Whereas (Conditions)…
- University values of free speech and academic freedom accomplished through a rigorous exchange and challenge of ideas that leads to excellence in education, student success, educational access, diversity, integrity, and civility are incompatible with the NRA mission to protect the right to “to acquire, possess, collect, exhibit, transport, [and] carry firearms.”[1]
- The National Rifle Association (NRA) has, since 2008, called for the allowance of guns on university campuses,[2] and published a 2013 report “calling for armed officers or staff in every school in America.”[3] The NRA’s advocacy of arming high school and university teachers is at odds with academic freedom and NAU’s mission to “develop solutions to challenges and drive innovation in a supportive, inclusive, and diverse environment.”[4]
- Gun violence on school campuses has reached crisis proportions and is in under critical scrutiny across the nation.
- In November 2015, the American Association of University Professors, the American Federation of Teachers, the Association of American Colleges and Universities, and the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges issued a joint statement in opposition to the “model” legislation advocated by the National Rifle Association:
Colleges and universities closely control firearms and prohibit concealed guns on their campuses because they regard the presence of weapons as incompatible with their educational missions. College campuses are marketplaces of ideas, and a rigorous academic exchange of ideas may be chilled by the presence of weapons. Students and faculty members will not be comfortable discussing controversial subjects if they think there might be a gun in the room…[5]
- “In November 2017, the American Association of University Professors, along with the Gifford’s Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, submitted an amicus curiae brief in the case of Glass v. Paxton, in which a group of faculty members at the University of Texas challenged the Texas law permitting concealed handguns in university classrooms as a violation of academic freedom. That brief stated:
The decision whether to permit or exclude handguns in a given classroom is, at bottom, a decision about educational policy and pedagogical strategy. It predictably affects not only the choice of course materials, but how a professor can and should interact with her students—how far she should press a student or a class to wrestle with unsettling ideas, how trenchantly and forthrightly she can evaluate student work. Permitting handguns in the classroom also affects the extent to which faculty can or should prompt students to challenge each other. The law and policy thus implicate concerns at the very core of academic freedom: They compel faculty to alter their pedagogical choices, deprive them of the decision to exclude guns from their classrooms, and censor their protected speech.”[6]
Resolution[7]
Be it resolved that the Northern Arizona University Faculty Senate, in response to the presence of the “Friends of the NRA” fundraiser on campus and in the context of increased instances of school gun violence, makes known its opposition to the legislative agenda of the NRA to permit guns on campus for the above stated reasons. Further, the Faculty Senate wishes to register its strong concern on behalf of the safety of our community during the “Friends of the NRA” event on May 5, 2018 and offers its support and gratitude to Northern Arizona University’s Police Department in their efforts to ensure the safety of all stakeholders in the University’s mission during the “Friends of the NRA” event.
[1] Available at: https://www.guidestar.org/profile/53-0116130
[2] In 2008, the National Rifle Association-Institute for Legislative Action, proposed the “The Campus Personal Protection Act” that “calls for the repeal of state restrictions on the possession of firearms by valid concealed handgun licensees on college and university campuses and preempts governing bodies of postsecondary educational institutions from imposing such restrictions on permit holders.” Available at: https://www.nraila.org/articles/20080627/alec-adopts-campus-personal-protection
[3] Available at: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42804741
[4] Available at: https://nau.edu/president/mission-vision-values/
[5] Available at: https://www.aaup.org/article/aaup-calls-sensible-gun-control-measures
[6] Available at: https://www.aaup.org/article/aaup-calls-sensible-gun-control-measures
[7] A Resolution is an expression of our values as a Senate; these values include shared governance, academic freedom, and environments of physical safety.