Dedication9

Students carrying chairs at the memorial dedication ceremony on August 19, 2007.

Licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0</a>.

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Original Source: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=1175029020&context=set-72157601548585076&size=o">http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=1175029020&context=set-72157601548585076&size=o</a>

null

2007-09-08

Haeyong Chung

eng

Concert-for-VT-9-6-07-106

A view of the crowd at A Concert for Virginia Tech on September 6, 2007.

Photo courtesy of Roger Gupta.

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Original Source: <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/spector1/1340547164/">http://flickr.com/photos/spector1/1340547164/</a>

Roger Gupta

2007-09-07

Brent Jesiek

Roger Gupta (ragupta@vt.edu)

eng

Concert-for-VT-9-6-07-216

Fans on the field at A Concert for Virginia Tech, September 6, 2007.

Photo courtesy of Roger Gupta.

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Original Source: <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/spector1/1340533472/">http://flickr.com/photos/spector1/1340533472/</a>

Roger Gupta

2007-09-07

Brent Jesiek

Roger Gupta (ragupta@vt.edu)

eng

At The Vigil

2007.04.17.
Virginia Tech students on the steps of Burruss Hall...

Photo courtesy of Ivan V. Morozov

Ivan V. Morozov

2007-09-06

Haeyong Chung

eng

Status Anxiety Pt. 2: How Did We Get Here...How Do We Get Out

<b>Yesterday we talked about Status Anxiety and how it related to the Virginia Tech shootings. Today we continue talking about it and focus in on Alain de Button&#39;s book by the same title <i>Status Anxiety</i>.</b>

Part of understanding Status anxiety is viewing the transition from status that was given by heredity to a system where people who don&#39;t earn status are seen as failures. The example used in Alain de Button&#39;s book is that of Christianity the major religion of western societies and the one that the VT shooter ranted about in the infamous videos sent to NBC.

The gospels have three stories that Jesus told during his life time that provide an example of how people were viewed. The first story is summarized as, "The poor are not responsible for their condition and are the most useful in society." The second story says, "Low status has no moral connotations," and the final story says, "The rich are sinful and corrupt and owe their wealth to their robbery of the poor," aka, "It is harder for a rich man to enter heaven than it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle."

Now contrast those with the stories that have emerged in our western societies. The first of these says, "The rich are the useful ones, not the poor." The second says, "One&#39;s status does have moral connotations," and the final alteration to the stories surmises that, "The poor are sinful and corrupt and owe their poverty to their stupidity."

This is a form of meritocracy. In this system, "all persons, however humble, know they have had every chance...If they have been labeled dunce repeatedly they cannot any longer pretend...Are they not bound to recognize that they have an inferior status, not as in the past because they were denied opportunity, but because they ARE inferior."

All of this plays into the recent shootings because something of this magnitude generates questions that demand answers. Questions like, how could this have be prevented? What causes people to act out in such a violent fashion? Is there anything that we can do to prevent these types of incidents in the future?

The shooter at Virginia Tech really doesn&#39;t stand out from other recent school shootings because in each case the shooters had similar personalities. Whether we are thinking of the killers from Columbine or the most recent shooting at Virginia Tech the common thread is people who are unhappy about their status in life. So how do we stop this from happening again? How do we beat this.

Alain de Botton shares some suggestions that have worked in the past and continue to work in various degrees. He lists these as philosophy, intelligent misanthropy, art, Christianity, and finally bohemia. The book goes into great detail on each of these solutions, but the common theme is that they help people find value in their lives despite what those around them might be saying or despite what society at large is pushing upon them.

John Ruskin is quoted in Button&#39;s book and in my estimation does a good job summing up the problem and the solution. He says, "There is not wealth but life, life including all its powers of love, of joy and of admiration. That country is richest which nourishes the greatest number of noble and happy human beings; that man is richest who, having perfected the function of his own life to the utmost."

