On Thursday, a University of Texas dean said he will leave his job because a new law allows students to carry concealed firearms in public college classrooms. The law gives institutions the right to reject concealed carry on campuses.
Fritz Steiner, dean of the Texas School of Architecture, is leaving his job to serve as dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, asserting the new law catalyzed his exit. He said, “I thought I would be responsible for enforcing a law I don’t believe in … I can report that it’s already part of the conversation when I was trying to recruit and retain faculty and recruit graduate students. It’s certainly on the minds of many faculty and students.” Steiner told the Texas Tribune, “I would have never applied for another job if not for campus carry. I felt that I was going to be responsible for managing a law I didn’t believe in.”
Steiner stated he opposed allowing guns in classrooms, adding, “I grew up hunting. My father was a Marine and a policeman. I’m not a stranger to firearms in any way. I grew up believing there was an appropriate place for guns and it was not in a place of higher education and higher learning.”
Jonathan Snow, president of the faculty senate at the University of Houston, said he agreed with Steiner, telling the school’s Board of Regents, “Academics know the intrusion of gun culture into campus inevitably harms academic culture,” according to the Houston Chronicle.
University of Texas President Greg Fenves does not agree with the law, but last week approved rules allowing guns on the campus.
Students for Concealed Carry responded to professors who oppose the new law, saying they were “overwhelmed by unjustified fear … Intellectually, these professors are no different than someone whose actions are defined by an irrational fear of sharks, witchcraft, or vaccines.”