To the students and administration of the University of Virginia: On behalf of 30,000 students, administrators, and our Virginia Tech community, I cannot begin to express our gratitude for the outpouring of sympathy, support, and concern that U.Va. has shown us in the past two days. It is an understatement to say the aftermath of our losses has beenemotionally trying for us. The realization of losing 32 valuable livesin our Virginia Tech family is something that we are trying desperatelyto recover from ... But even in the most difficult day of our history, we have found strength. It is your university in particular thathas sustained us, far beyond what you will ever know. We thank you for your students and faculty that gathered to memorialize our victims and to share in our sorrow. We thank you for the initiative and commitment your student government made towards finding 30,000 candles for our grieving campus so that our student leaders could focus on healing and comforting instead. We thank you for the hundreds of Hokies who saw your painted bridge, and were moved to tears. We thank you for the way your students instantly put aside our infamous rivalry, to the point where the greatest measures of compassion from another institution have been from you. Your aid has had such a profound impact upon our students. Please know that what U.Va. is doing is being noticed, is making a difference and is nothing short of extraordinary. Thank you for being a testament to the best of collegiate student leadership and to humanity in general. In what we have been calling the darkest night Virginia Tech has ever seen, U.Va. is one of our brightest lights. The strong alliance that has been formed between our school and yours is part of our foundation in moving forward.From our hearts to yours, thank you for your noble efforts. May you alsofind solace and restoration as we grieve together as students and as anation. In or out of times of need, Virginia Tech will stand beside you as fellow students, Virginians, and most importantly, as friends. With gratitude, Elizabeth Hart Student Government Association Director of Public Relations
By: Elizabeth Miller Posted: 4/20/07 I am rarely at a loss for words. But now, as I approach this column after a week of tragedy - both at Miami University and nationwide - I can hardly form a rational thought. Somehow a 500-word column needs to be written on a topic that I cannot find one suitable word for. I don't need to recall the events of Saturday night at Miami, or Monday afternoon at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. Nothing that I say can express the individual grief, confusion and frustration that we feel. Like you, I've been watching the news and discussing it in class. Sometimes the facts are accurate. Sometimes they're just pieces of rumor that patch together some semblance of truth. I guess when you're desperate for answers, almost anything helps. But as I'm flipping through the channels of repeated footage, I'm shocked to hear how quickly the actual disaster has been swept aside. The news is flooded with debate about Virginia gun sales and the failure of campus crisis communication. Somehow CNN and ABC find it appropriate to spark these debates right now. Gun control. University communication policy. The horror of this tragedy cannot be simplified into a policy debate. Not yet, anyways. This is about people. People were murdered, first and foremost. The aftermath should be filled with reverence and condolences for the victims. The focus should be for the families left behind, the campus that will be shaken forever and the lives that were taken. We have to let ourselves grieve. We have to take time to hurt, to sympathize, to feel, to pray. This isn't a time to blame. Yes, there will be a time to discuss methods of prevention. That time is not now. It is simply disrespectful to ignite any heated policy debate that supersedes the mourning for the lost lives. Of course, it's natural to seek blame and explanation when such an event happens. So, yes, we can point fingers. We can assume things about the school, the policies, the killer, the situation at-large. It's a natural reaction to assign blame at a time like this. But assigning blame won't bring those students and faculty back. Like I said, I'm at a loss for eloquent words that can articulate the disaster. Words alone will not solve the confusion, they won't mend the grief. I'm at a loss for words, but I'm not at a loss for feeling. And perhaps that's all we can do for now. We can feel. We have to let ourselves grieve. This isn't a time to blame the state of Virginia for gun control policies. This isn't a time to question the administrative communication of the university. We will have months, maybe years, ahead for that. This tragedy isn't about policy. It's about lives. And for now, the respect for those who died and the sympathy for the families left behind should be the forefront of our concern. -- Original Source:The Miami Student - April 20, 2007
"Skotzko, Stacey Nicole" <skotzksn@muohio.edu>
By: Elizabeth Nowrouz Posted: 4/19/07 It has been three days since April 16. Three days since maroon and orange became not just a team's colors, but a show of courage and defiance in the face of a national tragedy. While the students, faculty and families struggle to pick up the pieces, schools like UMW are making every effort to just show their support. It has been called the Columbine of college, and international news is still saturated with images of the victims, the shooter and a campus in mourning. Many students at the University of Mary Washington, located just 200 miles from the Blacksburg campus, had personal connections to Virginia Tech. When senior Susan Alexander found out about the shootings, she immediately began contacting her high school classmates at Tech. It was not until the next morning that she discovered a close family friend was one of the victims. "She was in her French class," Alexander said. Reema Samaha was a Virginia Tech freshman attending class in Norris Hall on Monday morning. The two families had known each other for years, Alexander said, and "we would all spend our summers together." Alexander returned to her hometown of Centreville to find it "transformed." "There are signs and banners everywhere, because two of the victims were from there, but so was the shooter," she said. Junior Nicole Halloran, who organized a vigil Monday night and has helped plan another for tonight, had many friends and classmates at the school. "We should show solidarity," Halloran said. "This is one of the best and only ways to do that. This could have happened anywhere." In the hours after the events unfolded, there was already a second vigil planned, this one by senior Jennifer Welsch and junior Jessica Thiel. Thiel did not have any close friends or relatives at Tech, but felt she needed to pay her respects. The girls' Facebook group asked students to meet at the fountain in Palmieri Plaza at 9 p.m. "What if someone walked into my class and started shooting," Thiel said as she passed out candles to the quickly forming crowd. "It's a Virginia school, I had to do something." Thiel addressed the crowd, many of them wearing Virginia Tech colors, and asked them to form a circle and join hands. She began to pray for "the students who woke up this morning and thought it was any other day, who walked into class, but didn't get to leave." Thiel had barely begin speaking when the group from Ball Circle arrived