Retaining a high caliber of safety

From M, fall 2003

The University's Board of Regents in July unanimously voted to ban weapons from all campuses and at all University-related events, including those at the off-campus, public Metrodome. The vote was in reaction to the state's new conceal-and-carry law, which opened the door for more Minnesotans to legally carry guns and mandated that public entities, like the University, not prohibit them.

The University already had a policy that barred students from possessing weapons on campus. But in the wake of the new law, the regents took action "to assure that all persons feel safe and are free from violence, threats, and intimidation when on University property or attending University functions and events."

Regent Peter Bell noted that "we should be extremely careful when we propose to substitute our judgment for that of the legislature," but voted for the policy. "At the end of the day I come down on the side that a place for higher learning is not a place for guns," he said. And neither, it appears, is the Metrodome.

The University is the eighth Big Ten college to adopt a weapons ban.