Next steps regarding weapons on campus

Nothing is more important than the safety and well-being of our University of Kansas community. With that in mind, I’d like to update you on our efforts to ensure KU is in compliance with state law allowing concealed weapons on university campuses beginning July 1, 2017.

You will recall that the Kansas Board of Regents in January approved a new weapons policy that applies to all Regents universities but allows each institution to develop its own policy consistent with the Regents policy. The Regents asked KU and the other institutions to submit their university-specific policies by October 2016.

Earlier today, we submitted our draft policy to KBOR and posted it online for your convenience. The Regents governance committee is scheduled to review our policy at their November meeting.

I want to thank our university-wide Weapons Policy Advisory Committee for guiding the creation of this policy. I also want to thank our two campus implementation committees, which continue their work to develop campus-specific implementation plans.

Additionally, I want to thank those of you who helped shape the policy by participating in surveys and open forums, working through University Governance, and interacting with the committees during the past eight months. Your input has been tremendously helpful.

As I said at the outset of this process, our goal was to create a university-wide policy that emphasizes the safety of our campuses, creates a setting conducive to learning, teaching and research, and is consistent with state law. Given the complexity of our university and the different needs of our campuses, we knew this would be challenging. But thanks to the committees and so many of you, I believe we’ve created the best possible policy for KU.

Once our policy is approved by the Regents, we will begin providing you additional information and training as we approach July 2017. And of course, we will provide ongoing education after July 2017 for individuals who join the KU community in the future. This is an important and complicated topic, and we will work to ensure you are properly informed. I encourage you to visit our Weapons Policy at KU page for additional information and updates.

Again, nothing is more important than the safety and well-being of our KU community. Thank you for helping to ensure the University of Kansas continues to be a welcoming place for all.

Sincerely,

Bernadette Gray-Little
Chancellor