U. of Texas prof quits rather than tolerate students exercising constitutional right

U. of Texas prof quits rather than tolerate students exercising constitutional right

If you are the parent of a college-bound high schooler and are looking to send your son or daughter to an institution of higher learning that is locked into the liberal world view, think the University of Texas-Austin (UT). In 2012, a professor there compared the founding fathers to Nazis and called Thanksgiving a “white supremacist” holiday. More recently, the university devised a method for dealing with the problem of minority students who scored poorly on a standardized exit exam by tossing the exam.

And now a professor at the school has announced that he is resigning in protest against a recent law allowing students to carry concealed weapons on campus, saying the law drastically increases his chances of being murdered.

Daniel Hamermesh, who teaches economics said in a letter to university administrators:

As much as I have loved the experience of teaching and introducing these students to economics at the university, I have decided not to continue. With a huge group of students my perception is that the risk that a disgruntled student might bring a gun into the classroom and start shooting at me has been substantially enhanced by the concealed-carry law.

Starting next August, Texas’s new “campus carry” law will allow those with concealed carry licenses to bring guns into the buildings and dormitories of Texas colleges. Several hundred UT professors have signed a petition of protest against it, though Hamermesh is the first to quit over the matter.

Hamermesh’s economics course currently has some 475 students, which he cited as putting him in particular danger of being gunned down.

Instead of UT, Hamermesh plans to teach at the University of Sydney in Australia starting next year out of “self-protection.”

Hamermesh predicted that he won’t be the first faculty member to avoid UT because of its new tolerance for concealed carry. He wrote:

My guess is somebody thinking about coming to Texas is going to think twice about being a professor here. It’s going to make it more difficult for Texas to compete in the market for faculty.

Texas isn’t the first state to legalize campus carry, though, as it’s already legal in several states, including Utah, Colorado, Oregon, and more.

Hamermesh does not make clear in his resignation letter how a campus gun-free zone would prevent a disgruntled student from killing him.

This report, by Blake Neff, was cross-posted by arrangement with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

LU Staff

LU Staff

Promoting and defending liberty, as defined by the nation’s founders, requires both facts and philosophical thought, transcending all elements of our culture, from partisan politics to social issues, the workings of government, and entertainment and off-duty interests. Liberty Unyielding is committed to bringing together voices that will fuel the flame of liberty, with a dialogue that is lively and informative.

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