In the wake of college campus shootings around the country – Oregon had a mass shooting last week at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg – discussion is ongoing about what can be done to make college campuses safe sanctuaries for students.
For the thousands of college students in the Wabash Valley, the recent events have brought up concerns about campus safety, even though many students already practice safety measures such as calling security for escorts at night.
At Indiana State University, some members of Alpha Chi Omega sorority said they practice safety such as buddy systems for walking together and carrying pepper spray for self-protection. But they have mixed feelings about allowing people to carry handguns on campus.
“Personally, I get nervous because just anyone can waltz into a classroom with a gun,” said Hannah Scott, one of the sorority members involved in a Saturday fundraiser for domestic violence awareness.
Scott said she feels safe living in Reeves Hall, because the new building's security requires swipe cards to access the doors, elevators and each floor where students live. But she also noted that the campus has experienced some some gun violence in recent years — student-on-student altercations stemming from arguments that resulted in gunfire.
A Lowell native, Scott said her father is a fireman /paramedic with SWAT training, and she comes from a hunting family, so she has taken a hunter safety course to learn gun safety.
“If the right person has a handgun, you can be safer, but not necessarily,” she said.
Student Amelia Hawkey said she feels ISU takes student safety serious, and she has downloaded a free ISU Rave Guardian personal safety app for smartphones. The app lets users set a safety timer to notify someone they trust, such as a friend, to check on them when they go out. Users can also contact university police and send text messages, including photos, if they see something suspicious.
But if a shooter walked into a campus classroom, many of the students said they would be unsure what to do other than “shelter in place” as they are instructed at the beginning of each semester.
“I think about it, but I never think of it happening here,” said Courtney Vickery, a Greencastle native. “I don't know what I would do.”
Brink Thompson and Luke Peoples, juniors at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, said they have no problem with a person who has a concealed-carry permit having a gun on campus for personal protection, but taking that gun into the classroom is another matter.
“If they have a concealed-carry permit and have done the correct steps, no problem. But in the classroom, I'm not so sure,” Thompson said.
Both fraternity members said they have seen times when discussions or debates in a classroom can result in elevated emotions, especially when people are passionate about their stances.
Indiana University student Theodore Feddeler, who was on the ISU campus at the domestic violence awareness event Saturday, said that if the public was aware that students and professors might be carrying a handgun to defend themselves, it would likely make a person think twice about acting out violently.
“If people knew it was a concealed-carry campus, it might deter some people,” Feddeler said.
He said he was unaware of any bans on carrying handguns at IU, but was sure it was not permitted in classrooms there.
Many college students these days have grown up doing the active shooter drills that have become as common as fire drills and tornado drills from elementary through high school.
“I feel like we're all kind of conditioned what to do in that situation,” Feddeler said of turning off classroom lights, locking doors and staying away from windows.
At Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, a campus known for its peaceful philosophy and setting, students sitting at lunch together on Saturday expressed different viewpoints on the gun issue.
“If they have a concealed-carry permit, it's another line of protection. Especially after what happened in Oregon, it was a small campus, so it's happening all over,” Jessica Wagers of Columbus, Ind., said of campus shootings.
“I don't think so,” added Bria Hill of St. Louis, ”because people were threatened in a different way.”
Student Mikayla Kinneer of Cayuga said she thinks the likelihood of any school being selected as a target for violence would be less if the public knew the students and staff could protect themselves.
“If I was to be the one going to shoot up somewhere, I would be more cautious if I knew people there had guns,” Kinneer said hypothetically.
The Oct. 1 shooting at the small Oregon campus did cause the SMWC students to think a bit differently about campus violence.
“After a small school got shot up, it makes me think, it's 1 percent there,” Wagers said of the possibility of violence. “That wasn't there before.”
Indiana is among 23 states that allow each college or university to make its own decision to ban or allow concealed carry weapons on campuses.
Eight states – Texas, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Utah, Wisconsin and Oregon – allow concealed handguns to be carried into classrooms, dormitories and other buildings at public and private universities, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.