If a college allowed people to carry a gun on campus, it wouldn't be a distraction, since everyone would already know that that sort of thing is allowed.
As to a theft risk, perhaps. But so what? It would be like saying that cars shouldn't be allowed on campus, since a thief could steal one and use it as a getaway car in a bank robbery.
Consider the state of Utah. It allows people with a CWP to carry a gun onto school grounds, including that of college campuses. They don't seem to have the problems you're concerned about.
As in every case of concealed carry, the hysterics come out, but then everyone seems to forget about it when the ‘wild west’ scenarios don’t happen.
The doomsayers always say, ‘don’t have more gun freedom!’ But it never seems to actually cause any real problems.
The only time you’d hear about it is when someone uses one to stop a crime. You hardly ever hear about serious crimes with legal gun carriers.
Preventing my gun from being stolen and making headlines because I negligently left it unsafe is one responsibility I take very seriously. We all should.