With lingering concerns over flagship, UT regents postpone action on campus carry

Tom Benning

Published: May 12, 2016 10:58 am

AUSTIN – Lingering concerns over the University of Texas at Austin’s contentious campus carry policy led the system’s board of regents on Thursday to postpone action on the proposed firearms rules for the flagship and its 13 other institutions.

The University of Texas System regents debated for nearly an hour two of UT-Austin’s more restrictive proposals. One would allow faculty to ban guns in their offices. The other would require that semiautomatic handguns not be carried with a chambered round.

Multiple regents expressed reservations, even as UT-Austin President Gregory Fenves defended both policies. The meeting turned into a parliamentary quagmire, reflecting the complexity that marked the divisive legislative debate on the measure last year.

And so the board decided to push action to July on the campus carry policies at all system institutions, including UT-Dallas and the UT-Arlington.

“It seems prudent to me, because this is so important, that maybe we hold off on voting on this until our next board meeting,” board chairman Paul Foster said.

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