NC State prof: Gun violence is a much greater threat to college campuses than student protests

By Walter RobinsonNC NewslineEarlier this month, on April 17, two people were killed and five others wounded in a mass shooting at Florida State University, in Tallahassee.I am a professor at North Carolina State University, in Raleigh. We have, fortunately, not had a mass shooting on our campus, or perhaps I should say we have not yet had a shooting.

We have come close. Last November, an N.C.



State student was charged with multiple shootings at vehicles near Interstate 40 in Raleigh.We are, ironically, fortunate that the alleged shooter manifested his rage away from our campus. And then, of course, there was the graduate student who shot and killed a professor at UNC Chapel Hill in August 2023, and the mass shooting at UNC Charlotte in 2019.

University campuses are open and welcoming spaces, as we want them to be. But this places our campus communities at some risk. Professors feel responsible for our students.

We want to keep them safe, if (or when) there is an active shooter on our campuses.I am a member of N.C.

State’s faculty Senate (and its incoming chair). In 2023, we asked our university administration if classrooms, especially the large lecture halls that might offer appealing “soft” targets, could have locks installed on their doors, so that we could safely lock down and shelter in place if (or when) there is an active shooter on our campus. We were given many reasons why this was not feasible, but they all boiled down to this: the locks would cost too much.

In February, our faculty Senate returned to this issue. We wrote a memo to our university administration respectfully asking:For a commitment that all classrooms in new or renovated buildings be lockable from the inside.For a review of campus lecture spaces, to identify those large spaces that are most vulnerableThat a plan be developed and implemented by the university to provide inside locks for all campus teaching spaces by August 2030, prioritizing the most vulnerable spaces.

That the design specifications for future buildings consider safety in addition to aesthetics.So far, no action has been taken, and we have received no response.Apparently, university leadership is not very worried about the prospect of a mass shooting on our campus.

What are they worried about? Protesters!In February, the University of North Carolina Board of Governors enacted a system-wide policy that imposes new restrictions on campus protests, most notably requiring 36 hours advance notice for any “mass gathering.”Apparently, according to our university campus and system leadership, it’s not bullets that will kill and maim my students and me. It’s free speech.

I note that I am, and I look like, a Jew. I have never felt that my safety was compromised by any protest on my campus, including those addressing the war in Gaza.Under the guise of safety, our system leaders signal their disregard for the First Amendment rights of our students.

And under the guise of cost and feasibility, they express their disregard for the authentic safety of the campus community.(On Sunday, a mass shooting took place at Elizabeth City State University that resulted in one fatality and left at least six others injured.)Dr.

Walter Robinson is a climate scientist and professor of atmospheric sciences at N.C. State University, where he has worked since 2009.

He is chair-elect of N.C. State’s faculty.

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