https://april16.vtlibraries.net/items/show/864
description: One of the many trees on the drillfield wrapped in remembrance.
creator: Melissa Helms
date: 2007-07-31
contributor: Melissa Helms
language: eng

American and VT Pride
description: One of the Hokie Birds wearing a maroon and orange ribbon.
creator: Melissa Helms
date: 2007-07-31
contributor: Melissa Helms
language: eng

Horrific
description: I grew up in Blacksburg. My dad is a Va. Tech alum. Although i have not lived there for years I still consider Blacksburg my hometown. I am stunned by today's tragedy. Simply stunned. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mullerz/461838207/ Photo Courtesy of Melissa J. Muller
creator: Melissa J. Muller
date: 2007-06-15
contributor: Chad Newswander
rights: Permission: Melissa J. Muller http://www.flickr.com/photos/mullerz/461838207/
language: eng

Death in America, an ode to siblings
description: Monday, April 16, 2007 It was a crisp, clear, bright autumn day, the kind of day you drink in with every essence of your being. I was sleepy, woken early by my parents for the drive from Nashville to Blacksburg. But I was excited. Not only were we attending a Virginia Tech football game, I was going to see my brother, a student at VT and horn player in the marching band. The campus was quiet, beautiful, almost idyllic, and I was overwhelmed by my first views of college life. My brother attended Virginia Tech in the mid-80's and graduated with a degree in nuclear engineering. His devotion to his alma mater has continued, as an alumnus and frequently attending football games. It isn't surprising, the mood of the campus that day was intoxicating, and had I showed any inclination towards engineering, science or mathematics, I might have returned there for my own college education. Blacksburg itself was a village filled with charm and friendly people, hip hangouts and the best record store I had ever been in. I am grieving the shootings at Virginia Tech, the shots that rang out across the peaceful campus, killing many, wounding others, and deafening the ears of college students that today learned one of the hardest lessons life can teach. I mourn the deaths with the families, friends, and teachers, and wish them all peace in the days and months ahead. But mostly I mourn for the siblings who, unlike me, will never again have the joy of seeing their brother or sister on campus after a sleepy drive through the fog laden mountains to that small college town that has lost so much today. posted by melusina at 9:15 PM -- Original Source: http://litochoro.blogspot.com/2007/04/death-in-america-ode-to-siblings.html Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5.
creator: Melusina
date: 2007-05-27
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5
language: eng

Virginia Tech tragedy continues to hit home
description: By Messenger Post and wire reports Posted: Apr 18, 01:00 PM EDT On a campus proud of its unity, the gunman's anger and detachment alarmed those around him. While parents of a 2004 Irondequoit High School graduate learned their son escaped harm in the Virginia Tech massacre Monday, another relative of a Virginia Tech student is mourning the death of her niece. Virginia Tech students and supporters lifted thousands of candles to a sapphire sky Tuesday to remember the 32 people killed by a campus gunman. The vigil testified to the unity on which the mountain campus prides itself. But in the hours after Cho Seung-Hui's rampage, it was obvious the close-knit school was a community of which he never felt a part. The gunman, who turned his gun on himself after carrying out the worst shooting massacre in modern U.S. history, was a sullen loner who left a rambling note raging against women and rich kids. News reports said that Cho, a 23-year-old senior majoring in English, may have been taking medication for depression and that he was becoming increasingly violent and erratic. Professors and classmates were alarmed by his class writings — pages filled with twisted, violence-drenched writing. In screenplays he wrote for a class last fall, characters throw hammers and attack with chainsaws, said a student who attended Virginia Tech last fall. In another, Cho concocted a tale of students who fantasize about stalking and killing a teacher who sexually molested them. Despite the many warning signs that came to light in the bloody aftermath, police and university officials offered no clues as to exactly what set Cho off on the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history. Among those killed in the massacre at Virginia Tech was 19-year-old freshman Mary Read, who had multiple ties to the greater Rochester area. Read spent summers in the Finger Lakes region, visiting relatives who included her aunt, Mary Courtney. Courtney was interviewed Monday from her Palmyra home by NBC (…
creator: Messenger Post (Rochester, NY)
date: 2007-07-17
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5
language: eng

