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JAMES HOYT/KANSAN Universities are bracing for open carry on campus.
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Committee looks to ensure campus safety before guns allowed at KU
ALANA FLINN
@alana_finn
Following another school shooting tragedy, national attention has once again been turned to the topic of gun safety on campuses.
The committee includes three members each from Student Senate, Faculty Senate and Staff Senate. Mike Williams, president of University Senate, is the chair.
The committee discussed goals last week. Members of each committee will break into student, faculty and staff sub-
In the lead-up to July 2017, when concealed weapons will be allowed on Kansas college campuses, the Weapons on Campus Committee will come up with a plan to ensure campus safety. The committee, comprising 10 members, met for the first time last week.
committees, which will ask for input from the members of the University.
Williams said the committee is not stacked on one side of either pro- or anti-gun laws, so it will be a good opportunity to hear several perspectives on the topic, especially with the upcoming expiration of the weapons on campus policy exemption.
"I was very troubled after the events last week in Oregon because on the one hand, it'd be very easy to become very anti-gun or pro-gun, but that doesn't solve the issue we're facing." Williams said. "As representatives, it's our responsibility to try and step it up a notch above the political fray and make sense of this in a way that's best for the University."
The committee received casual feedback but wants more as the semester progresses, Williams said.
"It's difficult right now to say we've heard a true cross-section of opinion, but after last week, the comments that I've heard on the street from folks are overwhelmingly against the idea of guns in the classroom," Williams said. "But it's our responsibility to represent the whole University and be sure to get as many voices as we can before we come up with our solutions."
One way of accessing student opinion of weapons on campus will be through an online survey, said Student Body President Jessie Pringle. The Docking Institute at Fort Hays State University formulated the survey and will make it available in mid-October to students at the six Kansas Board of Regents schools and Washburn University.
The committee will tentatively have solutions for campus safety in the format of a pro
making ways people feel safer, knowing how to feel safer and helping people who need assistance if someone is exhibiting signs of mental distress and finding ways to get them help, so they don't resort to this kind of violence."
Until then, Williams said the committee has several goals to achieve.
totype or drafted document by spring 2016.
"We can't assume we're going to change the Kansas gun laws," Williams said. "Our goal at this point is to use our energies-to go towards
— Edited by Rebecca Dowd
Ruling prompts close look at KU jurisdiction
CASSIDY RITTER
@CassidyRitter
A ruling by the Kansas Court of Appeals will require the University to toe the line between off-campus freedom and on-campus safety.
The court ruled Sept. 25 that the University can't punish students for off-campus actions, including students' tweets.
The case was that of Navid Yeasin, a former student and would-be senior from Overland Park, who was expelled for violating a no-contact order from the Office of Institutional Opportunity and Access (IOA). Yeasin and his then-girlfriend had a "bad breakup" that led to a one-year no-contact order through Johnson County District Court. Upon returning to the University in August of 2013, Yeasin's ex-girlfriend reported the no-contact order to IOA, and the office told him not to contact her. When he tweeted about her, he was expelled.
The Code of Student Rights has since been updated to clarify the University's jurisdiction over off-campus behavior, but at the time of Yeasin's case, it only applied to acts committed on campus or at a University-sponsored event.
In November of 2014, Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little added clarification to Article 17 of the Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities. Before the clarification, the article read, "The University may institute disciplinary proceedings when the alleged violation(s) occurs on University premises or at University sponsored or supervised events or as otherwise required by federal, state, or local law."
Article 17 has since been expanded to also include, "For purposes of clarification, with respect to federal law this means and includes violations of the University's nondiscrimination and sexual harassment policies, regardless of the location of the conduct."
The court — the fourth set of judges to review the case — said the Code of Student Rights that was in place when Yeasin was expelled did not give the University the right to expel him. When he was expelled in November 2013, the code only applied to actions "on University premises or at University-sponsored or supervised events."
"They said their code was clear on that point," said Leibold, "essentially affirming what Judge Fairchild said a year ago, and they found it on the same grounds essentially."
The Court of Appeals is a three-judge panel that unanimously said the University's Code of Student Rights did not allow for punishment of off-campus incidents, said Terry Leibold, Yeasin's lawyer.
Mike Kautsch, a media, torts, copyright and digital works law professor, said the University's jurisdiction applied to campus events, not what type of media was used.
"So what we're really talking about is the authority of universities to discipline students for communicating in a way that disrupts campus activity," Kautsch said.
Jane McQueeny, executive director of IOA, said the big picture is that all off-campus activities could come onto campus and have an effect on campus. This includes sexual violence and sexual harassment, she said. The University should have jurisdiction when an off-campus issue comes onto campus, she said.
"In our society, everybody has their phone with them all the time and so to say that a tweet only effects on-campus or off-campus behavior, I think that paradigm is limiting," McQueen said.
"We're trying to ask more questions: Where did you get the tweet? Do you remember where you were when you read the tweet? Things like that, more inline with the geographical interpretation that the court came up with," McQueeny said.
IOA relies a lot on text messages for investigations, McQueeny said.
The clarification of the student code does not change student rights or create new jurisdiction but explicitly states the University's responsibility to comply with Title IX in the Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities. Title IX requires universities to prohibit discrimination based on sex including sexual harassment and sexual assault.
"We have an obligation by federal law that if there is off-campus conduct related to sexual violence that comes on campus, affects the on-campus environment atmosphere for a student, then we have to address it," said McQueney.
The University has until Oct. 9 to ask the court to reconsider. Leibold said they could also ask the Kansas Supreme Court to review the case.
Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, a University spokeswoman, said KU has not decided whether it will pursue that request.
As for Yeasin, he will re-enroll at the University and begin classes in the spring of 2016.
- Edited by Madeline Umali
CARE program in the works
MCKENNA HARFORD
@McKennaHarford
A woman wakes up groggy and confused. She doesn't remember what happened last night, but she knows that something is wrong. She doesn't know what to do or who to talk to or whether she should say anything at all. She comes to you. What do you do?
This is one of the hypothetical situations that will be used in a new program to train two
women in each of the University's 12 sororites to help victims of sexual assault this spring, called the CARE Advocate program. CARE stands for campus assistance, resources, education and engagement.
"We want this to be a peer-topeer [program] because we are going through the same day-to-day routine," said Johanna Hecht, director of interfraternal relations for Panhellenic. "It's just a chance to feel more comfortable. We want more women to report about it or talk about it without the worry of having to press charges if that's something they're not comfortable with."
The launch of the CARE Advocate program comes at a time when pressure has increased on the Greek community and the University as a whole to aggressively address the issue of sexual assault. Both sororities
SEE CARE PAGE 3
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