LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Beam Hall is the home of the Lee Business School at UNLV. It has several classrooms and faculty offices inside.
This is where a deadly shooting happened on December 6, 2023, that left three dead and one wounded.
The building has been closed since the shooting, but it's now officially open to the public, with several new security enhancements.
“A brand new 360-degree camera," said UNLV Vice President of Facilities Management Musa Pam. "We've restricted access to the third, fourth and fifth floors."
Pam was detailing several of the new security enhancements that have been added to the building prior to reopening.
The safety improvements include:
- Access to the third, fourth and fifth floors. These are where the faculty offices are located. Key cards are needed to take the elevator to these floors and physical keys are needed to access the floors through the stairwell.
- UNLV said all faculty and security staff who need access to these floors will get the keys. However, students are allowed up for office visits if they're scheduled beforehand with the faculty member.
- 360-degree surveillance cameras are placed in every elevator lobby.
- The security desk is on the first floor. It's staffed during business hours. Another full-time uniformed officer will patrol the building inside and out.
- More than 130 damaged doors and/or door frames have been replaced in Beam Hall, along with another 350 doors in other campus buildings impacted during the shooting.
- The fire alarm systems on floors three through five have also been replaced.
- New telephones have been installed in classrooms with enhanced emergency notification capabilities.
WATCH | The walk-through tour of Beam Hall's new security features with UNLV
Click here to see photos of the new security features at Beam Hall
“It has the ability to provide emergency notifications, it’s both audible and provides a visual text message," Pam said.
I asked UNLV accounting professor John Zimmerman what he thinks about the new improvements.
"I think they’re all good, I think it helps to bring an atmosphere of calm to Beam Hall," Zimmerman said.
He said the security is great, but the terror of the December 6 deadly shooting still haunts him.
"Every day, every day I think about it, it never goes away," Zimmerman said.
Zimmerman was on campus the day of the shooting. He said he narrowly missed the shooter. He said he showed up late to his Beam Hall office after not finding a parking spot and saw the immediate aftermath of the terror.
There were several holes in walls and doors broken throughout the building due to the shooting and officers' response.
UNLV said it took around $2.5 Million to make all the repairs across campus.
“What could have been a trigger for people to see damage and what have you, those fears have been allayed," Pam said .
UNLV officials said they wanted to keep Beam Hall as original as they could to promote a feeling of normalcy for students and staff, but when it came to safety, improvements were designed with the shooting in mind.
“We wanted to make sure they kind of get back into the way we used to feel which was very safe," said UNLV President Keith Whitfield.
Whitfield told Channel 13, that while even today's new security measures may not have stopped the deadly shooting, it may have made it more difficult.
“Hopefully those measures will work," Whitfield said.
Whitfield told Channel 13, UNLV plans to use Beam Hall as a test to see what security enhancements should be added to other buildings across campus.
He said the University plans to bring renovations up at the next legislative session in 2025 to help cover the new improvements. UNLV says they'll ask for $38 Million to cover those improvements.
Beam Hall will open for classes for the first time since the shooting this Fall.
There are expected to be 160 classes hosted inside the building this Fall. That's approximately half of what the building would typically offer during a Fall semester.
Classes are set to begin August 26 at UNLV this Fall.
Click here to see photos of damage in the aftermath of the Dec. 6 shooting
