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KANSAN.COM
NEWS
New faculty group fights to keep guns off campus
► EMILY WELLBORN
@Em_wellborn
Ronald Barrett-Gonzalez, an aerospace engineering professor and member of the Faculty for a Safer Campus group, speaks at the University Senate meeting on Feb. 23. The Faculty for a Safer Campus group want to protect students, inform people and keep discussion in the classroom for a safer
A group of faculty members is currently working to oppose guns on campus.
The Faculty for a Safer Campus group is aiming to protect students and keep discussion in the classroom safe, according to a statement that the group released earlier this month.
"The Faculty for a Safer Campus envisions our classrooms as 'safe spaces' - as welcoming places for exchanging ideas, conducting critical debates and even disagreeing, without the threat that differing arguments will escalate into dangerous life or death conflicts," the statement said.
State legislature passed an amendment in 2013 that would allow anyone over the age of 21 to carry a legally obtained, concealed firearm on public property. Universities got a four-year exemption from the law, which will expire this July 1.
Maryemma Graham, a distinguished professor in the English department and a spokesperson for the group, said that the group of 50-60 faculty members formed during the fall 2016 semester after members of the faculty were angry that their voices were not being heard on the state's decisions to allow concealed carry on campus.
"This was not something that the faculty, the administration or KU as a whole had any part of," Graham said. "It really is our responsibility to decide what is best for us."
She said that the group of all faculty members across multiple departments including history, English and engineering, formed because faculty hold a greater amount of influence and they didn't want to put students who share their opinions at risk.
"Students can be opposed to something, but they also can risk getting kicked out of school, so the faculty have a little bit more control," Graham said. "We felt that we could do something that students cannot do."
Graham said that the group tries to mobilize and inform people.
We felt that we could do something that students cannot do."
Maryemma Graham English professor
"You kind of educate people and to get people to
understand what it is that is going on within their interests and whether or not it is something they need to consistently resist," Graham said. "Mobilizing is interaction — what do people want to do. We want to do what's in the interest of the people who understand what the impact of this is."
Ron Barrett-Gonzalez, a professor of aerospace engineering and president of the Kansas chapter of the American Association of University of Professors, said that the
group is also reaching out to state senators.
"There are active bills in the house that we as a community must be supporting, that we keep guns off campus," Barrett-Gonzalez said. "We need to lobby as hard as we can."
He said that the group has spoken to Rep. John Barker, chair of the Federal and State Affairs committee that has been blocking the legislation, about the issue. Barrett-Gonzalez said the group has also sent letters to the
Abilene Reflector-Chronicle to convince Barker's constituents to speak to the representative.
Barrett-Gonzalez also said that the group will continue to speak with representatives about the law. He said the group wants to learn about the concerns of representatives as well as share their point of view.
- Edited by Ashley
Hocking
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