Dangerous Predictions: Student Counseling, Guns, and Campus Safety at the University of Texas, 1966-1969

Abstract After the 1966 mass shooting at the University of Texas at Austin, student counseling services at the University of Texas (UT) were redesigned around a framework of psychopathology that attempted to prevent future violence through speculative assessments of dangerousness, or the capacity to harm oneself or others. This article explores how UT’s leadership and Texas politicians marshaled the disciplines of psychiatry and psychology to restore a sense of safety on campus despite their inability to accurately assess threats of violence. As a result, updates to the counseling center led to an escalation of campus surveillance, increased pressures on students and faculty to conform to UT’s values, and a proliferation of guns in the hands of campus police. The cost of attempting to eliminate danger by expanding mental health care at UT was an environment of heightened security and control that had questionable impact on campus safety and student mental health.