at the fountain, and the circle grew to accommodate them. When the prayer was finished, the students, who had numbered over 200, passed a bucket of orange Gatorate powder around, each person emptying a scoop into the fountain. As a chorus of "Lean On Me" spread through the crowd, the water slowly began to turn Hokie Orange. Senior Kyle Ott, who attended Monday's vigil, had actually been in Blacksburg when the shootings took place. "My girlfriend goes to Tech, so I drive down Saturday afternoon," Ott said. "She had a meeting at 10, and the campus went on lockdown while she was there." Ott was not on campus, but could not get near because of the police. "I was concerned about her and that she'd go outside," he said. "A girl from her sorority was killed, but she was fine and I left at like noon." Though the responses have been mostly from students, many UMW faculty and staff had connections to the events as well. Jack Bales, the reference and humanities librarian, is the parent of a Virginia Tech student. His son Patrick is a sophomore there. Jack Bales spoke of his experience in an e-mail. "My son [called me and] asked me, 'Dad, have you heard the news,'" Bales said. "He told me about the first shooting." Bales' son lives in West Ambler Johnston Hall, the site of the first shooting. His dormitory, like the rest of the campus, was locked down after the second shooting. Families and friends struggled to get in touch with students at Tech all day. Cell phones stopped working early in the day, and so many of the victims' names did not come out until Monday night or Tuesday morning. Associate Vice President for Business and Finance Richard Pearce is a Virginia Tech alumnus and parent. His daughter Darcey, a senior at Virginia Tech, was out of the area on Monday, but Pearce himself was at Radford University, a 15-minute drive from Blacksburg. Pearce was at a function for accepted students at the university when he heard of the shootings. "Everyone there was just glued to the TVs that whole morning," he said "The crowd was just numb. Even in the dining hall, it was just quiet." Rick Hurley, vice president for administration and finance, who has assumed presidential duties, has been working with students and faculty to come up with an appropriate response to the events. His first action was to increase police presence on campus. "We weren't worried, but we wanted to send a message to the students," Hurley said. "We wanted to do what we could to give a higher level of comfort." Situations like this, Hurley said, always raise questions about local security. "We have a crisis management team that can come together at a moment's notice, as it did last week," he said, referring to the incidents with UMW President William Frawley. "We contact academic buildings and residence halls, and have the residence staff get in touch with as many people as possible," he said. "For a school as small as we are, we can do that. It's an old-fashioned system, but it works." Hurley has been working with students on campus to plan memorials to the victims. In addition to the state-wide vigil planned for tonight, Governor Kaine has declared Friday to be the national day of mourning. "We are hoping to set up a line of students from the bell tower to Goolrick," he said. "Everyone will hold hands and observe a moment of silence." "We all hear that we should not take our good fortune for granted," Bales said. "But until something like this happens, we all probably do."
Students at Oklahoma State University pray for the victims. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lizphotoart/464802685/ Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical 2.0
Permission: Elizabeth Padawer Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical 2.0
LOST BUT NOT FORGOTTEN They lost their life on that fateful day April 16th together we pray. No motive, no means, to commit such a crime. What began a Monday morning, lost like a drop of a dime. A community, our school, Virginia Tech that is. What turned into a tragedy. once known as a serene state of bliss. It was a snowy, cold, spring morning when their world came to a halt. A day of great remembrance full of pain, grief, and fault. No one can possibly express this magnitude of distress. To hold their hand in silence and mourn those we miss. Where do we go from here? Is there any place to turn? To change the hands of time And take away their fear. Through the darkness of night until the break of a new day. Please remember our HOKIES This, I ask you to pray. Elizabeth Patterson
Artist's Comments We were supposed to do a project either showing ourselves perceptually or in response to the Virginia Tech shootings. Since I already have a self-portrait for pretty much every year of my life, I decided to do the latter. After watching the Cho footage and some other student-captured footage on YouTube, I tried to think of the different reactions people might have and sketched out a rough group of people. I ended up adding some more words later. I also added some newspaper clippings related to the shootings. The puzzle pieces represent a concept I was thinking about. Originally I had come up with "Nobody wants to have a view of the world with pieces that are missing, just like no one is satisfied with a puzzle that can't be completed" in regards to the importance of protecting endangered species, but it works here too... think about all the families and friends that lost someone close to them in the blink of an eye. Now there are empty spaces in their lives where those people should have been, but now aren't because of this... Yeah, cheesey, but I like my analogy. I threw in some silver you can't see for all the black. All the eyes are either orange or maroon (the school's colors) as well as a few of the puzzle pieces. I admit I rushed, but the teacher liked it, but then this one student who likes to give me (and only me, apparently) constructive criticism all the time said the two figures on the left were the same height and took away from the rest of the drawing, and that they should be cropped out. I've looked at it and I -guess- I see what he means, but I like the composition like it is, honestly, and the girl about to pray (who reminds me of Kraehe from Princess Tutu) is one of my favorites), so... O_o And then everyone got into a big discussion over whether it took away from it or not and I just sat there and muttered "wow, we're arguing". Seriously... I think maybe he thinks I think too highly of my own work because the teacher praises me all the time (I really haven't liked much of the work I did in class at all, and always try to criticise myself - which doesn't work cuz Richard's always like "WTC?"). I liked Lindsay's and Scott's pieces. I really liked Lindsay's, it was way neat. Anyway, sorry for the IRL rant. =P Time: ...er... maybe 3.5 hours? I dunno. Not long in all honesty Materials: black and silver sharpies, markers, pencil (for sketch), newspaper clippings, charcoal, conte crayon (I actually sprayed this to seal; go me) About license: You may use this for noncommercial uses if you want, like if you were doing a video montage tribute to Virginia Tech or something. Just please 1) credit me and 2) do not change this image. None of my work should be used for any purpose unless it is stated that you can. -- Original submitted to deviantart.com on April 30, 2007: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/54344293/ Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 License.