My hope is that the few people that read this stop comparing themselves to everyone else and start living their lives. John Lennon famously said, "Life is what happens when you&#39;re busy making other plans. " Could this be translated as &#39;life is what happens when we&#39;re comparing ourselves to others?&#39; I know I too have experienced this reality. The hope is that in the future we will learn to recognize more situations that are happening right here right now. Personally I would be fine with becoming successful or popular or even having money. In fact I think status anxiety in moderation is a good thing. I just don&#39;t want you and I to HAVE to get rich, famous, or powerful to view our lives as a success. I&#39;m sure that the VT shooter was a disturbed person and might have needed hospitalization, medication, and more but there are other people out there right now who just want to be recognized for the person they are . Can&#39;t we do more of this? I for one am going to try.

Posted on Thursday, May 3, 2007 at 12:29AM <a href="http://www.hiphoosier.com/display/ShowAuthorProfile?registeredAuthorId=47619&rootReturnUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hiphoosier.com%2Fthe-beat%2F2007%2F5%2F3%2Fstatus-anxiety-pt-2-how-did-we-get-herehow-do-we-get-out.html">AJ Meyer</a>

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Original Source: <a href="http://www.hiphoosier.com/the-beat/2007/5/3/status-anxiety-pt-2-how-did-we-get-herehow-do-we-get-out.html">http://www.hiphoosier.com/the-beat/2007/5/3/status-anxiety-pt-2-how-did-we-get-herehow-do-we-get-out.html</a>

Licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5</a>.

AJ Meyer

2007-08-05

Brent Jesiek

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5

eng

Status Anxiety and What Happened at Virginia Tech Pt. 1

<p>By now the mass media has inundated you with coverage of the Virginia Tech massacre, but I don&#39;t want to rehash the details of the event. I want to take a deeper look at a possible motive. Some people will argue about gun control, or the failure of the mental health community. While these are salient issues they miss what I gathered from the videos to be an overarching reason behind his rampage. He like many school gunman before him felt inferior to his peers. He turned this "status anxiety" inward until it manifested in a maniacal rampage.

Status Anxiety, I&#39;m pretty sure that the people living in <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4359904.stm">Rublyovo</a> know all about it. From what I&#39;ve heard Los Angeles is right up there too (I&#39;ll let you know this summer). Increasingly and unexpectedly another type of high status local has begun to emerge in previously quite towns like Bloomington, IN. That&#39;s right, university towns are working hard to be included in the same breathe as other high status locals. It used to be that college was a time when people ate ramen and being "poor" was rite of passage. Not anymore. I&#39;m sure that some students still have a tough time at college, but increasingly the term poor college kid is a joke. Youth and excess money make these towns the perfect starting place for status anxiety.

Before we go on lets give a quick explanation of status anxiety before I am labeled a communist and you quit reading. The basis of the problem can be summed up by William James&#39;s simple equation</p>
<p align="center" style="text-align: center;">Self Esteem =&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <u>Success </u><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Expectations</p><p id="nq">The problem is that in our modern society expectations continue to rise at rates that are unattainable for most people. This creates a rise in levels of status anxiety which translates into a rise in levels of concern about importance, achievement, and income. What happens then is that self-esteem suffers. People feel anxious about their lives. They feel that life is not amounting to what they expected. In the worst case scenarios like the one at Virginia Tech people take out their frustrations on others who they perceive as having the success they so desire. One University of Kentucky student put it this way "I think the biggest pressure would probably be social. Being at the right bars or parties on the weekend and then for girls the right fashion, outside the sorority I guess it would probably be the same."

These feelings are all part of a trend that has been going on for some time now. One author Alain de Botton in his book titled <em>Status Anxiety </em>identifies the ignominious nature of this problem. He notes that the sharp decline in actual deprivation found in many western societies paradoxically increases the sense of deprivation and fear of it. Even in America a nation blessed with riches and possibilities far beyond those imaginable to our ancestors we continue to believe that nothing is ever enough.