Letter of Condolence from Metropolitan State University
description: April, 2007 Dear Virginia Tech community, Feeling that we truly are brothers and sisters to all of you, please know that our prayers are constantly with you as is our great sympathy. The very difficult time you are going through is hard for anyone to even imagine. Yet you are coping with a positive attitude and perseverance through it all that is an amazing example of strength to our nation and the world. Metropolitan State University here in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota wants you to know that we are conducting various sessions through our Counseling and Career Services office to give our students, faculty and staff opportunity to share their individual responses and reactions to what has happened on your campus. So as you are similarly meeting together, remember that we, though many miles away, are really meeting with you. With our heartfelt condolences, The students, staff and faculty of Metropolitan State University
creator: Metropolitan State University
date: 2007-05-21
contributor: Brent Jesiek
language: eng

Such a shame.
description: Its seems very unfair to be caught in something as sad as what happened April 16th. Its a sad world though it seems and most people are to caught up in their own lives to take notice. Think of all the accomplishments that will not be made to society because of these people being struck down in the prime of their lives. All the lost times and stories about these people as to who they were and who and what they may have become are lost now, but they would have filled millions of books and all that is gone, never to be told.
creator: Michael Thomas
date: 2007-05-02
contributor: Michael Thomas
language: eng

Dispassionate Reporting
description: Monday, April 16, 2007 Thirty-one... now 32 killed at Virginia Tech. Initial "breaking news" headlines emailed and forwarded to my BlackBerry from the New York Times, then the Washington Post and finally the Sacramento Bee reported the number dead at 20 or 21. I received these reports while sitting in a classroom at Sacramento State University - peeking at the screen of my personal digital assistant, surreptitiously answering its silent vibrations. Now, more than two hours later, I finally have occasion to open my laptop to read the full story and it's worse than I imagined. It could have gone either way. Initial reports in instances such as this are often inaccurate. When news like this breaks, details are often sketchy; new and updated information is constantly becoming available. I was hoping that the initial reports were wrong - that the death count was too high. As we now know, it went the other way. There are many questions yet to be answered, but the resounding senselessness of it all couldn't possibly be more pronounced. Although I haven't yet reported on a tragedy of this magnitude, I have covered other breaking news and experienced the singleness of purpose that getting the information to print as quickly as possible represents. While in the midst of the event, whether it's a fire, an accident or a shooting, getting the information out is the reporter's only job. The gravity of the event, at least for me, doesn't come into play until after I've had a chance to decompress - after the deadlines have been met. While reporting, I simply don't have time to make any judgments about what it all means, only to report on what it is. In this instance, I am a news consumer like most everyone else hearing about this calamity today. I am shocked, disgusted, dismayed... and distracted. If I were assigned to this story, all of those emotions would have to be put on hold - it's all about getting the story out. Like nurses, firefighters, emergency medical technicians and m…
creator: Michael Althouse
date: 2007-06-02
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5
language: eng

News Worthiness
description: Thursday, April 19, 2007 Since releasing the excerpts from the package sent by Virginia Tech killer Cho Seung-Hui, NBC News has received more than just a little criticism. Indeed, this story is so big that every little nuance... anything remotely connected to the story is being put under a microscope and reported on ad nauseam. Ironically enough, the decision to air the material delivered to NBC News has become itself a news story. If not for the "gift" left by Cho, the media would be filling all of that airtime and every available inch with anything and everything it could discover about this "seriously disturbed individual." Cho saved the media a huge amount of legwork and opened insights about what drove him. Did he get what he wanted? Some are saying that by airing this "manifesto," Cho has ultimately won. But think about how ridiculous that sounds. Cho is dead - and he's not getting any better. Last I checked, to get any enjoyment or satisfaction from an act, one must be alive to experience it. Furthermore, even if Cho could somehow relish his media spotlight from the grave, he would soon realize that no one agrees that he was any kind of victim. He would be crestfallen in the discovery that he is being regarded - at best - as "a seriously disturbed young man." Mostly he's being viewed as some kind of homicidal whacko. For those with a religious leaning, I'm guessing that Cho's last act earned him a one-way ticket straight to Hell. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Yet he is somehow enjoying the last laugh? I don't think so. Does this coverage intensify the pain of the community, the survivors and the victims' families? Undoubtedly, but surely they would understand that news of this magnitude must be reported. Even without Cho's help, there would be extensive coverage of Cho - a disproportionate amount. But even without considering the civic responsibility of the news business, let us remember that it is a business. If no one tuned into this stuff, no one wo…
creator: Michael Althouse
date: 2007-06-02
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5
language: eng