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5
We were supposed to do a project either showing ourselves perceptually or in response to the Virginia Tech shootings. Since I already have a self-portrait for pretty much every year of my life, I decided to do the latter. After watching the Cho footage and some other student-captured footage on YouTube, I tried to think of the different reactions people might have and sketched out a rough group of people. I ended up adding some more words later. I also added some newspaper clippings related to the shootings. The puzzle pieces represent a concept I was thinking about. Originally I had come up with "Nobody wants to have a view of the world with pieces that are missing, just like no one is satisfied with a puzzle that can't be completed" in regards to the importance of protecting endangered species, but it works here too... think about all the families and friends that lost someone close to them in the blink of an eye. Now there are empty spaces in their lives where those people should have been, but now aren't because of this... Yeah, cheesey, but I like my analogy. I threw in some silver you can't see for all the black. All the eyes are either orange or maroon (the school's colors) as well as a few of the puzzle pieces. I admit I rushed, but the teacher liked it, but then this one student who likes to give me (and only me, apparently) constructive criticism all the time said the two figures on the left were the same height and took away from the rest of the drawing, and that they should be cropped out. I've looked at it and I -guess- I see what he means, but I like the composition like it is, honestly, and the girl about to pray (who reminds me of Kraehe from Princess Tutu) is one of my favorites), so... O_o And then everyone got into a big discussion over whether it took away from it or not and I just sat there and muttered "wow, we're arguing". Seriously... I think maybe he thinks I think too highly of my own work because the teacher praises me all the time (I really haven't liked much of the work I did in class at all, and always try to criticise myself - which doesn't work cuz Richard's always like "WTC?"). I liked Lindsay's and Scott's pieces. I really liked Lindsay's, it was way neat. Anyway, sorry for the IRL rant. Time: ...er... maybe 3.5 hours? I dunno. Not long in all honesty Materials: black and silver sharpies, markers, pencil (for sketch), newspaper clippings, charcoal, conte crayon (I actually sprayed this to seal; go me) Licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Drawn by Ellana
Permission: Creative Commons ryoushirogane@yahoo.com
Alexandria, VA. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellenw/464617828/ Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0
Ellen W. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellenw/464617828/ Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0
Sports world reaches out, helps Virginia Tech cope
"I belong." I still remember vividly that emotion as I stood outside Burress Hall overlooking the gorgeous, expansive view of the Virginia Tech campus on a cool, sunny morning back in the spring of 1990. It was college-tour season for graduating high-school seniors, and I had found my home for the next four years. The tragedy this past week has only deepened and strengthened my affection for the university. Once a Hokie, always a Hokie. A lot has been vocalized and written by alumni, students, friends, business leaders, politicians, athletes, the media -- really anyone with a shred of a tie to Blacksburg -- about how tranquil and safe and welcoming the campus and surrounding community has always been. And they are not exaggerating. Virginia Tech and the city of Blacksburg are synonymous. Graduates own local businesses. Former students now teach. Former athletes now coach. This part of the country used to be just Hokie Nation -- now it is Hokie Nationwide. The nationwide reaction to this senseless tragedy has also crystallized for me how in a time of grief -- even if just for a few, fragile hours -- sports provides an outlet and plays a role on the road to recovery. The outpouring of support has raised school spirits during this dark time. I applaud the Washington Nationals for donning Virginia Tech caps during their game Tuesday, caps that will now take a spot in the Baseball Hall of Fame next to its 9/11 memorial. I applaud NASCAR for placing memorial, VT logo decals on the cars, especially given the deep roots many of the teams and drivers have with that region of the country. I applaud Atlanta Falcons QB Michael Vick -- arguably the most popular and well-known athlete ever to wear a Virginia Tech jersey -- for his generous donation to the university for the victims families. And I applaud coach Frank Beamer for his cancellation of the traditional Maroon and White Football game. He is a class act, emphasizing the need to heal before you hooray -- and I guarantee you this fall when the first few cords of Enter Sandman blare throughout Lane Stadium for the opening home game of the season, those tears you see will once again be for joy. But for now we work to dry the tears of sorrow, knowing that Virginia Tech and its local and extended community will never be the same. This could have happened to anyone, in any town, at any school, at any time -- but it happened at my school, where not so long ago I was the one walking across campus to Norris Hall for class. And while I did not personally know any of the victims, the entire Hokie Nation has been victimized. And now, as the entire world watches, the international community is realizing that Hokie resolve is as strong as the stone that bares its name -- stone that has been used for more than 130 years to build the campus and community. The memories and images of this tragic event will forever scar, and we will never forget, but my personal resolve to one day have my children stand on those same steps outside Burress Hall as I did has not wavered. We are Virginia Tech. Elliott Gordon graduated Virginia Tech in 1994. He was NASCAR.COM's Director of Programming from 2001-2006. -- As posted on NASCAR.COM on April 20th, 2007: http://www.nascar.com/2007/news/opinion/04/20/guest.column.virginia.tech/story_single.html
In my opinion By: Elon Glucklich | Opinion Editor Issue date: 4/23/07 Section: Commentary The list of communities stricken by gun violence rings out like a grim roll call - it's best left out of mind, if possible. But now there is no such luxury; we find it back in the spotlight, following last week's tragic shooting on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. People raised around here know this all too well. In 1998 Kip Kinkel, then 15, walked into the Thurston High School cafeteria in Springfield with a semiautomatic rifle. By the time he was apprehended, he had killed two students and left 25 wounded. In Blacksburg, VA, 33 people are dead, and an entire community finds itself grappling with feelings of grief and shock. And I sit here, 3,000 miles away, trying to sort through it all for some meaning. I could recount the tragedy, minute by minute. I could try to psychoanalyze the shooter - look into his past and try to figure out what drove him to such a depraved act. But what good would that do? All that there is to say has already been said. Besides, none of it really matters. He and 32 of his classmates are dead because of his actions. Nothing is going to change that. But have times changed? Look at the past ten years: Springfield, Columbine, Colo., Red Lake, Minn., Lancaster, Calif. and a slew of others are still fresh in the nation's mind. Now, as members of the Virginia Tech community try to sort through their anger and pain, the rest of the country begins to ask questions. Are there too many guns on the street? Are we in the midst of an irreversible moral decline? Should we prepare for more incidents like this? Certainly it will happen again. When, where and to what capacity is anyone's guess, but it will happen again. In the meantime, we must not be afraid to ask these difficult questions - questions that cut through the unbridled emotions of the present in hopes of finding some reason, some underlying cause as to why this happened, and how such an event can be prevented in the future. Every incident