Concealed Carry in Campus Buildings, which states that University of Wisconsin-Platteville faculty and staff oppose the Wisconsin Legislature’s proposal to allow concealed carry of firearms in campus buildings. The resolution was approved nearly unanimous at the Nov. 10 meeting, with two votes not to approve and two abstentions.

Prior to Senate Chair Teresa Burns administering the vote, there was discussion both in favor and in opposition to the resolution. There was also a letter written by Interim Chief of University Police Jason Williams expressing the department’s opposition to the new bill presented.

Michael Dalecki, sociology professor, was allotted time to present a case in favor of the concealed carry law, giving examples of events in which he said a firearm would have helped a situation. One example he elaborated on was a professor scared for her life who only had a stapler, a baseball, a baton and a book to protect herself with.

Since Dalecki taught Criminological Theory for UW-Platteville, he was able to discuss Rationality Opportunity Theory, which states that for a crime to occur there must be a motivated offender, a suitable target and a lack of a capable guardian.

“What’s important is the idea of perception and to alter the perception that a criminal would have a defenseless victim,” Dalecki said.

Head of University Counseling Services Deirdre Dalsing was the next to speak on the subject. Dalsing discussed how to approach this situation from a mental health perspective and said there were three issues to consider: alcohol, sexual violence and suicidal depression.

“It is about limiting the means and access,” Dalsing said.

Before taking the Faculty Senate vote on whether to approve the resolution, three more members spoke in opposition to the new law, including mathematics professor Benjamin Collins who said he would be “appalled” if the state were to pass the law.

Student Senate also discussed the bill at their Nov. 9 meeting and approved a campus-wide survey that would determine how the student body feels about the concealed carry, as well as to gain an idea of how many students would actually carry a concealed weapon and how safe they would feel. The Student Senate voted to postpone their vote on the bill for two weeks to gather more information from the student body and analyze the survey’s results.

The resolution is available as a PDF file at http://www.uwplatt.edu/files/faculty-senate/files/facsen_10-27-15_firearms_resolution.pdf.

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