AUSTIN, Texas — The recent mass shooting at Brown University has heightened safety concerns among students at the University of Texas at Austin as they prepare for final exams. The incident in Rhode Island, where two students were killed and at least nine others injured, has prompted UT Austin students to be more vigilant about their surroundings.
“I do think about it, like yeah, somebody could come shoot this place up,” said Tarun Dasari, a student at UT Austin.
The university complies with a 2015 Texas law allowing students and staff over 21 with a permit and a clean record to carry weapons on campus. However, Joell McNew, president of Safehorns, an organization focused on student safety, expressed concern over the lack of state laws protecting higher education students. “I am just begging the governor and our state legislature to include CEPTED, Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, in all of our campus master plans,” McNew said…