Henderson board: No concealed handguns

ARKADELPHIA - The Henderson State University board of trustees voted unanimously Friday to opt out of a recently passed state law allowing faculty and staff members with concealed-handgun licenses to carry their weapons on campus.

Henderson, which had 3,773 students enrolled in the fall 2012 semester, is the second public four-year institution in Arkansas to say “no” to concealed handguns on campus.

Last week in Conway, the University of Central Arkansas board of trustees voted 5-1 in favor of opting out of the law. At that meeting, UCA President Tom Courtway said he thought it would be prudent “to make sure that no one has weapons [on campus] other than law-enforcement people.”

Act 226 of 2013 was signed into law March 1 and will take effect 90 days from that date, according to the Arkansas Bureau of Legislative Research.

Any colleges that do not opt out beforehand must allow their full-time faculty and staff members with concealed-gun permits to carry the weapons on cam-pus once the law takes effect.

Henderson President Glendell Jones told the board Friday that there had been “overwhelming” support from the faculty senate, as well as campus police and other groups, to opt out of the gun law.

Fred Worth, president-elect of the Henderson faculty senate, said Friday that support for opting out of Act 226 was “near unanimous,” but would not elaborate about his own position on the issue.

“I am a member of the faculty senate, and I go along with what we agree on as a whole,” Worth said.

Bill Wright, chairman of the Henderson board of trustees, said he didn’t understand why anyone would want to carry a gun on campus.

“A lot of us have concealed-carry licenses,” he said. “But a campus isn’t a place for a gun.”

Most of the state’s other four-year institutions will decide whether to opt out of Act 226 in the coming weeks.

The boards of trustees that govern the state’s two largest university systems - the University of Arkansas System and the Arkansas State University System - are to vote May 23. The UA System has four-year campuses in Fayetteville, Little Rock, Pine Bluff, Monticello and Fort Smith. The ASU System’s largest school is the four-year campus at Jonesboro.

Arkansas Tech University at Russellville has a scheduled board meeting May 23, but officials said Friday that they don’t know whether the gun matter will be on the agenda for that meeting.

David Rankin, president of Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia, said his board of trustees will take up the matter at a tentatively scheduled meeting June 20.

Officials at those schools have not decided what they will recommend to their boards.

Act 226 modified the state’s concealed-weapons law to allow full-time university employees who are licensed to carry a concealed handgun to possess the gun in university buildings and on grounds.

The act provides a provision allowing each university’s governing board to opt out of the provision. Further, Act 226 “provides that any policy adopted by the governing board will expire after one year and must be readopted each year.”

Samuel Jennings, a former student who lives near the Henderson campus, said Friday afternoon while browsing through the university’s library that he’s glad the board opted out of Act 226.

Jennings said he has followed closely any measure linked to guns.

“Living so close to campus, I would like to know that there are no guns there, other than in the hands of those who are trained to use them,” Jennings said. “I spend quite a bit of time on campus at the library, and I definitely would not feel safe knowing that people could be walking around with a gun under their coat.”