With Our Curve...

It's a good thing they don't allow this at Southwestern.

For decades, the University of Utah has prohibited its students and employees from carrying firearms on campus. But this year, the Utah Legislature passed a law requiring the university to lift the ban.

The university defends its ban by claiming academic freedom from state control and concerns about the "chilling effect" on classroom debate if students start carrying firearms. It also cites popular sentiment: A faculty senate vote, and student and public-opinion polls overwhelmingly favor the gun ban.

Mostly, the university argues that testosterone-fueled campus high jinks or tensions over grades could erupt in deadly violence. Between 1973 and 2002, the university says, there were seven firearms incidents involving students or outsiders, and three of them were student suicides.

"Tensions do run high in my office," says an academic counselor in the engineering department who says he has flunked out three students this year. He asked to remain anonymous because of fears of retaliation. He is retiring at age 60 this year, he adds, in part because of fears of facing a gun-toting student one day.