Guns at USU? Story help wanted

On Apr 15, 2008, at 9:20 AM, Raelle Greer wrote:

For my article this week i am not sure what to do it on. I still want to do the article on guns at usu. I interviewed the USU police about the gun policy and they didn't have much to say i only have one quote from them.I think i am going to try again and see if they have ever had any problems with it. I want to ask them about the Virginia Tech incident. i also interviewed someone who actually carries a gun on campus and i have an interview with someone who has a permit but doesnt think it is good to carry them on campus. I am not sure how to focus the story. I think on safety. How safe are we kinda thing. I need help i suck at news writing. I am not creative enough.
Raelle

Raelle: I'm going to post this on NewsHounds to see what the rest of the mob thinks would be a good focus.

Is there a USU NRA club (or some other gun org)? Ask ASUSU if there is a club. While you're at it, ask the ASUSU president what his position is on concealed weapons on campus. Ask him what would happen here if a Northern Illinois or VaTech case happened.

What would the university policy/response be if concealed weapons were permitted on campus? (Actually, what is the law at this point? I think Utah law permits concealed weapons on campus--Google the UofU stories on this from a couple of years ago). Ask the USU Police what the policy--state and local--is on concealed weapons on campus. Is it legal? If so, what's the USU Police position on guns on campus?

Call John DeVilbiss, the USU PR guy (797-1358; 7-1351 office) and ask the same question--what is USU's policy of guns? And what policies does USU have in place if--gawd forbid--something like Northern Illinois or Virginia Tech happened here? Is there a policy? What is it?

Ask President Albrecht (797-1162) the same question. Seriously. If it turns out that there can be guns at USU, call the president's office and ask what his response would be. When they don't provide you with a comment, tell them that you'll just put in the story that, "USU President Stan Albrecht had no comment about the issue of guns on campus." See if that gets you any kind of response.

How about faculty? Ask the president of the Faculty Senate (find these people on the USU website, under Faaculty Senate: Doug Ramsey, President, Professor, Wildland Resources, doug.ramsey@usu.edu, 797-3783) the same questions.

Can you do that? It's a great story.

Comments, anyone?

Ted