Longitudinal and Contagion Effects of Campus Carry on Faculty and Students at a Large Southwestern State University

Campus carry is a relatively recent phenomenon in American higher education. It recently (2016) became implemented within Texas education systems. This research examined what affects attitudes toward campus carry in faculty and students (both graduate and undergraduate), how those faculty and students perceive it affects the classroom environment and faculty/student relationship, whether those attitudes change over the course of the semester and whether faculty members influence their students’ attitudes. This project used a multi-stage, multi-methods research plan including pre- and post-test surveys of new faculty and first-year students and semi-structured interviews with any of those faculty or students. Using these methods, this research found that students’ and faculty members’ attitudes do change when exposed to campus carry. Various socio-demographic factors impacted their attitudes, such as race, sex, age, and whether one’s family owns guns. A student’s major, particularly a business major, was also found to be a factor associated with change toward a student’s attitudes on campus carry. Barry Glassner’s culture of fear is used throughout this project as an explanation for how fear forms and evolves within an individual. This fear influences an individual with a background involving guns to be more supportive of campus carry. These individuals viewed campus carry as a force that would combat shootings and other incidents of on-campus violence. On the other hand, those that did not grow up around guns tended to believe that the legal presence of guns would cause more violence on their college campus.