President William Henrich held an open forum yesterday at UT Health Science Center to discuss the “campus carry” law.

The forum provided an opportunity for campus
constituents to share their input regarding the implementation of Senate Bill 11. This
legislation, was signed into law by Gov. Greg
Abbott in June 2015.

The legislation requires that public universities and
colleges allow handgun license-holders to carry concealed weapons on campus
beginning in August 2016.

The bill also allows the University to recommend
locations called “exclusion zones” where concealed carry should be prohibited.

President Henrich spoke along with Chief of Police Michael Parks and Vice President of the Office for Academic, Faculty and Student Affairs Dr. Jacqueline Mok.

Dr. Henrich explained that because of our unique position as a health science center, a lot of thought needs to go into what is considered an exclusion zone and what is not.

“We can’t declare the whole university as a no carry zone because that would be against the intent of the law,” he said.

A weekly HSC workgroup has formed to frame campus guidelines to develop processes for identifying potential categories for exclusion zones.

View the presentation here or the video feed from the event here.

If you’d like to have a say in this discussion, please voice your concerns or contact student representatives Mika Sifuentes (sifuentesmm@uthscsa.edu) and Brian Stoveken (Stoveken@uthscsa.edu).