of this kind has two main components: The unstable individual and the weapon. Determining who has the capacity to take lives is nearly impossible. Furthermore, when a potential shooter decides they no longer have the will to live, there's really no stopping them. I mean, how do you deter someone who, like Seung-Hui Cho, has already embraced death? The answer: You take away their guns. Of course, that answer raises a whole new set of questions. In the wake of this tragedy, some advocates have renewed their efforts to bring the gun control issue back into the spotlight. But gun rights advocates, led by the National Rifle Association and backed by the Second Amendment, have been quick to counter. Their argument is that gun control legislation will leave our criminals as the only ones with weapons. But when you examine Cho's mental history (he was deemed "an imminent danger" to himself and others as recently as 2005), and the ease with which he came to legally obtain a 9 mm Glock and a .22-caliber pistol, it becomes clear that more stringent gun control is needed. Besides, what exactly defines a criminal? Cho wasn't a criminal when he walked to the pawnshop across the street from the Virginia Tech campus and purchased that .22. What we need are more thorough background checks to ensure that criminals are not the only people exempt from buying weapons; people with the capacity to resort to criminal acts must be exempt, too. And yet, as the Second Amendment and its unwavering supporters make abundantly clear, "The right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." The Second Amendment used to make a lot of sense. When I say "used to" I mean about 200 years ago. The United States of America was a lot different back then. Its inhabitants lived under the constant threat of conquest: England and France occupied land to the north, the Spanish lay in the south, and all around were Native Americans; it's easy to see why an early American's life was steeped in fear. I guess, in a lot of ways, we're just like those early Americans. We're all just as scared. But while our early ancestors lived in fear of outsiders, we fear each other. This is a different America we're living in. We don't like to admit it, but the rugged individualism that defined our frontier forefathers is largely a thing of the past. Still, many choose to cling to this old mentality - a mentality so interwoven with gun obsession that the two are practically indistinguishable. In the meantime, the guns are still here. And the violence is still here. Complaining about them isn't going to make either go away - especially when a lot of people believe the answer to stopping gun violence is to give people more guns. Maybe we as a society are just desensitized to guns. Maybe we need to re-sensitize ourselves. eglucklich@dailyemerald.com -- Original Source: Daily Emerald http://media.www.dailyemerald.com/media/storage/paper859/news/2007/04/23/Commentary/Controlling.The.Threat-2874215.shtml http://media.www.dailyemerald.com/media/storage/paper859/news/2007/04/23/Commentary/Controlling.The.Threat-2874215-page2.shtml
Virginia Tech shootings shake the country
By Nicole Haley/Daily News staff GHS Tue Apr 17, 2007, 01:04 AM EDT NO DATA - The news seemed surreal for anyone who turned on the television yesterday. Even anchors on the major news networks reported asking law enforcement officials to repeat themselves, unable to believe what they were being told. But for Waltham native Marcus Ly, the shootings on Virginia Tech's campus were particularly difficult to comprehend. "I called a lot of my friends in Blacksburg. They're all OK," said Ly, a Virginia Tech grad student. "But it's just a lot of confusion, they don't really know anything more than we do reading the headlines." Speaking by phone yesterday from Minneapolis, Ly said he was in shock. A gunman killed 32 people on the campus and then took his own life, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. A 1995 Waltham High School graduate, Ly finished a graduate school program in industrial and systems engineering at Virginia Tech last winter. He was a representative on the university's Board of Visitors and worked closely with the president and higher levels of administration. "It's really the equivalent of something like this happening in Weston," said Ly, trying to describe the town of Blacksburg, home to the 2,600-acre Virginia Tech campus. Ly said Blacksburg was on of the safest communities he has ever lived in. Around 7:15 a.m. yesterday, the first shot rang out in West Ambler Johnston Hall, a co-ed dormitory. The gunfire resumed two hours later at Norris Hall, the engineering science and mechanics building, where most of the fatalities occurred, according to Associated Press reports. "It's more shocking than Columbine," Ly said, referring to the 1999 Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colo. Two teenagers killed 12 students and one teacher and wounded 24 more before the shooters committed suicide. Like many others watching the events unfold from home, Ly saw the video streamed on cnn.com and shown repeatedly on television, recorded by a Virginia Tech student on his cell phone. The shaky camera work shows police approaching one building as gunshot after gunshot rings out in the background. "I watched it and I knew exactly where it was," said Ly, who had walked that area on any given morning less than a year ago. Newton resident Theodore Fritz also recognized the buildings photographers captured throughout the day. "I'm certainly transfixed here," said Fritz, a 1961 Virginia Tech graduate who watched television reports throughout the day. A Boston University professor, the killings affected Fritz both as a college educator and as a Virginia Tech alumnus. "I think this probably could have happened anywhere," he said. Former Boston College baseball coach Pete Hughes, who now coaches at Virginia Tech, returned home with his team from a game at Florida State University about 3 a.m. yesterday. Hughes was rousted from bed by the news and immediately began scrambling to track down his players. One was "bunkered down" in the basement of Norris Hall and managed to escape, while three others fled the dorm, he said. Senior Beth Goldberg of Newton said students in lockdown on campus were able to communicate with the outside world by computer. "They seemed pretty calm," Goldberg said. "We didn't realize how bad it was at the time." Ly, who today runs an IT consulting company in Minnesota, said Virginia Tech was really the last place he would expect to see such a slaughter. Ly, who has lived in Chicago and Washington, D.C., repeatedly referred to Blacksburg as a "middle of nowhere" location - a quiet, small town where nothing much happens. "To all the Hokies out there, we're all very touched," Ly said, invoking the school's nickname. Yesterday was not the first time some of Virginia Tech's 25,000 students evacuated classrooms amidst chaos. On Friday, the school canceled classes in three buildings because of a bomb threat, and students fled Torgersen Hall on April 2 after police received a written bomb threat, according to reports from WDBJ in Roanoke, Va., and The Roanoke Times. Last August, the first day of classes was cut short as police searched out William Morva, a 24-year-old escaped convict who killed a security guard and sheriff's deputy at a hospital just two miles from the campus. Ly said he recognized Morva in news reports after the incident. "He was sitting next to me every day in the local coffee shop," Ly recalled. "He would always mumble to himself." "This is really bad news for the university," Ly said. "People are going to start transferring." -- Original Source: The Daily News Tribune - Waltham, Ma. http://www.dailynewstribune.com/local_news/x1650172714 Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported
By: Elyse McCoy, Staff Writer Posted: 7/5/07 The University is in the initial stages of development for the Public Information Emergency Response Communication Management System, or PIER, an Internet-based communication tool used to help relay emergency-related content and messages. Students, faculty and staff will be alerted in the event of a crime, unexpected weather emergency or other event that requires immediate warning through a secure Web page that will look like a regular UNC-Chapel Hill Web page. Using the PIER system, campus security officials can post key emergency materials; templates of information prepared in advance about certain scenarios; detailed information about how to reach the University's key constituents, including students, faculty and staff; and background information about the campus, maps and emergency policies and procedures. PIER also provides the capability to track and respond to questions from key stakeholders or the general public. Following the Virginia Tech shootings, the University has strengthened its already extensive plans and procedures, but plans for developing a contract with the PIER vendor for the 16-campus UNC system have been in existence since the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. UNC-Wilmington and UNC-Charlotte have been the most involved campuses to date, with Wilmington being designated the first campus to begin its PIER-related work and training several months ago. The PIER system's clients include the U.S. Coast Guard - which used the system during Hurricane Katrina, the University of Houston, and several major corporations. UNC-Chapel Hill has just recently begun training a small group of key people most likely to be involved with using PIER as a communication tool in an emergency situation, including those involved in University relations, public safety and information technology departments. "We have started working on training issues as the spring semester was winding down and will continue over the summer," said Mike McFarland, the director of University communications. "We believe PIER can help complement resources the University already uses and are developing, such as a siren system and the Rave system to communicate quickly, accurately and effectively with students, faculty, staff and other University-related audiences or the general public," McFarland said. Unlike the PIER system, which is primarily focused around managing information in an emergency, the Rave system is part of a broader effort to extend the campus to mobile phones. "Rave has much more day-to-day impact on the lives of our students," said Brian Payst, the director of Technology & Systems Support. "We certainly can, and will if needed, use Rave to send emergency broadcast messages, but it does much, much more than that for us." The Rave system is used to provide bus arrival times for all the Chapel Hill Transit routes and stops, the ability to read UNC e-mail, information from slice.unc.edu about student events, Blackboard alerts, Rave Guardian (an enhanced personal safety service), group messaging, polls and more on students' mobile phones. The University's partnership with Rave Wireless also enables the University to offer a steeply discounted cell phone program to students living in residence halls on campus in order to allow access to these services at the lowest possible cost. The campus Emergency Notification committee has been coordinating efforts to integrate the PIER and Rave systems as much as possible to reduce duplication where it exists. "We plan to integrate the information coming from PIER into a spot in the UNC mobile phone interface so you can easily check for closings or other important announcements coming from PIER," Payst said. Payst does not think that the implementation of both the PIER system and the Rave system will be confusing to either students or their parents. "They do different things, so we do not think it will be all that confusing, and we will work hard to clearly communicate the distinctions where they arise." -- Original Source: The Daily Tar Heel - July 05, 2007
UC Irvine's Counseling and Health Services Are Under-Funded
By Emilie Doolittle Staff Writer Three weeks ago, before midnight, a student was found with a gunshot wound to the head in the Social Science Building at UC Irvine. He had committed suicide. Two weeks ago was the Virginia Tech massacre. In the aftermath of recent tragic events, students at UCI wonder how safe our campus is and how psychologically healthy the students are. Is the Counseling and Health Center doing enough to make our campus psychologically healthy? What provisions are they making? If the Health Center gets a distress call, where someone is either a danger to themselves, a danger to others or gravely disabled, then they can send a psychologist to mentally evaluate the person. However, psychologists do not have the capacity to attend distress calls beyond the working week hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. For after-hour coverage, it is up to the on-campus police to handle distress calls. If the police officer feels that a mental health professional needs to be involved, they will call California's Welfare and Institutions Code 5150, which mandates that the distressed person be sent to a clinician. Generally, the person would be sent to the UCI Medical Center where they can have psychiatric help at any time. Students who are not sent to psychiatric help by law enforcement, may be in need of psychological support. How can they get support when the Counseling Center is closed? Currently UCI has no psychological counseling hotlines such as suicide prevention or sexual assault victim counseling. Students have to seek psychological support from sources outside of UCI. For any student to find psychological assistance, they have to look up a service, generally via the Internet, or have someone else look it up for them. This may cause a problem for someone who is already in a vegetative state of depression and has no one around to notice that they are in dire need of psychological help. If a student was severely depressed and did not have a friend to help them get counseling it might be helpful if they were to see a poster for a counseling service phone number, or a sticker for a suicide prevention hotline. At Pembroke College, in the University of Cambridge, England, as well as the University of Scotland, bathroom stalls have stickers and posters that list psychological assistance hotlines for students to call. Hotlines for students who are victims of sexual assault, for students who feel overanxious and depressed and even for female students that may be in need of birth control are on the bathroom stall walls. A bathroom stall is an intimate place for student to find information on how they can get help. While the bathroom stalls at UCI often have notes posted for students who are looking for a roommate or are trying to sell their books, from personal observation there rarely are mental health awareness flyers or stickers. Why is this? The apparent reason is that, like most college campuses in the United States, the Counseling and Health Services at UCI are under funded. Dr. Thomas Parham, the Assistant Vice Chancellor of the UCI Counseling and Health Services would fully support more marketing for psychological health awareness, including signs in bathrooms, if there were more funding. The Counseling and Health Services do not have the resources to afford more flyers and mental-health awareness signs. It is hard enough for them to afford to pay for psychologists. The Counseling Center is understaffed with mental health professionals and its psychologists are overloaded with students. On average, each of the UCI psychologists has 609 more students than they are recommended to counsel according to the International Association of Counseling Services. However, according to the OC Register UCI is in the process of looking for two new counselors. Unfortunately, students are only allowed a maximum of seven free one-on-one counseling sessions. This may not be enough for students who are in need of more sessions. Fourth-year sociology major Cassandra Rush was a victim of sexual assault during her second year at UCI. Although she received assistance from the Counseling Center afterward, she said, "Seven sessions wasn't enough. I felt kind of betrayed because I spilled my soul out to one psychologist and then they switched me over to another psychologist. I was already at a point where I didn't trust anyone." Luckily for Rush, she could afford to see a professional psychologist outside of UC Irvine. However, some students in need of mental professional help are not so fortunate. Various health insurance companies do not