Tech in 'riot' mode
description: Shootings stun campus By: Michael Hippchen (11:50 a.m., April 16) While this morning's shootings on Virginia Tech's campus may have come to an end, with one shooter apparently have been captured, things are far from returning to normal on campus. Classes have been cancelled for the remainder of the day and students were told to remain in their dorms with the doors locked. I was walking to my class at 10:10 and I heard six shots fired from the Norris area, which was about 200 yards away. While standing in the middle of the Drillfield, I heard students screaming then running out of the academic buildings across the Drillfield, as well as cops running toward Norris Hall. During the evacuation, the campus was in full-blown riot mode. I did not feel safe at any time that I was out on the Drillfield, as well as when I was walking back to my dorm. My friend, Jordan Littauer, said he didn't know what was going on. "I was sitting in my Econ class, and a girl next to me got an Instant Message saying that cops questioned her roommate about a shooting that happened on her hall," said sophomore Jordan Littauer. "I didn't know shooting was going off at all. I heard students running and screaming all over campus." -- Original Source: Big Lick U - April 16, 2007
creator: Michael Hippchen
date: 2007-06-26
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Chris Winston <Chris.Winston@biglicku.com>
language: eng

Fun Facebook in Juxtaposition with Virginia Tech Tragedy
description: Friday, April 27, 2007 Early Monday morning Toronto, April 16; very nice day, it's spring at last - you can feel it in the air - maybe the oxygen levels are up a little - there's a craziness in the air, a frenetic kind of feeling... I punched the computer; threw on the radio; and began to create coffee. I prime my story-writing brain with National Public Radio; but soon the voices will be in the back of my head, and I'll be blogging down a pathway in search of a twig. The twig appeared on NPR, news at 10:00; a shooting at Virginia Tech, a lock-down, nothing more... I have been interested in the phenomena of the serial and mass murderers since the 1970's - when a peer of mine took a hunting rifle to school in a nearby town. In the early eighties Elliott Leytons excellent work, 'Hunting Humans' came out; and I gave it a read. I have followed the science of profiling with interest ever since. The most strange and distorted individuals, sometimes offer the most interesting reflections of a culture. The X-files, the 1990's TV series, starred David Duchovny as Fox Mulder, FBI profiler. The shows writers used up-to-date theory and research to punch up the script. One of my favorites. I knew right away this was my twig - I also knew this was going to be a lousy day. As a writer though, it would be a rewarding one. I knew a fast breaking story like this one could change the way news is consumed. In the San Francisco earthquake of 1989, CNN went live for at least 12 hours (I feel asleep), until the next morning. It was the first time a network had done this kind of news coverage. CNN's next big gig was the 1991 war with Iraq. Brought to you live; with the CNN correspondent sending video as American Bombs rained down around him; and anti-aircraft tracer fire lit the sky at mid-night.These two events took CNN from small player to a major in the news business. Now perhaps the Internet was about to experience a similar metamorphosis. My plan was to watch a national story unfold i…
creator: Michael Holloway
date: 2007-05-19
contributor: Brent Jesiek
language: eng

The Politics of Pride and Shame
description: April 18, 2007 [Update: I stand by my piece, which is mostly a bunch of questions, rather than statements linking race and culture in the explanative way it is being taken. I merely pointed out that as an American working deeply in the education field for years now, and having identified just such problems (and seen them connected in the Korean-language media for years), that perhaps questions about culture, as related to specific conditions that surround child-rearing, education, being educated overseas, the taboo of discussing mental health in Korean society, etc. might not have played some role here, on top of the fact that many Asian and Asian American males indeed might have specific ways of feeling alienated in "white society." Obviously, to even broach mere questions is deemed "racist" by many readers. Fine. I don't delete comments (unless they are abusive) and people have a right to come in and say what they want - that's why I blog, after all. Yet, before we start flinging around the "R-word" I hope people actually think about what I'm saying, and remember that what I said was that cultural context may be helpful as far as looking at context, but that "Korea" and the rest of the world should look at him as an individual. I spend half my post saying that, and the two need not contradict. And yes, when it comes to the fact that most serial killers have been/are still white men, it does astound me that America seems to have trouble talking about this obvious fact, and mums was the word when Columbine happened. Yet, broaching the topic is going to get one accused of saying their horrendous acts were committed "because they were white," which would again, be not what I said. But pundits of all kinds of backgrounds have license to talk about the concerns of "black youth" as it relates to drugs or violence for years. I don't call doing so "racist" although some strains of it certainly can be. For those who call such explanations as this "back-tracking," well, I gu…
creator: Michael Hurt
date: 2007-06-21
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Michael Hurt (kuraeji@gmail.com)
language: eng