Now you might being say to yourself I have no desire to be Donald Trump, but what if one of your closest friends got rich. Take for example this weeks episode of the HBO uberstatus series <a href="http://www.hbo.com/entourage/episode/season03/episode38.html">Entourage.</a> In the episode Ari (rich Hollywood agent) has an old friend come for a visit. He believes that his old frat buddy is managing a Hooters somewhere back east. When he finds out that he made 65 million dollars from stamps.com and got a beautiful young fiance he gets jealous. Botton makes note of this psychological phenomenon that sees us comparing ourselves mostly to our closest friends our "reference group". It is their relative successes that creates the most status anxiety.

In Part 2 tomorrow we look more closely a Bottons reasons for how we got here and how we can break free from our status anxiety. <span class="sizeGreater20">Pt. 2 Tomorrow (<a href="http://www.hiphoosier.com/the-beat/2007/5/3/status-anxiety-pt-2-how-did-we-get-herehow-do-we-get-out.html" target="_blank">Click Here</a>)</span>

Posted on Wednesday, May 2, 2007 at 12:26AM by <a href="http://www.hiphoosier.com/display/ShowAuthorProfile?registeredAuthorId=47619&rootReturnUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hiphoosier.com%2Fthe-beat%2F2007%2F5%2F2%2Fstatus-anxiety-and-what-happened-at-virginia-tech-pt-1.html">AJ Meyer</a>

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Original Source:
<a href="http://www.hiphoosier.com/the-beat/2007/5/2/status-anxiety-and-what-happened-at-virginia-tech-pt-1.html">http://www.hiphoosier.com/the-beat/2007/5/2/status-anxiety-and-what-happened-at-virginia-tech-pt-1.html</a>

Licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5</a>.</p>

AJ Meyer

2007-08-05

Brent Jesiek

eng

[Untitled]

A group of friends from Blacksburg High attending the Candlelight Vigil the day after the tragedy.

Meghan Day

2007-07-24

Meghan Day

eng

Business as usual at high school after Virginia Tech shootings

By Ryan Bray
GateHouse Media
Thu May 03, 2007, 02:22 PM EDT

Scituate - In the two weeks since the Virginia Tech shootings swept through the college town of Blacksburg, Va., people nationwide are still struggling to grasp and adjust to the tragic events that left 33 students and faculty members at the school dead.

But miles an miles away from all the mourning and controversy, it&#39;s business as usual at Scituate High School, as students and faculty members go about their daily routines. Students rush about the halls while seniors, many of whom are in the process of hearing back from colleges and making their plans for the fall, count down the remaining days of their high school careers.

"It hasn&#39;t impacted them at all," said Sherri Lewis, director of guidance at the high school, regarding the impact of the shooting on outgoing students. "They all seem very excited."

But while students have carried on with things as they otherwise would, that&#39;s not to say that the Virginia Tech shootings haven&#39;t had some effect on the school, however slight. Principal Donna Nuzzo-Mueller said the shootings are of greater concern to teachers than to students, whom have come to learn of the tragedies from a distance through television and the news.

"I think our educators dwell on this more than the young people do," Nuzzo-Mueller said. "Developmentally at their age, I think it&#39;s difficult to grasp the severity of it all at that stage of their lives."

However, students are reacting in their own ways. Nuzzo-Mueller said several school groups and clubs have rallied to raise money for a fund established for the families of the shooting victims. Others, she said, have likely dealt with the tragedy outside the school with friends and family.

"We certainly have kids who want to reach out and help, and that&#39;s natural," she said.

The shootings almost immediately brought attention to the issue of how to better prepare and respond in the event of a similar emergency in the future. Administrators and campus police officials came under fire from parents and the media in the days following the event for what some saw as an inadequate response to the shootings, while locally, Gov. Deval Patrick met with administrators from public colleges and universities across the state to discuss how to best safeguard students in the event of another shooting.

