Under a new policy passed Monday UW-Madison employees are prohibited from carrying concealed weapons while working on campus.
The Academic Staff Assembly voted to approve the policy in response to a new state law legalizing concealed carry in Wisconsin.
The policy states, ""No employee shall carry or go armed with a firearm or other dangerous weapon at any time while in the course and scope of employment.""
The policy does not apply to law enforcement officials and allows for exceptions if the employee receives approval from the chancellor or a ""designee"", usually a police chief.
The policy preamble states the implementation will help ""to protect staff, faculty and students while remaining in compliance with the new law.""
Assembly Rep. Mark Zehner took issue with what he saw as the Assembly endorsing a political stance on the law.
""[It] talks about protecting staff, and that comes across as a really [negative] term in terms of how the law was passed across the state and that the concealed carry law is somehow in opposition of personal protection,"" Zehner said.
The governing body of UW-Madison faculty proposed a similar policy at their meeting last week that would prohibit faculty members from carrying weapons while working on campus.
Also at the meeting, the Assembly discussed its priorities for the academic year. The committee said it plans to consider the possibility of changing its personnel system in light of budget cuts.
The changes would simplify the categories into which personnel are grouped to create more opportunity for staff advancement.
The committee said they also hope to facilitate communication between academic staff members at the university as they deal with changes this year, such as the budget cuts and new chancellor.