On the Forbidden Subject of Culture
description: April 19, 2007 UPDATE: Thanks for the various thoughtful comments, thoughtful commenters - I'm sure you know who you are. First off, I do acknowledge that I was a little snarky and "aha!" in the initial reaction to things, and I agree that it just puts people in a bad mood. But, I could have easily erased what I said, and not because I think it was wrong to have the thought, but because it distracted so much from the majority of the stuff I was really trying to say. Yet, I would somehow feel it dishonest to do so, and the reason I write is to organize my thoughts and logic for people to see; I just wish people in general, and not just over the past few days, could read this blog as one man's thoughts in motion, as opposed my final thoughts on matters. I have strong opinions, but those thoughts wend and weave according to other good opinions. That said, I also know I write a lot. Loooong posts. Opinionated posts. Wordy posts. And that's off-putting as well. I know that, but it would take me forever to get this stuff out if I had to condense it down, distill it, make it simpler. And since the vast majority of blogs out there write in short form, I don't feel like I'm adding to a trend in need of reversal - on the contrary, I wish there were more thoughtful people who tried to think carefully, put in the time to express their opinions fully, and really engage with difficult subjects. So I think that perhaps the blogosphere is better off with a few wordy fools who try to think aloud and in the sense of intellectual full-contact sports. As for race, I think the media is talking about it pretty minimally, as I assumed they would. And looking at this from primarily an American perspective. I'm inevitably looking at this from a Korean perspective, because it is here in Korea that I sit, live, and work. It's here that I have worked with a lot of kids who look just like Cho in background, culture, and personality. I thought that I'd be one of the few people talking not about …
creator: Michael Hurt
date: 2007-06-21
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Michael Hurt (kuraeji@gmail.com)
language: eng

Sister of Virginia gunman belongs to Class of 2004
description: By Michael Juel-Larsen Princetonian Senior Writer Though Monday's shootings at Virginia Tech had already cast a shadow over campus, the news yesterday morning that the gunman's older sister is a recent Princeton alumna brought the tragedy even closer to home. Sun-Kyung Cho '04 was an economics major who interned at the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok during the summer before her senior year and wrote briefly for The Daily Princetonian. She now works as a "State Department contractor," The Washington Post reported yesterday, and was listed on Princeton's alumni directory as living in Centreville, Va., with her parents. The shooter was identified early yesterday morning as 23-year-old Virginia Tech senior Cho Seung-Hui. Later in the morning, the Chicago Tribune's "The Swamp" blog reported that Cho had a sister who graduated from the University. Sun-Kyung Cho's and Cho Seung-Hui's home addresses in Centreville, Va., are identical. Reached on her cell phone yesterday afternoon, Sun-Kyung declined to be interviewed for this article. At Princeton, Cho wrote her senior thesis on "ethnic enclave[s] and wage earning" among Korean immigrants in California. Her thesis adviser, economics professor Orley Ashenfelter, could not be reached for comment yesterday. In the past two days, intense national media scrutiny has been focused on the Cho family as the public struggles to understand the shootings. University spokeswoman Cass Cliatt '96 said the Office of Communications had received inquiries from at least seven media organizations yesterday about whether the shooter's sister had gone to Princeton, including ABC, CNN, the Newark Star-Ledger and The Washington Post. Cliatt said she could not disclose any information on Sun-Kyung Cho besides the fact that she had been a student, what she studied and when she graduated. Cliatt added that she also received a call from an alumna who was unrelated to the shooter and whose last name was also Cho. "She was concerned that she was receiving a lo…
creator: Michael Juel-Larsen
date: 2007-06-22
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Kavita Saini <ksaini@Princeton.EDU>
language: eng

JMU ISAT Library
description: Those working on the new ISAT library at JMU spray painted "Hokie Hope" in day-glow orange on the wall of the building for all driving on I81 to see.
creator: Michael Leonard
date: 2008-02-15
contributor: Michael Leonard
language: eng

Report to the President on Issues Raised by the Virginia Tech Tragedy
description: Full Report (PDF) - 463 KB June 13, 2007 "We reflect on what has been lost and comfort those enduring a profound grief. And somehow we know that a brighter morning will come. We know this because together Americans have overcome many evils and found strength through many storms." -President George W. Bush -- June 13, 2007 The President The White House Washington, D.C. 20500 Dear Mr. President: In the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy, you charged us to travel to communities across our Nation to meet with a wide range of leaders on the broader issues raised by this tragedy, and to report back to you what we learned, together with our recommendations for how the Federal government can help avoid such tragedies in the future. The enclosed report summarizes our findings and provides our recommendations developed through discussions with educators, mental health experts, law enforcement and other key state and local officials from more than a dozen states. We found great commonality in the themes that emerged from our meetings. Following the Virginia Tech tragedy and similar incidents of violence that have occurred in recent years, states and local communities are carefully considering whether they have properly addressed and balanced the fundamental interests of privacy and individual freedom, safety and security, and assisting those with mental health needs in getting appropriate care. Although state and local leaders recognized and underscored that these issues primarily must be resolved at the state and local level, these events make all of us ask whether there is more we can and should be doing. As we note in our report, our recommendations are not a panacea. Rather, along with identifying steps that we can take, the report serves to focus our attention on the issues that must be part of the ongoing national dialogue as we continue to protect the freedoms we enjoy in our society, while appropriately minimizing risks to public safety. We look forward to continuing ou…
creator: Michael O. Leavitt, Margaret Spellings, and Alberto R. Gonzales
date: 2007-06-14
contributor: Brent Jesiek
language: eng

