Post by pavel on Jan 10, 2016 6:17:24 GMT -6
AUSTIN -- The thousands of professors who attend the Modern Language Association's annual conventions usually talk literature, linguistics and language. But last week in Austin, many took a break to focus on something outside the norm — guns.
Hundreds of professors from the group marched down Congress Avenue on Friday waving signs and chanting their opposition to Texas' new campus carry law. "Guns are not a teaching tool," they yelled. "They do not belong in school."
The event gained attention in academia, but the message may not go far in Texas. Universities contemplating how to comply with the law seem to be nearing a consensus that guns have to be allowed in classrooms next year.
The law, which requires colleges to allow people with concealed handgun licenses to carry their weapons at school starting Aug. 1, allows the schools to declare some portions of their campuses gun-free. But so far, classrooms aren't making the list of gun-free places proposed at the state's biggest universities. The University of Texas at Austin, Texas Tech University, Texas State University, the University of North Texas and the University of Texas at Arlington are already reviewing draft policies for campus carry, and none of them include bans on guns in classes.
Read more: www.texastribune.org/2016/01/10/universities-consider-campus-carry-gun-free-classr/
Hundreds of professors from the group marched down Congress Avenue on Friday waving signs and chanting their opposition to Texas' new campus carry law. "Guns are not a teaching tool," they yelled. "They do not belong in school."
The event gained attention in academia, but the message may not go far in Texas. Universities contemplating how to comply with the law seem to be nearing a consensus that guns have to be allowed in classrooms next year.
The law, which requires colleges to allow people with concealed handgun licenses to carry their weapons at school starting Aug. 1, allows the schools to declare some portions of their campuses gun-free. But so far, classrooms aren't making the list of gun-free places proposed at the state's biggest universities. The University of Texas at Austin, Texas Tech University, Texas State University, the University of North Texas and the University of Texas at Arlington are already reviewing draft policies for campus carry, and none of them include bans on guns in classes.
Read more: www.texastribune.org/2016/01/10/universities-consider-campus-carry-gun-free-classr/