But Nuzzo-Mueller said at the high school, there isn&#39;t much the school can likely do to prepare for a similar attack beyond the school&#39;s current emergency evacuation plan. She said incidents of the scale and magnitude of Virginia Tech or Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., could never be fully prepared for in spite of the best efforts from faculty and administrators.

"It all just shows that it could happen to anybody," Nuzzo-Mueller said. "It&#39;s a problem that just exists. There&#39;s always a slice of humanity that struggles with this issue. No matter what plan are put in place, you&#39;d likely have to adapt to the situation should one arise."

Superintendent of Schools Mark Mason said he would meet with security advisers next week to discuss the potential for increased security within the district&#39;s six schools. But while student safety is always top priority, Mason said a balance must be struck between what&#39;s too much and not enough.

"It&#39;s a philosophical question," he said. "We want to keep our schools safe, but do we want to keep the kids in lockdown mode throughout the year?"

Nuzzo-Mueller said she is uncertain if any outgoing seniors will be attending Virginia Tech in the fall. She said that while graduates have gone on to attend the school in the past, it is not common from year to year.

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Original Source: Scituate Mariner
<a href="http://www.townonline.com/scituate/education/x1592158543">http://www.townonline.com/scituate/education/x1592158543</a>

Licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0</a>.

Ryan Bray

2007-07-17

Brent Jesiek

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0

eng

Editor&#39;s Journal: Virginia Tech Shooting Hits Close To Home; The True Character Of A Generation Is Revealed

BY RICHARD McCORMACK
richard@manufacturingnews.com

On Thursday afternoon April 19, three days after the shootings at Virginia Tech, my wife and I put our dog in the car and headed south to visit our son, a senior engineering major at the university. As we drove four hours from Washington, D.C., through the Shenandoah Valley, I imagined what it must have been like for the parents of the slain children taking that same drive just a few days earlier, calling repeatedly to their children&#39;s cell phones, silently ringing: leaving messages you&#39;d never want to hear. So thankful was I to the Lord that it wasn&#39;t me having to take that drive in a state of panic and delirium.

As we approached Blacksburg, I missed the exit for Main Street, a quicker road to my son&#39;s apartment. It bothered me. I was tired and anxious to get there and I had added another five minutes to the trip. I sighed and continued for another couple of miles to the main entrance to Tech.

I had not expected to be on campus -- anticipating a route that bypassed the school to my son&#39;s townhouse. We took a right turn onto campus, drove a quarter mile past the visitor&#39;s center and approached the big "VT" letters on the left of the road. And I shuddered. Here we were, suddenly at the site of calamitous pain and bloodshed, the uninterrupted focal point of the global media for the past three days. It knocked the air out of my lungs. I struggled to take a breath. My chest constricted; speechless, dizzied.

These events -- Columbine, Waco, Jonesboro, Oklahoma City, 9/11, the Washington sniper, the Amish elementary school, the Iraq war and now Virginia Tech -- are no longer an aberration but are defining the new American culture: one of unfathomable loss of innocents at the hands of suicidal maniacs. What nightmare awaits us next?

We drove slowly through the quiet campus, feeling beat up from the week&#39;s events. We arrived and hugged our son and his roommates. They are all incredible people; struggling with the incomprehensible, but maintaining a sense of humor, one of them hilariously mocking the killer&#39;s idiotic video performance.

Thank God for the youth of today. Our politicians, business leaders and academicians should stop castigating them for being indolent or ill equipped for the future, because they are neither.

In the days following the tragedy, the students at Virginia Tech defended themselves with the utmost rectitude from a second wave of snipers -- this time the press corps -- and they gallantly rallied around their beloved university, around each other and around their embattled leaders. In the face of despair and in a state of shock, they showed us the future of our nation: one of hope, inspiration and tolerance.

