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The University of Texas at Austin, often referred to as UT Austin, UT, or Texas, is a public research university in Austin, Texas and the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, the University of Texas was inducted into the Association of American Universities in 1929, becoming only the third university in the American South to be elected. The institution has the nation's eighth-largest single-campus enrollment, with over 50,000 undergraduate and graduate students and over 24,000 faculty and staff.
Charles Joseph Whitman was an American mass murderer who became infamous as the "Texas Tower Sniper". On August 1, 1966, he used knives to kill his mother and his wife in their respective homes, then went to the University of Texas in Austin with multiple firearms and began indiscriminately shooting at people. He fatally shot three people inside the university tower. He then went to the tower's 28th-floor observation deck, where he fired at random people for some 96 minutes, killing an additional 11 people, and wounding 31 others before he was shot dead by Austin police officers. Whitman killed a total of 17 people; the 17th victim died 35 years later from injuries sustained in the attack.
The University of Texas System is an American government entity of the state of Texas that includes 14 higher educational institutions throughout the state including eight universities and six health institutions. The UT System is headquartered in Downtown Austin, and has a total enrollment of nearly 240,000 students and employs 21,000 faculty and more than 83,000 health care professionals,researchers and support staff. The UT System's $30 billion endowment is the largest of any public university system in the United States. As of 2018, Reuters ranks the UT System among the top 10 most innovative academic institutions in the world.
The Texas State University System (TSUS) was created in 1911 to oversee the state's normal schools. Since its creation it has broadened its focus and comprises institutions of many different scopes. The other systems of state universities are the Texas A&M System, the Texas Tech System, the University of Houston System, the University of North Texas System, and the University of Texas System.
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) is a public academic health science center in Houston, Texas. It was created in 1972 by The University of Texas System Board of Regents. It is located in the Texas Medical Center, the largest medical center in the world. It is composed of six schools: McGovern Medical School, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, UTHealth School of Dentistry, Cizik School of Nursing, UTHealth School of Biomedical Informatics and UTHealth School of Public Health.
The Houston Police Department (HPD) is the primary law enforcement agency serving the City of Houston, Texas, United States and some surrounding areas. With approximately 5,300 officers and 1,200 civilian support personnel it is the fifth-largest municipal police department, serving the fourth-largest city in the United States. Its headquarters are at 1200 Travis in Downtown Houston.
The Main Building is a structure at the center of the University of Texas at Austin campus in Downtown Austin, Texas, United States. The Main Building's 307-foot (94 m) tower has 27 floors and is one of the most recognizable symbols of the university and the city.
Ramiro "Ray" Martinez is a former Austin Police Department officer whose actions ended the University of Texas tower shooting spree, when he and other officers reached and killed sniper Charles Whitman on August 1, 1966.
Texas has over 1,000 public school districts—all but one of the school districts in Texas are independent, separate from any form of municipal government. School districts may cross city and county boundaries. Independent school districts have the power to tax their residents and to assert eminent domain over privately owned property. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) oversees these districts, providing supplemental funding, but its jurisdiction is limited mostly to intervening in poorly performing districts.
The UTHealth School of Public Health is one of seven component institutions of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
West Campus is a neighborhood in central Austin, Texas west of Guadalupe Street and its namesake, the University of Texas at Austin. Due to its proximity to the university, West Campus is heavily populated by college students. The area is known for its colorful residential buildings.
In United States civilian law enforcement, a Threat Management Unit is a police department team that provides criminal and behavioral analysis and risk assessments in an attempt to review, and ultimately mitigate, the potential for violence with an emphasis on prevention. Threat Management Units identify risk factors, patterns of escalation, and construct an environment that inhibits or prevents violence. The services provided cover a wide range of topics, including, but not limited to terrorism, school violence, sexual crimes, stalking, cyber crimes, domestic violence, arson, sabotage, communicated threats, insider threats and pre-attack behavior. Research in this area of law enforcement is known as Threat Safety Science.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, queer (LGBT) people in Texas face legal and social challenges and discrimination not faced by other people. Same-sex sexual activity is legal in the state. On June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled bans on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional in Obergefell v. Hodges. Texas has a hate crime statute that strengthens penalties for certain crimes motivated by a victim's sexual orientation, although it has never been invoked. Gender identity is not included in the hate crime law. Even though federal law prohibits employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, there is no statewide law banning anti-LGBT discrimination. However, some localities in Texas have ordinances that provide a variety of legal protections and benefits to LGBT people.
The Deadly Tower, also known as Sniper, is a 1975 television film directed by Jerry Jameson. It stars Kurt Russell and Richard Yniguez and is based on the University of Texas tower shooting.
The University of Texas at Austin Steve Hicks School of Social Work is a division of the University of Texas at Austin in Austin, Texas. Established in 1950, the school offers programs leading to the Bachelor's in Social Work, Master of Science in Social Work, and PhD in Social Work degrees and is rated one of the top 10 social work programs in the United States. Luis H. Zayas, Ph.D. is the dean of the school.
On August 1, 1966, after stabbing his mother and his wife to death the night before, Charles Whitman, a former Marine, took rifles and other weapons to the observation deck atop the Main Building tower at the University of Texas at Austin, then opened fire indiscriminately on people on the surrounding campus and streets. Over the next 96 minutes he shot and killed 14 people and injured 31 others. One final victim died from his injuries in 2001. The incident ended when a policeman and a civilian reached Whitman and shot him dead. At the time, the attack was the deadliest mass shooting by a lone gunman in U.S. history, being surpassed 18 years later by the San Ysidro McDonald's massacre.
William H. Adcox is the Chief Security Officer for the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and a pioneer of Threat Safety Science in healthcare. He is also the Chief of Police and Chief Security Officer at the University of Texas at Houston Police Department, which is a component of the University of Texas System. He has had a longstanding career as a police officer and Deputy Chief of Police in El Paso, Texas.
Inspector Vicki King is a pioneering threat safety scientist in the healthcare sector. She is the leader of the Threat Assessment Unit at the University of Texas at Houston Police Department, which is a component of the University of Texas System.
References
- ↑ Diaz, Joy. "After Tower Shooting, UT Pioneered Services To Heal and Defend Campuses". kut.org. National Public Radio. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
- ↑ Lavergne, Gary M. (1997). A sniper in the Tower the Charles Whitman murders (1st ed.). Denton: University of North Texas Press. ISBN 1-57441-029-6.
- ↑ "History - about - UT Police at Houston". www.utph.org. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
- 1 2 3 Gray, Robin. "A New Attitude Toward Hospital Security: The Wellness Approach". Campus Safety Magazine. EH Publishing. Retrieved 24 February 2017.