Statement on Campus Carry
October 30, 2015

We, the faculty of the College of Pharmacy, state our strong opposition to concealed guns in University of Texas at Austin classrooms, laboratories, offices, and social spaces. Through teaching and research endeavors, our goal is to improve the health outcomes and quality of life of the people we serve, most notably the culturally diverse population of Texas. In accomplishing this goal, our ability to deliver the curriculum, and to recruit and retain outstanding and diverse faculty, staff and students, will be negatively impacted by the SB11 law allowing concealed weapons in campus buildings. Our mission is to improve public health and welfare, and gun violence, an established threat to public health, is counter to the mission of the College of Pharmacy. Continue reading College of Pharmacy opposition to Campus Carry →

The below-signed Chemical Engineering faculty, emeriti, and staff at The University of Texas at Austin oppose Senate Bill 11. We believe that guns in classrooms, laboratories, faculty/advising offices, and collaboration spaces would be unsafe and stifle the free exchange of ideas central to a world-class university. They may also pose threats in teaching and research laboratories where flammable and toxic chemicals are used, and thus their presence in these and adjacent
environments would be in opposition to our core educational mission regarding chemical process and laboratory safety. This is critical because engineers are educated and ethically bound to hold
paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public. We also fear that Senate Bill 11 may damage our ability to recruit and retain the most capable students, faculty, and staff. Continue reading Chemical Engineering Faculty and Staff Statement →

Bruce Grube, PhD from the Government Department at UT, issued the following statement:

Having served as the president of two universities as well as being a UT Austin alumnus, I am more than familiar with the campus environment. Any law that permits firearms on a university campus can only be the consequence of the most profound ignorance, coupled with the inordinate influence of the NRA and its minions upon a submissive and thoughtless legislature and governor.  All of our elected officials who were involved in the passage of the campus carry law should be deeply ashamed.  The common good has not, and will not, be served by such a patently stupid piece of legislation.  I would encourage the UT administration to work diligently not only to repeal the legislation in the next session, but also to implement policies in the meantime that most strictly limit the effects of the law on the campus.   UT should be gun free!

Bruce Grube
President Emeritus
Georgia Southern University

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As supporters of the mission of The Center for Women’s & Gender Studies, we are fully aware of the sensitive and often controversial nature of the topics with which we engage on a daily basis. The possibility that an armed student (licensed or not) might be present in the classroom or in our Center will necessarily limit the topics we discuss and our willingness to engage students in controversial discussions.

We try to create a ‘safe space’ for students to speak about sensitive issues in their classrooms, in our offices and when they engage with our staff and with one another.  Guns can never, even in the hands of licensed carriers, promote or preserve that space. They can only carry threats of violence and intimidation.    Continue reading The Center for Women’s & Gender Studies →

Dear President Fenves,

The undersigned faculty of the Department of Linguistics strongly oppose the admitting of guns into our classrooms, our offices, our research labs, and students’ dormitories. We understand that Texas Senate Bill 11 authorizes the university administration to enact regulations regarding the carrying of concealed handguns on campus. Speaker of the Texas House Joe Straus recently stated publicly that SB11 gives university presidents “a lot of authority and flexibility to design a plan” [1].  We assume that you wish to enact a policy that will do the most to protect the safety of UT’s faculty, staff, students, and visitors.  Allowing  people to bring loaded handguns into our buildings will endanger those  people and the people around them.  We therefore call on the administration to exclude guns from the rooms on campus where we work and teach, and where our students live.

Our safety concerns are not restricted to the possibility of premeditated acts of violence, but also extend to negligent discharges, impulsive shootings, and coercion and intimidation by gun holders.  Reciprocal agreements with other states with less stringent concealed handgun licensing requirements than those of Texas will further increase the risks associated with weapons in the hands of unprepared civilians.  We submit that the presence of weapons on our campus will have a chilling effect on public debate and on the free exchange of ideas and perspectives, activities that are at the core of the university’s mission.

We believe that the presence of concealed weapons on our campus will damage our efforts to maintain the reputation of the University of Texas at Austin as a vital and respected research institution, as highly qualified students and faculty turn to universities in other states. The damage to the institution in which we have invested our careers will in turn reduce our capacity to advance knowledge and serve our citizens. As a faculty we will be more effective in training the future leaders and thinkers of the State of Texas in an environment in which students and teachers feel safe. We thus ask you to create an environment in which the wishes of the overwhelming majority of students, teachers and staff are respected, in which our work and living spaces are free of loaded deadly weapons.

