LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Anyone entering UNLV’s Beam Hall will not notice any evidence of the deadly shooting in December 2023.
Many damaged doors are repaired, and new security measures may be hard to spot. UNLV officials say keeping Beam Hall like it was before the shooting was intentional.
“We don’t know what kinds of things can trigger people,” said Musa Pam, UNLV’s Vice President of Facilities Management.
School officials say they are concerned about safety and mental health of students, as Beam Hall was opened to the public for the first time on Monday. Students will return there on April 26 for the fall semester.
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“Obviously, the murder of the three faculty is always going to be hanging over our heads. But I think that the best way we can honor them is to have this building operational and serving our students the way we’ve been doing since I got here in 1989,” said UNLV Associate Professor of Accounting John Zimmerman.
Zimmerman walked into his workplace after faculty members were killed and injured. He didn’t know it was happening at the time. When he found out, he left the building about the same time UNLV Police shot and killed the gunman, who authorities say was upset about being turned down for jobs at UNLV and other colleges around the country.
Zimmerman remembers all faculty members shot, including Patricia Navarro-Velez.
“You never forget. Every day I think about her, every single day,” said Zimmerman.
Campus police and faculty gave a tour of new security measures now in place to help students feel more secure. The public can no longer freely access faculty offices on the third through fifth floors, where faculty members were killed. Anyone using the elevators or stairs will need a key card to get to the upper floors.
Brand new phones have now been installed in classrooms. They will make a loud sound if there’s a campus emergency. The phones will tell people what’s happening, based on what authorities know at the time, with instructions on what to do during the emergency. Officials say the phones are in Beam Hall classrooms and there’s discussion about putting them in other UNLV buildings.
UNLV Police also say there will be a more visible presence of police officers and private security, which has already been in place.
“The other big investment we’ve made is in terms of locks. And to allow faculty and students who are in classrooms to be able to have ways in which they can secure themselves very, very easily,” said UNLV President Keith Whitfield.
“What I want the students to know is that we are a safe campus. This is an island of safety. And we want them to feel confident and we want them to feel that they do not need to walk and be concerned about their safety. We are here to provide that for them,” said Arnold Vasquez, Interim Director of University Police Services.
UNLV Faculty members killed in the shooting were 64-year-old Professor Cha Jan “Jerry” Chang, Assistant Professor Patricia Navarro-Velez, age 39, and 69-year-old Associate Professor Naoko Takemaru.
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