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KANSAN.COM/SPORTS | MONDAY, JUNE 26, 2017
Josh Jackson selected No.4 overall by Phoenix Suns
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New signs on campus doors, put up last week, warn individuals not to openly carry a weapon in campus buildings.
A: Back in 2013, the state legislature passed an amendment to the Personal and Family Protection Act. The law mandates that all public facilities, with the exception of K-12 public schools, should be open to concealed carry unless they provide adequate security measures. Adequate security measures include metal detectors at all public access entrances and armed security personnel to go with them.
What you need to know about concealed carry on campus
Q: Why are we getting guns on campus?
FROM GUNS
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Q: So anyone will be able to walk into Budig 120 with a gun?
A: Yes, and no. There are certain restrictions that still apply with this law. Only concealed carry, not open carry, is allowed on campus, so you should never be able to see another student's handgun in a public area. Moreover, the law only applies to people 21 years old
or older. As of 2015, though, people are not required to go through training or be issued a permit to carry a gun, but they do have to possess it legally. The University has a policy about how the weapons have to be carried, like it always being in a holster and in the owner's possession if it's in a bag.
into account international students who are not allowed to carry concealed weapons. Although there were 6.155 graduate students, over a sixth of them were international students.
Q: What do most people think about the change?
International students, who make up around 9 percent of the University's total population with 2,300 students, could feel particularly unsafe with the carrying of concealed weapons on campus.
A: In fall of 2015, the Board of Regents conducted a statewide survey of student, faculty and staff. The results showed that campus carry isn't popular for the majority of those people. In response to whether they want concealed guns on campus, 82 percent of faculty and 70 percent of students said no. As for if they thought campus carry would impact their decision to live or work at the University, 61 percent of faculty responses and 58 percent of student responses said it would.
Ed Saragih, an international student from Indonesia who graduated in May, said international students face not only coming to a country with a radically different gun culture than their own, but the overall experience with them might be completely different from their home countries.
"One reason why people decide to go to the United States for education is because they know it's at least a safer place than the area near where they could go to college in their country, and if that feeling of safety is being discounted, what else do they have?" he said.
Charles Olcese, director of International Student Services, agrees that it all comes down to safety. Amidst dealing with executive orders and regulations, the spring semester also
brought more students inquiring about concealed carry and how it would affect them.
To assuage their feelings, his office hosted a variety of forums, one of which included Chief of Police Chris Keary. Olcese said that the fact that international students, as individuals with nonimmigrant visas, are not allowed to possess guns is another point of worry for them.
"That is another level of anxiety or feeling vulnerable, so what we tried to do was to address that, trying to put that in context for them, and one of the things that the police chief was very helpful in doing was in articulating that while campus carry or concealed carry is new to the campus, it has been the law in Kansas for five years," he said.
Still, for Saragih, concealed carry coming to campus was what propelled him to finish college a year earlier than expected.
"My experiences with guns are not experiences where guns are fun, or guns are the best thing in the world," he said. "Guns are terrorizing people, that's what I know of guns."
Cody Campbell, a junior from Wichita, said his fear comes from the easy access to guns.
In 2015, Gov. Sam Brownback signed a bill that allows people to carry concealed weapons without a permit. This might be another factor to explain many people's uneasiness with concealed carry being allowed on campus.
Now, Saragih said, he expects students to be more cautious of how and what they talk in class discussions, especially in controversial topics. If he hadn't been able to graduate earlier, he said he would have taken more online courses or courses where attendance was not required.
Nic LaPonte, a law student from Seattle who spent five years in the army, said carrying a gun is a big responsibility, and whoever who does it needs to be aware of this responsibility.
"Unless you've had a
tremendous amount of weapons training, of handgun experience, of that sort of experience with those weapons, it can be seen as more of a novelty than it can be a serious responsibility," he said.
Ultimately, Perkins thinks that the number of people who will carry would be "minuscule," an idea Olcese agrees with.
"You won't know people have guns, it's not open carry; it has to be concealed," he said. "It really should be business as usual; it's just a new reality for us, and for many of us it's a scary reality. It means something more philosophically more than it does practically."
LaPonte said the University needs to implement programs and trainings to reduce the risks of accidents happening. Perkins agreed.
"I think the University should be very open about what they're doing to make sure that for those people who want to bring guns on campus have the proper training and know what they're doing." Perkins said.
In late June, the University released more details on implementation procedures where a required training for staff, faculty and students is mentioned. However, it does not say when or how these trainings would happen.
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Editor-in-chief Christian Hardy
Executive managing editor Missy Minear
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Chandler Boese.
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ternoons have been spent cheering for the Jayhawks through thick and, unfortunately, a lot of thin moments. But, it's impossible to argue that the stadium doesn't need improvements.
Kansas Athletics announced that a $300 million renovation will be coming to Memorial Stadium, which will include an indoor practice facility and infrastructure upgrades.
It's the seventh-oldest stadium still used by an FBS team. It shows signs of wear across its exterior. It's severely outdated by contemporary standards.
Miranda Anaya/KANSAN proactice facility and
It's undoubtedly time for an upgrade.
This is a great move for all interested parties. For the fans, it's going to enhance the game-day experience for the die hards who trek down the hill to see the Jayhawks play. For the players, specifically future recruits, it becomes a more inviting and
thing else at the University.
Discussing college athletics finances is a great way to find out that someone has absolutely no idea what they're talking about. Kansas football isn't going to use $300 million that otherwise would have gone to improving the School of Education or updating equipment in the School of Journalism or whichever department you feel is underfunded.
Things like the Williams Fund and private donors are main sources of income for supporting Kansas Athletics projects. It's understandable that seeing a huge sum of money being spent on football facilities could cause a stir, considering the financial straits the University might be facing in some areas. The reality, though, is that this money will be completely disconnected from the rest of the University.
Football is a massive tool for recruiting (both athletically and for general students), alumni relations and income, and if you don't see that then you simply aren't paying attention.
Alabama is a perfect case study for this. A gold standard for college football, the Crimson Tide's on-field success has generated an unconscionable amount of money
and publicity for that school. It's unrealistic for Kansas, or really any program, to think it can reach Alabama's level of success, but it's clear that improving football will improve the University in other areas.
Again, you need to spend money in order to make it. Putting money into the program now, or at least in the near future, will show dedication to the program and is going to help bring in more high-level recruits over time. The football team needs to get better, and this move will
help in that pursuit.
And if your argument is based around asking why you would spend $300 million to help a football team that won two games in the last two seasons combined, take a moment and think critically.
Most of the arguments against the spending come up baseless and sound unintelligent. The money isn't being stolen from other University programs. Memorial Stadium is nearly 100 years old — it needs to be repaired and updated.
Why wouldn't you spend money to try to improve the program? What else would you do, just ignore the disaster and let the team fall into irreparable ruin? That notion is ridiculous and poorly thought out at best.
The cost of this project is a small price to pay for improving the team, and subsequently the University, over time. Don't get caught up in the price tag or the view from your ivory tower. Trying to better the football team is better for all of us who support the University.
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