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Tuesday, June 01, 2004
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TO: Alliance for A’s
FROM: Janice Sidley (see UD posts beginning 11/30/03 and others) SUBJECT: TRIGGERING A’s Hi guys: La nouvelle vague in A-maintenance -- and I’m not saying it’s for everyone -- is fast-becoming known as the “conceal-carry” grading system. In more and more states - Vermont, Oregon, and now Utah - just about anyone can carry a concealed gun just about anywhere, including on college and university campuses. The University of Utah has been trying to maintain a ban against guns on its campus, but the state legislature threatened in response to cut the university president’s salary by fifty percent; and it has now passed a law requiring the university to lift the ban. These guys mean business. Because they love their guns! I'm an easterner, I don't get it, but these wild west guys and gals.... It's part of growing up: "I found that the plastic-framed wunderpistole is a real gun with oak leaf clusters," writes a gun lover on a website called Doing Freedom. "Mine is a biggie-sized Model 20 as old as the company itself, preserved in pristine condition in its factory box for a decade. Bored for 10mm, it shoots very straight, and works every time I pull the trigger. It's gentle enough that my daughter, only nine or ten at the time, looked up from firing it the first time with a huge grin on her little face." One law student at UU with one of those Mormon names -- Tefton J. Smith -- explained to an interviewer from the Wall Street Journal that he knows he doesn't really need to carry a gun everywhere but it "has become a habit." Women Against Gun Control founder Janalee Tobias has said that many women are "uncomfortable to be without their guns." Out here on the coast most of us can, say, go to a ladies' room in a restaurant without arming ourselves, but some of these heartland people apparently cannot, and it's not our business to judge. We've got all habits. Despite the conceal and carry law, UU's president and much of its faculty is still making a fuss; they're even talking about defying the legislature. UU President Bernie Machen thinks the issue "strikes at the heart of academia." "Given the unique environment of a college campus," he says, "that is not a place for guns." A reporter for the Christian Science Monitor notes that academic institutions "have long banned weapons out of concern that their presence could stifle the free flow of ideas." Guns could have a "chilling effect" on classroom debate, many faculty and administrators agree. Former Republican Senator Jake Garn says that "students and teachers must feel that classrooms are havens of learning and not a potential firing range. ... [Utahns] sometimes think gun possession is a God-given right," continues Garn, who is also a UU trusteee: "I tell them I don't ever remember seeing Jesus packing heat." President Machen summed up this take on the question a while back: The essence, the very heart, of a college experience is the free exchange of ideas in a nurturing environment. Students who are being introduced to new concepts, who are grappling to understand new ideas, must feel they can openly express their views and question those ideas in a safe setting. Robust debate, disagreement, and a lively exchange of ideas are essential to a college education. Neither students nor faculty should have that debate diminished by a concern over who has a gun in his or her backpack. Academic freedom is short-circuited and education is stifled if students and faculty feel threatened by the presence of a weapon in the classroom. We believe this provides the legal basis for an exception to the current law. But a former Speaker of the Utah House who is now a gun lobbyist sees it differently: With a concealed weapon, you don't know it's concealed. The idea of something no one knows about having a chilling effect on the free exchange of ideas just doesn't have a lot of logic. All those arguments about the ambience of a college being harmed - I find that ludicrous. Yeah, all that "ahmbiahnce" shit... As if universities were different from any other place where folks meet and greet! But, well... The Harvard School of Public Health did do a study not too long ago which concluded that Students with guns were more likely to be male, White, or Native American; to binge drink and need to start the day with alcohol; to be members of a fraternity or sorority; to live off campus; and to live with a spouse or significant other. Having a gun was positively associated with driving after binge drinking, being arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol, and damaging property as a result of alcohol ingestion. Students with guns were also more likely to be injured severely enough to require medical attention, especially for injuries occurring in fights or car crashes. Overall, students with guns at college were more likely than others to engage in activities that put themselves and others at risk for injury. But hey so what big surprise - guys who like to drink and drive drunk and bust up their cars and get in fights ALSO like guns! The question is - can these guys - and I think we're all getting a pretty good picture of them, having had some in our classes - really be an intellectual and even physical danger on campus? Can they be belligerent in classroom debates on social issues, say? Well, say they can. So what? As the gun lobbyist points out, we don't know if they're carrying, so why should be we intimidated? I mean, when we encounter a drunk frat boy who just got out of jail in our classes, we have no idea whether or not there's a gun in his vest, so I don't see why...or, yes, I guess I'd say I do see why we might feel a little "chilled" in terms of classroom discourse... The Christian Science Monitor writes: "The university argues that testosterone-fueled campus high jinks or tensions over grades could erupt in deadly violence. ... 'Tensions do run high in my office," says an academic counselor in the engineering department who says he has flunked out three students this year. He asked to remain anonymous because of fears of retaliation. He is retiring at age 60 this year, he adds, in part because of fears of facing a gun-toting student one day." But on the other hand, you know, I've read John Lott and Michael Bellesiles and I know that one of them argues that this guy, with his gun, makes my classroom safer.. and the other one argues that he makes it less safe... and, well, all I'm trying to get at with this on the one hand and on the other hand stuff is that the gun controversy persists. Even the highest profile professors in the controversy - like Lott and Bellesiles - are controversial. Both are accused of cooking their data; and Lott invented a web persona (Mary Rosh) in order to write glowing things about himself and his work... Anyway, a lot of that is beside the point...I'm just thinking out loud a little bit on the subject. What I really want to say is that from the A-friendly perspective of the Alliance for A's, maybe concealed-carry isn't such a bad thing. Not knowing which of your students is in a position to kill you on the spot when you hand them a C will certainly conduce toward higher grades. On a conceal-carry campus, A's will be, well, semi-automatic... Happy beginning of summer! Janice |