cover psychological counseling and some students do not have the personal funding to afford it. Like Rush's case, one of the most common reasons why students enter the counseling center is for cases of sexual assault. While there is a group for victims of sexual assault that meets throughout the school year which Rush recommends, group counseling is not always as helpful as a one-on-one. More students are seeking counseling at UCI than in the past. The no. 1 reason students seek counseling is because of stress, including intense emotions and mood changes. In Dr. Parham's words, students live in an almost pathologically competitive society. Unlike students of previous generations that went through time periods of struggle, such as the Great Depression and the Cold War, where they were taught that hardship was a part of life, "Now we create this illusion that everything is OK. Students are not used to struggling," said Parham. Not only has the number of suicides increased at college campuses nationally, but so has the number of suicides at UCI in the last decade. The two students who committed suicide within the last two years did not seek counseling or psychiactric help from UCI's health services. With the influx of students and the already lacking amount of resources, Counseling and Health Services is in dire need of funding. Despite a lack of funding, the Health Education Center has worked hard to obtain grants from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which provide small grants for campuses to provide for suicide prevention groups. UCI was one of the 22 campuses in the nation to win a grant. With the grant, the Health Education Center is promoting student health through "Project Courage." The project is designed to bring awareness to incidences of mental health and let people know what their resources are. Also, it is a social marketing campaign to help suicidal people think a second time before erasing their future. The Web site for Project Courage, www.donteraseyourfuture.org, lists difficulties famous people such as Martin Luther King Jr., William Shakespeare and Marie Curie went through, with the message that the world would not be the same without them. If a student is feeling anxious, depressed or violated, and is in need of psychological counseling they can call 949-824-6457 and set up an appointment with the UCI Counseling Center. If a student is feeling severely depressed and in need of psychological counseling outside of the available hours they can call 1-800-273-TALK (8255). -- Original Source:New University - April 30, 2007
Hokies United Holds Candlelight Vigil for NIU
By Emily Canis Staff Writer February 18, 2008 Hokies United sponsored a candlelight vigil Monday night for the Virginia Tech community so that students and residents of Blacksburg could pay their respects to the fallen Northern Illinois University Huskies. The twenty minute service began with Hokies United member Scott Cheatham thanking everyone for coming out to show their support for the Huskies. Cheatham introduced President Charles Steger who gave a brief speech. Followed by Steger was Student Government Association President Adeel Khan. Khan spoke of uniting with the Huskies and the unfortunate fact that Virginia Tech and NIU now share a common bond. "We will all prevail," Khan said in his closing remarks. After a moment of silence for the fallen Huskies, Steger suggested a singing of "Amazing Grace," in which the entire crowd sang. Following "Amazing Grace," the crowd started the well known chant, "Lets Go Hokies!" with Hokies being replaced with Huskies. "Our support for the Huskies is unlike that of any other school because we understand personally what it feels like. The vigil not only represented the fallen Huskies but also our own friends we lost last spring," said sophomore chemistry major Julianne Webber. Folded boards were placed around College Avenue, resembling those that were on the drill field last spring; although this time they were for the NIU Huskies. Students signed the boards with messages of support and grief for the Huskies. One message read, "You are in our thoughts and prayers, stay strong Huskies." Last Thursday, Feb. 14, Northern Illinois University was shook by the same shock and grief Virginia Tech experienced less than a year ago. Twenty seven year-old graduate student, Steven Kazmierczak, stormed a geology classroom, holding a shotgun and two handguns. 162 students were registered in the class; five were killed while injuring 18 more. Instantly, the Virginia Tech community responded with an outpouring of support through multiple mediums. President Steger sent out a campus wide email alerting students of his contact with the NIU president as well as counseling contact information for anyone that felt the need for it. Organizations across campus showed their support for the NIU Huskies. Alpha Phi Omega, a national service fraternity on campus, made cards for their fellow chapter at the NIU campus. Pi Kappa Alpha, who lost one of its brothers at NIU, is sending the NIU chapter a flag with all the Virginia Tech brother's signatures. The Hokies continued support of the NIU Huskies has been recognized nationally because of the bond both schools now share. The Hokies United candlelight vigil was just one way the Virginia Tech community expressed their support for NIU. -- Photo by Brian Sewell. Original Source: Planet Blacksburg http://www.planetblacksburg.com/2008/02/hokies_united_holds_candlelight_vigil_for_niu.php
Emily Canis (Author)/Brian Sewell (Photo)
By: Emily Sears, Contributing Writer, esears@smu.edu Posted: 4/19/07 Pat McDonald is an atheist. The junior anthropology major was raised Catholic but reconsidered his religion his freshman year at SMU when he became familiar with Zen Buddhism and atheism. "It surprised me because I never had considered atheism before. Atheism is a scary idea to me, because it seemed so dark and dreary," he said. McDonald represents only a small percentage of Americans today. A recent Newsweek poll shows that 91 percent of Americans believe in God, and of the nine percent who don't, only three percent consider themselves atheists. SMU, unsurprisingly, has about 20 religious or spiritual organizations on campus ranging from Christian to Hindu to Pagan. The university, associated with the Methodist church, turns to prayer in the face of tragedy. Students, faculty and staff united at Hughes-Trigg Student Center recently to pray for the victims of the Virginia Tech mass killings. Crosses were placed in the main quad in memory of the massacred victims. Dr. Jill DeTemple, an SMU professor of religious studies, says the number of Americans who believe in God does not surprise her. In fact, she thinks the percentage would increase if the poll had asked about belief in a higher power rather than God, which would then include many Buddhists and Hindus. "Technically Buddhism is an atheistic religion," she said. DeTemple says it's becoming popular again to be religious. In the '50s it was expected, in the '70s it was unpopular, and now, she says, it's once again the norm. "I do think religion has a more public place than it did a few years ago," she said. DeTemple said openly religious political leaders became popular with Jimmy Carter. "Since then we've expected public leaders to be religious." Emily Worland, a Roman Catholic and SMU sophomore economics major, says her religion has an impact on her political views. "Through Catholicism I believe that everyone is equal, so I follow liberal principles," she said. A political candidate's religion matters to the voting public, according to the poll. It showed that 68 percent of Americans believe a person can be an atheist and a moral person, but only 29 percent would vote for a candidate who publicly claimed he or she was an atheist. "I think morality is more of a social norm than a religious following," Worland said. But President George W. Bush's religious beliefs - he is a devout Christian - can't save him from disapproval. According to the Newsweek poll, only 28 percent of Americans are satisfied with the direction of the country. Sixty-six percent are unsatisfied and six percent don't know. Christian Daw, an SMU English major, thinks many people believe in God because of the culture Americans live in. "I