Story by Savannah Jones
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Officials at WVU say they are ready for the Campus Self-Defense Act that takes effect Monday.
The law, deemed campus carry, allows those with a valid concealed carry license to carry on college campuses in certain areas. Gov. Jim Justice signed the bill into law in March 2023, despite backlash from college administrators throughout the state.
In preparation for the changes to campus, WVU’s Board of Governors passed BOG Finance and Administration Rule 5.14, which detailed certain exceptions to the law as well as safety precautions for students.
Preparations at WVU cost an estimated $1 million, according to Dean of Students and Co-Chair of the Campus Safety Steering Committee Corey Farris, who said the university is “pretty much ready” for the law’s implementation at a news conference last week.
Farris said the preparations at the university include placing signage and stickers on exempted areas, educating new students on the law, purchasing and placing metal detectors, as well as installing gun safes in select residence halls. All of which have been completed with the exception of a few signs and last minute communication with incoming students.
WVU has installed four gun safes across the WVU system, with two in Morgantown and one on both Keyser and Beckley campuses. Thus far, four lockers have been rented on the Morgantown campus, one on the Beckley campus and zero on the Keyser campus, Farris said.
Students living in residence halls can request a locker at any time during the year and will then receive a combination locker stored in a secure room accessible by their student ID when the residence hall is open. Firearms will not be permitted in students’ individual dorm rooms, but are allowed in common areas in the residence hall, such as dining halls and lounges.
The secure room, which is home to 60 combination lockers, is equipped with ballistic panels and security cameras monitored by the University Police Department, according to WVU Executive Director of News Communications, April Kaull.
Unlike student dorm rooms, students who own a locker can access the secure safe by swiping their ID card without entering the last four digits of their student ID number to verify their identity. Kaull said identity verification will be monitored by UPD via security cameras, and the combination locks on the lockers will prevent students from wrongfully obtaining a firearm.
The lockers cost students $140 per semester and are only available to students living in residence halls, as required by the law, Farris said.
“They are only for students who are living in the residence halls. Everyone else who wants to conceal carry, if they go into an area where it’s not permitted, they will need to store it appropriately, which likely will be the trunk of their car or something like that out in the parking lot. And we don’t have those storage lockers for faculty or staff,” he said.
Students storing their firearms in a locker will be advised to keep them in a holster.
Preps at Fairmont State University
Fairmont State University also added two gun safes in their residence halls in preparation for campus carry. Chief of Staff Brian Selmeski said that although the university was only required to install one safe, they chose to install two.
“We chose to do that in two residence halls. Why? So that we comply with the spirit of the law. And we did that in a way where students can swipe into those rooms, put their holstered firearm in the locker, accept the combination, walk out, be on their merry way where there’s no gawking where there’s no opportunity for discussion or perhaps controversy,” he said.
Both WVU and FSU will not specially mark gun safes in order to refrain from drawing unnecessary attention to the changes to both campuses.
“Our goal is to make this a non-issue where compliance is easy, information is not just accessible, but people have processed it, and where we’re building trust,” Selmeski said.
WVU additionally released a list of exempted areas where concealed carry will not be allowed on campus, as well as campus maps illustrating those areas, in a news release last week.
The news release said that it is the responsibility of those who choose to carry to know the specifications of the Campus Self-Defense Act and Rule 5.14.
“We believe people will follow the rules and the laws as we do with so many other things, not just this new law that’s coming along, and again, concealed carry means we’re not supposed to be able to see someone who has a handgun on them, and so if we do, then we will deal with it depending on the circumstance,” Farris said.
He said University Police officers and resident assistants will receive mandatory training, but those with concealed carry licenses will not, as they completed training to receive their license.
Farris said the university plans to release an active shooter training module for all students, but it will most likely be optional. Those who violate the law at the beginning of the implementation will be met with educational repercussions first.
“For the most part, I think it’s just going to be education in the beginning for people that just are not familiar, and then as long as we educate them, then we’re expecting this just to go smoothly,” he said.
Farris said the Campus Safety Steering Committee will continue to evaluate and update campus carry precautions and procedures as students return to campus.