photo by: Sara Shepherd

No guns signs are posted on a side door of KU's Art and Design Building, as well as other buildings on campus, pictured in May 2015.

Topeka ? The heads of some of the state universities in Kansas are saying that when a new law takes effect next year requiring them to allow concealed handguns on campus, one group of people will be affected on a very personal level: themselves.

That’s because most university presidents live in homes on campus that are owned by their universities specifically for that purpose. And that makes their homes “public buildings” that are arguably subject to the mandatory concealed carry law.

Those homes don’t just provide the university chiefs and their families a place to live. They are also used extensively to host dinners and other social functions involving faculty, students and visiting dignitaries.

“Our general counsel has asked several times, and we are not exempt,” Fort Hays State University President Mirta Martin said Wednesday.

photo by: Sara Shepherd

Fort Hays State University President Mirta Martin, right, says a state law going into effect next year requiring universities to allow concealed weapons in all campus buildings will apply to her official residence, which is owned by university.

“I live in a university house. The first floor is a public space. Anyone can walk into my house carrying a gun,” she said.

Martin spoke up during a meeting of the Kansas Board of Regents’ Council of Presidents, a group comprising the leaders of the state’s six Regents universities.

In 2013, Gov. Sam Brownback signed a bill that lawmakers passed that year requiring that concealed carry of handguns be allowed in all publicly owned buildings unless the owners of those buildings provide adequate security to prevent anyone from bringing weapons into it.

K-12 public school buildings were exempted from that law entirely. But cities, counties and public colleges and universities were allowed to exempt themselves for only four years, giving them time to develop plans to either provide that security or develop policies allowing concealed carry.

That four-year exemption ends July 1, 2017.

Board of Regents officials said Wednesday that all six universities have developed “first drafts” of their policies. Final versions of those policies will be reviewed during the Regents’ monthly meetings in October and November.

Some university officials had hoped that the process of writing and discussing those policies would help alleviate the concerns that many have expressed over allowing guns on campus. But Pittsburg State University President Steve Scott said that so far that hasn’t happened.

“No, I don’t think it’s changed anyone’s minds at all,” he said. “The resistance that was there before is still there, and it may be heightened.”

Scott said the “vast majority” of people on the PSU campus do not support concealed carry on campus. “There are worries about accidental shootings, and people having access to guns who are distraught,” he said.

And while it’s not his biggest concern, Scott said that he too lives in a university-owned home, and he’s not comfortable with the idea of being required by law to allow people to bring concealed handguns into his home.

“That’s a concern to me, but not as great a concern as the rest of the campus,” Scott said.

At Fort Hays State, however, Martin said the culture on campus has always been more relaxed. Students and the general public have always had easy access into the home of the university president.

“Because I live in a public residence, and I’m thankful to do so, I need to allow it,” Martin said. “But the concern that I have is, I’m often alone at night. The students know that they can come and visit me. That’s part of who we are as an institution, that familiarity. Students will come in my house at 11:30 at night, and they do. And they’re welcome. They’re encouraged if I’m home. So opening the door and not knowing … “

Martin paused at that point and didn’t finish the sentence.

It wasn’t immediately clear Wednesday how many of the homes are owned directly by the universities or the state and how many were actually held by independent foundations or endowment associations.

On the KU campus, the official chancellor’s residence, known as the Outlook, is owned by the state, university officials said.

“While it is owned by the university, the Outlook was donated specifically to be used as the chancellor’s private residence and is treated as such,” KU spokesman Tim Caboni said. “The house is never open to the general public.”

Information on KU’s website indicates that the home now occupied by Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little was originally built by a wealthy Lawrence banker, Jabez B. Watkins, who died in 1921. His wife, Elizabeth Miller Watkins, continued to live there until her death in 1932, and she left the house to the university in her will.

At Fort Hays State, Martin said she has also heard concerns about the new law from the parents of students and prospective students who say it makes them worried about their children’s safety.

She said that includes the parents of students in the Kansas Academy of Mathematics and Science, a program at Fort Hays State in which exceptional high school students live and study on campus.