Introducing concealed firearms into classrooms and academic buildings, settings of extraordinarily emotional educational interactions, will make us less safe, despite the best intentions of those hoping to carry them.

The subjects we teach are contentious. For example, will we continue to lead discussions on why some scholars have linked the open carrying of weapons to the rolling back of black rights during Jim Crow, in a class where we know that some students have concealed weapons? When we teach classes on institutional racism, prejudice, and violence towards non-white bodies in recent US and global history, will our students—especially those who identify as the victims of such forms of discrimination—feel safe discussing such matters in our classrooms when they know that classmates might be armed? It is awful, sad, and dehumanizing, to anticipate the fear that we and our students might then bring to those interactions. Some of us are ready to commit to gun-free office hours, to guarantee our safety, and our students’ freedom of discussion.

We also believe that this will be a much larger and more dangerous challenge than the UT system has been led to believe. Perhaps a “smaller” number of students will be eligible concealed carry permit holders, as we have been told. But there are 5,500 licensed carriers in the immediate vicinity of UT. If the law’s intention is to make us safer by encouraging the spread of concealed carry onto campus, to guard against school shooting situations and others, then the thought of 5,500 licensed carriers descending on UT in case of an emergency must give us pause. History supports these suspicions. It might be claimed by S. B. 11 supporters that on Aug. 1, 1966, when Charles Whitman killed 16 people on and off UT’s campus, that he was stopped from killing more by armed civilians, who returned fire. To that, we must respond that those civilians were shooting with hunting rifles, and guided by police officers who, at that point, lacked SWAT training. And it should also be noted that Ruth Heide Claire James, formerly Claire Wilson, told lawmakers in February that civilian gunfire prevented first responders from getting to her after she had been shot in the abdomen by Whitman: she then lost her unborn child. Individuals watching the shooting on TV in the old San Jacinto Café south of campus also saw a man carrying a deer rifle rush in, buy a six-pack of beer, and rush back out. A proliferation of handguns in the hands of individuals untrained in mass shooting scenarios would make it harder for UTPD and Austin’s police—whose chief testified against S.B. 11 during the legislative session—to do the job that they have been trained to do; that Austin specifically learned from in 1966.

On a day to day basis, will those of us in the University community who represent and ally with ethnic minorities be safe from split second decisions to shoot made by men and women whose training involves a four hour course? As the #BlackLivesMatter movement illustrated last year, even highly trained police officers whose jobs involve protecting society on a daily basis fall victim to racial prejudices or mistakes in split second decisions. How are we to feel about concealed permit holders? At what point does the believed need for self-defense at a University become an attack on rights to freedom of expression and movement, without fear of causing someone to feel threatened?

Finally, we are troubled by the effect that S. B. 11 will have upon the University of Texas’s national and international reputation as a place to work and study, and our department’s ability to attract graduate students. We are some of the best budding historians in our respective fields, and we came to Texas to from all over the nation—Maine, Washington, Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin—and even further beyond—Australia, Colombia, Canada, China, Greece, Nigeria, Peru, the UK, and more—to study, safely, at UT’s top-ranked History Department. Some of us would have thought twice before coming; others cannot in good conscience encourage other students to come before they think hard about the activist law S. B. 11 and the climate of fear it means to promote on campus.
We therefore ask that you, President Fenves, Chancellor William H. McRaven, and the members of the Campus Carry Working Group, oppose the implementation of S. B. 11; that you make clear to the state how much it will cost to increase campus security—money better spent improving educational opportunities for Texas’s students; and that you represent our views—as students, staff, and in our particular case, experts on history—as believing that this law will endanger the wider UT community.
We thank you for courageously supporting us in our endeavor to educate Texas’s students on the ideal of a civil society, in which open debate can neither be open, nor a debate, when enforced by thousands of handguns. Continue reading History Grad students on Campus Carry →

MPSA Statement in Opposition to “Campus Concealed Carry Laws”

October 21, 2015 – Since 2011, states including Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Oregon, Texas and Wisconsin have enacted “Campus Concealed Carry Laws” that allow licensed handgun owners to bring concealed weapons onto college campuses. The
specifics vary substantially from state to state. For example, Arkansas allows universities to “opt out” of the law, and so far every school in Arkansas has done so. On the other hand, Texas law allows all licensed handgun carriers to bring concealed handguns on campus, as well as into campus buildings, and includes criminal penalties if university administration does not comply with the state law.

The free expression and exchange of ideas is a central part of a student’s educationalexperience and the MPSA leadership believes it will be harmed by these laws. Moreover, the laws prevent universities from taking reasonable measures to ensure the personal safety of faculty, staff and students. These laws have met with opposition from manywithin the academic community and the law enforcement community.

As such, the MPSA opposes “Campus Concealed Carry Laws” and urges the repeal of the state laws to allow Institutions of Higher Education the latitude to determine the bestmethods to protect their campuses, classrooms and dorms.

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The MPSA was founded in 1939 and is dedicated to the advancement of scholarship in all areas of political science. The purposes of the MPSA are to promote the professional
study and teaching of political science, to facilitate communications between those engaged in such study, and to develop standards for and encourage research in theoretical and practical political problems. As such, MPSA is a nonpartisan association.
It does not support political parties or candidates.

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