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 →

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 →