The UNA Weapons on Campus Policy is currently under review and going through the shared governance process.

The edited document, reviewed by UNA police Chief Bob Pastula, will clarify who can and who cannot bring firearms on campus.

“His policy includes two increases in provisions: it addresses more about visitors to the campus and what it means to be a law enforcement officer on campus,” said David Shields, vice president of student affairs. “He’s added some new language to it to strengthen it and to be in line with other universities and what has been going on around the country.”

Pastula personally reviewed and edited the document.

“We needed something to address the community as well,” he said.

The UNA board of trustees in addition to faculty, staff and students, will review and vote on the policy. After the policy has been voted on, it will be instated and replace the 2007 policy.

The 2007 policy allows visitors and guests to store personal weapons with campus police for 48 hours.

At the University of Alabama, for instance, students can keep their recreational firearms locked and held with the campus police department.

The UNA policy, however, will not allow the students, faculty or staff to have that option.

“We don’t have the room, facilities or funding to do that,” Pastula said.

The new changes will aim to strengthen campus safety by addressing who can bring weapons on campus, specifically reserve officers.

Based on Alabama state law, law enforcement officers are permitted to carry their weapons if they are off duty. The UNA weapons policy, however, specifies that law enforcement officers cannot carry weapons on campus if they are off duty, without proper identification.

“We don’t want people to become panicked if they see someone with a pistol, because they might be a police officer,” Shields said.

The additional provisions to the weapons policy are also meant to aid the 12 additional reserve officers who joined the police department this year to aid campus police, with Shields being one of the reserve officers.

“One part is to help the regular officers make a bigger impact on campus, and the other part is to give the reserve officers a little job training before they graduate,” Pastula said.

Shields hopes the additional officers and new changes to the policy will help faculty, staff and students be more aware of their surroundings.

“I think the key thing is to be situationally aware and realize that even though we live in a safe community, there are people who do bad things,” Shields said. “We have to assist our police department. We have to help each other.”

Shields said the overall crime rates have dropped by 30 percent in the past  few years and that UNA is much safer when compared to other universities in Alabama.