feel a lot of people equate God and love and goodness, and they think that if they believe in goodness and what is right, then they believe in God." He said his parents have this mentality, but their beliefs don't impact their daily lives. But Daw, a senior, is a practicing Christian, and his beliefs do influence his daily life. "I think in order to lead the most fulfilling life, God needs to be a part of your everyday decisions," he said. It seems many people turn to science to prove or disprove the existence of God. In "God: The Failed Hypothesis," author and physicist Victor J. Stenger used the existence of God as a hypothesis, putting the idea through a series of scientific studies. He eventually determined that God does not exist and the belief has actually made humankind worse off. "The certainty and exclusiveness of the major monotheisms make tolerances of differences very difficult to achieve, and these differences are the major source of conflict," he wrote. Lee Strobel, a graduate of Yale Law School and former legal affairs editor of the Chicago Tribune, also set out on an investigation to disprove God and the belief that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. His findings, chronicled in his book "The Case for Christ," changed him from an atheist to a pastor. He used eyewitness, documentary, scientific, psychological and even fingerprint evidence in his research. "The atheism I had embraced for so long buckled under the weight of historical truth," Strobel wrote. McDonald, the atheist, says he is waiting for proof of God, and he's open to the possibility of God's existence. He also understands why people are religious - it gives life meaning and in his view prevents social chaos. "This world can seem very boring, and it feels good to believe in God. It helps make every problem into a challenge, every ordeal into a test," he said. -- Original Source:SMU Daily Campus - April 19, 2007
"Norris, Mark William" <mnorris@mail.smu.edu>
Sports message boards find new use after tragedy
Web sites such as Thesabre.com, Techsideline.com provide forum for discussion, communication after yesterday morning's shootings at Virginia Tech Eric Kolenich, Cavalier Daily Senior Associate Editor In the wake of yesterday's tragedy at Virginia Tech, online sports message boards served a more important purpose, providing an outlet for people to report information about the shootings that killed 33 people. With cell phone coverage limited yesterday in the Blacksburg area, many turned to sports message boards to communicate news reports as well as personal reactions to the day's events. In fact, the two largest message boards for Virginia and Virginia Tech sports -- Thesabre.com and Techsideline.com -- have become completely devoted to discussion of the shootings. Sabre administrators posted a message on the Tech site to inform users that the message boards could help facilitate dialogue and updates about the shootings. "We at The Sabre understand that you may have periodic problems accessing the TSL and VT Web sites," the message stated. "When this happens, you are welcome to use TheSabre.com's off-topic message board to communicate and retrieve necessary information on today's tragic events. You have our support and prayers during this trying time. Please pass the link around to your friends." News of the shootings first spread on the two boards around noon yesterday. "Breaking news -- shooting on VT campus!" one user wrote. Soon after, a number of bloggers reported the status of family and friends at Tech. "All family members at VT accounted for. I'm praying hard for others less fortunate," one said. Some individuals also expressed relief upon learning that loved ones had not been victimized. "Little bro is ok..... phew..... locked down in one of the dorms...," another wrote. Many posted information reported on news broadcasts and gave their own reactions to the shootings. Soon, sports conversation had ceased altogether. "Everyone is a Hokie today," another blogger wrote. One Virginia fan suggested that Virginia students wear maroon and orange in support of Tech students and families. As the day progressed, the two sites were crowded with comments expressing the powerful emotion evoked across the country. Commentary touched on the political fallout of the killings, as many users posted messages conveying frustration with reporters and pundits who accused Tech administrators of mishandling the tragedy as it unfolded. Fans from other schools have used the message boards as a platform to offer their prayers to Virginia Tech, while local communities of Hokies across the country announced planned vigils. "What a horrendous day for not only Virginia Tech but the entire state," wrote one blogger on the Tech Sideline site. "You can count on prayers from Lynchburg from the Liberty University family for all of the victims, their families and friends." Virginia students also posted messages relaying information about vigils to be held around Grounds this week. Cavalier fans have put their rivalry aside and are calling themselves "brothers" with fellow students and alumni at Virginia Tech. "Never thought I'd say this, but Go Hokies," wrote one blogger on the Sabre board. Virginia Tech has canceled all athletic activities today. Neither the University nor the ACC have announced any plans to cancel other athletic events. -- Original Source:The Daily Cavalier - April 17, 2007
Commentary By Eric Quach On Monday, April 16, the nation was shocked by the cowardly acts of a student at Virginia Tech University. As the day ended, the death toll rose to 33, including the shooter. Most Americans and the media looked back to the last tragedy most similar to this, the shootings at Columbine High School. But then, the next morning, authorities released a picture of the culprit. As I looked at the picture, I looked at the face of someone familiar. He was someone who looked a lot like me, more than I would have ever expected after hearing the news. A chill went down my spine. The same stories spread like wildfire on the news. News of "a troubled teen," "a loner," "a sick, demented person," "someone with a me-against-the-world attitude" and "someone in imminent danger to himself and others" followed in succession, one after another. Through all the news, I had questions like everyone else. What would make him kill? Couldn't this have been prevented? There are a lot of "what-ifs" that come from a tragedy like this. When NBC released excerpts of the DVD they were sent by Seung-Hui Cho on Wednesday morning, I grew more interested in the subject. Since we are on a campus with a primarily Asian population, I wondered if it could happen here. I began to think about his motives, his life and what it might have been like. Every news article and report paints a picture of the profile of a typical school shooter. He was "a loner," rationalized his acts by making himself a victim, had many "red flags" in his past and played violent video games. Whether any of that was relevant or not, you have to decide. What led to the development of these characteristics in Cho? How far back must we go to see where this could've been stopped? It was a scary thought that I could somehow remotely relate to someone who killed 32 people at his school. Aside from his apparent mental instability, he was just another quiet Asian kid at the school trying to get by. His inability to connect with others and his lack of emotion are characteristic of many Asians brought up in traditional Asian households. It is possible that he was brought up in a household where his parents didn't talk to him unless they needed to scold him. Maybe the Kobe Bryant approach was needed; maybe "he wasn't hugged enough as a child." Maybe he was programmed to never question his parents, to always hold back and keep his thoughts and emotions in. Perhaps he was never taught how to deal with his emotions like many raised in this type of household. In a traditional Asian household, children are never taught how to deal with the opposite sex. Cho had been reported as a stalker on two separate occasions by fellow students. Maybe it was something in his approach to girls that scared them enough to call the police, but whatever it was, there were at least two obvious strikeouts for Cho in that