The intangible bond between two broken hearts
description: The post title isn't an exact quote (because it would've been damn hard taking notes while trying to hold a lit candle (and, more importantly, given the windy conditions this evening, keeping it lit) from the remarks of NIU President John G. Peters at tonight's candlelight vigil at Northern Illinois University to honor the memory of the Hokies who lost their lives a year ago today. But they're a close approximation: I know he used both phrases in his speech, though I can't swear that they were that closely connected. Nevertheless, it's a good description for the relationship that will forevermore exist between our two campuses, our two communities. We're both members of a club that nobody wants to join--and would to God that NIU and Virginia Tech were the last two ever given the opportunity to join it. We speak each other's language: a language that neither of us was looking to learn, and one that both of us would rather we hadn't had the opportunity to learn at all. But we have learned it, and having learnt it, we cannot--and should not--forget it. The image is the design of the T-shirts that were handed out to the first 900 people who came to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Commons. I'm happy to report that there weren't any shirts left that I could see, meaning we had at least that many people at the event. Among them, God love them both, were two Virginia Tech students. They gave up the opportunity to be with their compatriots in Blacksburg at their own vigil today so they could come and support us--even as we tried to show our support for them and their fellow Hokies. Their presence is just the latest in a long line of expressions of support that Virginia Tech and its campus community have offered to us in the wake of our own tragedy two months ago--support for which we are eternally and profoundly grateful, and which we can never truly repay. Somehow, though, I don't think my Hokie brethren and sistren will mind. Tonight's vigil was a concrete and physical reminde…
creator: Michael Spires
date: 2008-04-19
contributor: Kacey Beddoes
language: eng

Pride Wall
creator: Michelle Parra
date: 2007-05-02
contributor: Michelle Parra
language: eng

Never Forget
creator: Michelle Parra
date: 2007-05-02
contributor: Michelle Parra
language: eng

A brutal mind
description: 11.15am Media reports portray Cho Seung-hui as a troubled boy with a murderous imagination Michelle Pauli Wednesday April 18, 2007 Guardian Unlimited Just one face stares out of the front pages of the papers today. With the naming of the perpetrator of the Virginia Technical College massacre, all attention is focused on Cho Seung-hui, the South Korean loner who shot dead 32 of his fellow students and professors. The Telegraph and the Mirror both use the killer's own words as their headline: "You made me do this." The line comes from the note left behind by Cho, which also rails against "rich kids", "debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans". The picture that is emerging of Cho is of a troubled loner with a history of mental health problems. Roommates at the dormitory where he lived called him "weird", while fellow students in his creative writing class describe being frightened by his "morbid and grotesque" plays. The Washington Post has an interview with the head of the English department, Lucinda Roy, who had taught Cho in one-to-one sessions after a colleague had been disturbed by his work. According to the Post, Roy said she warned school officials. "'I was determined that people were going to take notice. I felt I'd said to so many people, 'Please, will you look at this young man?' " The question of whether Cho could have been stopped - if not before the first two killings then in the period before the further shootings - continues to be examined. The Guardian says that "angry" students want to know why the campus was not locked down and classes cancelled and why it took more than two hours for them to be sent a warning email. Details from those two and a half hours "remain sketchy" says the paper but it is believed that the police thought that the first two shootings were a domestic murder committed by someone who had then left the campus, leaving them surprised when the second shootings occurred. "The university has blood on their hands," says one student, Billy…
creator: Michelle Pauli
publisher: Guardian Unlimited
date: 2007-08-12
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: In consideration of the fee of GBP 0.00 ("the Fee") Guardian News & Media Limited ("GNM") grants the Licensee the right to: publish on its website for 10 years. Contact info: Eve Thompson;permissions.syndication@guardian.co.uk
language: eng