Survey: Majority of Professors Believe Campus Carry Creates a ‘Negative Impact’ on Exchange of Ideas

The majority of college professors are not fans of campus carry laws, per a study by a doctoral candidate at University of Texas-Arlington, Joslyn Krismer. She sent a large survey to an unnamed “Southern research university.” presumably located in the state of Texas.

Preliminary research presented at last week’s American Educational Research Association found that 70% of survey respondents disagreed or strongly agreed with the statement, “I support the right of license holders to carry concealed weapons on campus.” When asked whether campus carry laws “will have a negative impact on the free and robust exchange of ideas at my university,” 71% of respondents said they agreed or strongly agreed.

Fifty-three percent said that teaching controversial topics will mostly remain the same, regardless of campus carry laws, in addition to 58% of respondents who said they would not likely “omit some topic(s) from my course content.” When asked about toning down one’s topics, 46% said they probably would not do so, with 40% saying that they would probably tone down sensitive and controversial topics.

There was no statistical significance (i.e. little statistical evidence) that female respondents were more opposed to campus carry than their male counterparts, but Asian professors were more likely to believe the campus carry laws will have a negative impact on their ability to teach certain topics. Business professors were more likely to be supportive of campus carry, while science, engineering, architecture and public affairs professors were least likely to support campus carry.

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