department. Cho was an English major, but told everyone who asked that he was a business/economics major. His older sister is a successful graduate of Princeton University, one of the top universities in the nation. Perhaps there was immense pressure from his parents and family to be successful, to make a lot of money. Of course, most people don't see much money in English and creative writing. He was also a great student in high school. He got good grades, and probably was teased for being a "geek" or "nerd" in his younger years. Maybe that's another thing that helped drive him over the edge. Being from an immigrant family may have also had an impact on him. Growing up, his family's finances were tight. His parents worked as much as they could to get by and to give their children a good life. Maybe his parents were too busy with work to spend time with him. Their spending habits were probably to buy only things they needed, nothing in excess. He might have grown frustrated after living his whole life with nothing going his way. In one video clip, he poses questions to rich people: "You had everything that you wanted. Your Mercedes wasn't enough, you brats? Your golden necklaces weren't enough, you snobs?" I'm sure Cho spent many birthdays as a child wishing he had received a better gift. I certainly am not condoning his actions and I hope that a lot can be learned through this tragedy. There are kids still being raised in this country the same way Cho was and obviously, the way we are living, the way we are treating each other and the way we are raising kids isn't perfect. So maybe it's time we change. Cho's parents had equipped him well for success academically but not emotionally. Maybe the onus is on us to treat each other as we would like to be treated, with respect. Perhaps teachers and counselors should have reached out to him. We can speculate all we want at this point, but the only thing we can do now is change and hope this does not happen again. -- Original Source:New University - April 23, 2007
Student Use of Technology During Virginia Tech Tragedy
Posted Friday, April 20, 2007 by Eric Schnell on The Medium is the Message (Blog) As the Virginia Tech tragedy unfolded students used a familiar the technology to keep connected with the events, friends, and families: Facebook. Using laptops and wireless connections, students created new Facebook groups on the fly as the day unfolded. Thousands of people joined a group called "I'm ok at VT," which was used by students to announce that they were safe, ask for details about friends unaccounted for, and to report the names of victims. Other groups such as "VT Unite" were also created and thousands of people world wide not associated with VT joined them. The use of this social networking site to publish and discover information and report personal experiences was a natural since it is what today's students use to gather online. Facebook provided immediate and quickly-updated information. As I watched the quality of the footage released much it was obviously generated by camera phones. In my Technology Trends for 2007 post I described the emergence of a concept called Mobcasting, a phenomenon where event observers capture events on their video phones and podcast the footage on a blog. I described how the the resulting aggregation of content will lead to live event coverage by bloggers that is more in depth than can be captured by mainstream media. This tragedy demonstrated of power and potential of this concept. Unfortunately, there was dubious information also being created. There has already been media debate about the accuracy of the information that was contained on these sites. Of course, traditional media outlets have processes they use to vet information before it is released. While this verification of information takes time it is not flawless (Dan Rather, Jayson Blair). The trade off is that is one wants to have information faster it may not be as dependable or reliable. Still, I think there's a great potential for the ability to connect individuals that are there on-the-ground during events as they unfold and using blogs, RSS feeds, and Facebook as tool for publishing their personal experiences. While some can argue the result may not be as accurate as mainstream media, the coverage is significantly more complete. Original Source: http://ericschnell.blogspot.com/2007/04/student-use-of-technology-during.html This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 2.5 License.
Some students able to forgive By: Erin France, State & National Editor Posted: 4/24/07 BLACKSBURG, Va. - The first day back to class for Virginia Tech students began with a morning ceremony honoring the 32 students and faculty killed by senior English major Seung-Hui Cho. Thirty-two white balloons were released with the strike of a bell in front of 33 small stones placed in a semi-circle on the wide expanse of the field known as the Drillfield. The 33rd marker, placed between Matthew Gwaltney's and Dan O'Neil's, was for Cho, who killed himself at the end of his rampage; it was removed later Monday. There still is a sizable showing of flowers and notes in the place where his stone lay. "He was still a person, too," junior Matthew Quinn said. "He was still a Hokie." In this community of more than 25,000 students, there are signs of forgiveness toward the gunman, but it is not a consensus. There were not many on campus willing to talk to the media Monday, and while the campus population spiked from last week, it was far from a normal spring day. "There are a lot of students back, but this is pretty sparse," graduate student Amy Tanner said. "I think it will be just a slow, long week." Instructors received e-mails from the Va. Tech administration encouraging them to mention last week's events in their classes. Ting Cai, a graduate student, is teaching a general chemistry class today and said he cannot predict how many of his students will attend. "We're only going to meet for 15 minutes," he said. "I think I'll probably start with a moment of silence." Teachers are using Monday and Tuesday to assess the grades and conditions of their students before finishing the semester. Exams are optional in calculating students' final grades. Andrew Blando, a junior oceanic engineer, said he still is debating the different options. "I don't want to feel like I'm taking advantage of the situation," he said. The students remaining on campus Monday were searching for normalcy. Many students experienced abbreviated classes along with reminders of the last week, such as signs on the outside of all academic and residence halls curtailing the media's presence. "I know in my first class there was quite a bit of awkward silence," Quinn said. "Being able to go back to class helps, though." The somber atmosphere is punctuated by requests for media interviews, many of which were turned down, although Quinn acknowledged the importance of broadcasting information. He said he just found out Sunday that he knew one of the victims when he saw her picture on CNN. "I was just in shock for, like, five minutes," he said. Authorities have named Cho the gunman in one of two university shootings last Monday. The first incident occurred about 7 a.m. at the West Ambler Johnston Residence Hall, where a resident adviser and a female student were shot. Police have identified Cho as the gunman in the second shooting two hours later that left 30 people dead at Norris Hall, an academic building. Cho then committed suicide. One of the guns used in the second shooting also was used in the first. There is a heavy police presence on campus as the investigation continues. Campus tours resumed Monday, although guides had to detour to avoid the police tape surrounding Norris Hall. "This is a great school," was repeated to prospective students and their parents by professors and current students. And the decreased numbers in the student body this week might not indicate next semester's trend. "I don't know many people who weren't coming back," Blando said. For the Blacksburg community, it will be a long time before they can walk through campus without thinking about the 33 dead students and faculty. "It's always going to be in the recesses of my mind," Blando said. -- Original Source: The Daily Tar Heel - April 24, 2007