[1] Joe Straus, quoted in ‘Straus Defends Conservative Record of House, by Morgan Smith.’ The Texas Tribune, Oct. 17, 2015. Continue reading Department of Linguistics on Campus Carry →

Statement on Pending Campus Carry Law
October 29, 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 African and African Diaspora Studies Department (AADS) opposes 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 AADS 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 in UT buildings, 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 also stand 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. Continue reading African and African Diaspora Studies Department Faculty →

Statement on Pending Campus Carry Law
October 28, 2015

As members of the department of Kinesiology and Health Education we strive to improve the health of our nation via research, teaching, and community engagement. Gun violence is a public health issue. We therefore feel it is important to comment on the implementation of SB11, the campus carry legislation allowing concealed handgun license holders to bring guns into our officers, classrooms, and other campus buildings. Evidence overwhelmingly indicates that more guns lead to more gun deaths and do not lead to reduced crime rates. As educators, we strive to build an environment conducive to the free exchange of ideas, particularly in our classrooms and offices. We believe that the potential of guns in these spaces will hamper open dialogue and stifle the learning process. As professionals devoted to improving the health of individuals and of the nation, we feel we must start at home by advocating for the health and well-being of our students and colleagues by opposing campus carry. Continue reading Department of Kinesiology & Health Education Faculty →

October 28th, 2015

The undersigned faculty, staff, emeriti, and graduate students of the Department of Asian Studies oppose Senate Bill 11, the campus carry law that is scheduled to go into effect on August 1st, 2016.  We believe that the presence of concealed firearms on our campus – particularly in classrooms, faculty offices, dormitories, and social spaces – is a threat to academic freedom, freedom of speech, and freedom of expression.  The presence of firearms in any conversation does nothing but create an uneven field of play.  Many of us teach courses that encourage our students to discuss and conduct research on difficult topics, such as social and gender inequality, communal and political violence, and conflicts over land and resources: our students and faculty must be able to discuss such subjects without fear or intimidation.  We are also concerned that the implementation of this law will only bring the reputation of the University of Texas at Austin to ruin – we will lose colleagues to other universities or to early retirement because of this.  Neither will we be able to recruit excellent faculty and students to our campus.  There is no evidence to support the claim that the presence of firearms on our campus will make us safer, and greater access to weapons can only result in tragedy.  We hereby urge the Task Force and our administrators to ensure that concealed weapons are barred from campus buildings.

Signed,
Joel P. Brereton, Professor
Gregory Max Bruce, Ph.D. candidate
Joni Carpenter, Undergraduate Academic Adviser
Kirsten Cather, Associate Professor
Chikako Cooke, Lecturer
Jeannie Cortez, Administrative Assistant
Oliver Freiberger, Associate Professor
Andrea Gutierrez, Ph.D. student
Shahnaz Hassan, Lecturer
Junko Hatanaka, Lecturer
Heather Hindman, Associate Professor
Camilla Hsieh, Senior Lecturer
Madeline Hsu, Associate Professor
Hillary Langberg, Ph.D. candidate
Katie Lazarowicz, Ph.D. student
Kathleen Longwaters, Ph.D. candidate
Gail Minault, Professor Emerita
Neha Mohan, Administrative Assistant
Paula Newberg, Professor
Patrick J. Olivelle, Professor Emeritus
Daniel Rudmann, Ph.D. candidate
Tomoko Sakuma, Lecturer
Gautami Shah, Senior Lecturer
Jishnu Shankar, Senior Lecturer
Martha Ann Selby, Professor and Chair
David Sena, Lecturer
Naoko Suito, Senior Lecturer
Wen-Hua Teng, Senior Lecturer
Jennifer Tipton, Executive Assistant/Office Manager
Chien-Hsin Tsai, Assistant Professor

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26 October 2015

We, the undersigned faculty in the Department of American Studies, oppose SB 11 and especially oppose allowing guns in our classrooms, offices, dormitories, and other indoor spaces. American Studies is a field that probes the connections between American society and culture—past and present. We are committed to free, critical, and open discussion of controversial, and, at times, uncomfortable ideas around such issues as race relations, gender, sexuality, poverty and inequality, social justice, environmental crisis, political and social differences, and other aspects of our past and present society that have the potential to raise tempers or to make students, even without the possibility of guns in the room, nervous about expressing their ideas. We believe that the presence of guns in our classrooms and other indoor spaces will inhibit our ability to teach, inhibit the ability of students to learn, and, in general, provoke an atmosphere of fear and distrust, and make the campus less safe.

Signed (in alphabetical order):

Robert H. Abzug Professor

Cary Cordova Assistant Professor

Janet Davis Associate Professor

Lauren Gutterman Assistant Professor

Steven Hoelscher
Professor and Chair of American Studies

Randolph R. Lewis Professor

Stephen Marshall Associate Professor

Jeffrey L. Meikle
Stiles Professor in American Studies

Julia Mickenberg Associate Professor

Mark Smith Associate Professor

Shirley Thompson Associate Professor

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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 →