I have three children, ages 23, 22 and 18. For 23 years, I have resented criticism about the deplorable state of our youth and our educational system. There are an incalculable number of extremely bright, energetic and infinitely talented, motivated children and young adults, none of whom have ever been "left behind." Need evidence? Only 12 percent of the applicants to MIT were accepted for the 2007 school year, or 1,533 out of 12,433. "It was very, very hard to select such a small number of students in such a large and stellar applicant pool," said former MIT dean of admissions Marilee Jones. Or how about Stanford, which sent letters of acceptance to 1,715 of the 23,956 applicants, 7 percent. Even a huge school like Virginia Tech received 19,000 applications for a freshman class of 5,000.

Read the obituaries of the fallen Virginia Tech students and you know how much worse off the world will be without them, and that is only 32 students in a school of 26,000.

Our children have been flailed by politicians and armchair critics and pundits, self-fashioned smarter-than-anybody-else people, none of whom were in my house as my children stayed up until 1:30 a.m. on weeknights completing their AP history papers, studying for tests in calculus, physics and chemistry, writing stories on deadline for the high-school newspaper or -- this very night -- reading "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley. And it wasn&#39;t me pushing them, either. They did it on their own.

It is time for the critics to shush up. We have put a lot on our children: the real-life specter of a calamitous death at the hands of madmen; a seemingly terrorized future with regards to a "generational" global war on terror; the specter of an ecological catastrophe; and enormous budget and trade deficits that they will have to pay off someday, somehow. And dare not mention the cost and sacrifice involved in providing and getting an education today. Our society has pulled the rug out from under them. They&#39;re on their own, yet they exude a collective and refreshing sense of optimism and confidence.

The burden of the war in Iraq is also falling squarely on their shoulders. Our young soldiers are courageous and heroic. Their entire generation will be carrying the scars from this conflict for the remainder of their lives together. No other generation is currently carrying such a heavy load. Yet do you hear them complain? Ever?

If you need to experience the future of this country, to gauge the character of our youth and the inspiration and hope that they provide for mankind, then log onto the Virginia Tech Web site and watch the convocation that was held the day after more than 170 bullets were shot in four classrooms. President Bush&#39;s benediction was among his finest showings in six years.

Watch the event through to the end, for the final minutes capture for eternity one of the great moments in American history. When the Earth is waste and void, when the darkness is upon the face of the deep, the human spirit does prevail.

At the end of the convocation, after the grieving students have listened to the adults, they get to have their collective say -- in a cathartic, unplanned and exhilarating 30-second burst of energy; a release of unfathomable tension and grief; a redemptive moment that burns itself to memory. As my wife observed, it is as if they were opening the gates of heaven to their fallen peers.

Thank you young Hokies for showing us the true character of your generation. We needed that. You will prevail.

<a href="http://www.hokiesports.com/convocation.html">http://www.hokiesports.com/convocation.html</a>

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Archived with permission of the author.

Original Source: Manufacturing and Technology News, April 27, 2007, Volume 14, No. 8
<a href="http://www.manufacturingnews.com/news/07/0427/art1.html">http://www.manufacturingnews.com/news/07/0427/art1.html</a>

Richard McCormack

2007-06-11

Brent Jesiek

Richard McCormack (editor@manufacturingnews.com)

eng

Local students express concerns

By STEPHANIE HARRIS THOMAS, Hope Star Writer
Published: Friday, April 20, 2007 6:21 PM CDT

Students at the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope, as well as universities across Arkansas, are feeling the pain of the Virginia Tech student body.

The tragic deaths at Virginia Tech have them feeling anxious about a place where they have always felt safe. But, UACCH students did not mind sharing their feelings and reactions about the shootings on Monday which left 33 people dead.

"It makes you take a second thought about coming to school every day," Lacey Brent, a nursing student said.

One student showed an expression of disbelief and sorrow when asked what was his reaction to the tragedy at Virginia Tech.

"I don&#39;t really know what to say about it," student Jason Lamb said after a long silent pause. "It is taking its toll on everyone, especially everyone going to a university.

"It also has parents worried about their sons or daughters being at a university," he said.

"It was a horrible thing that happened...a tragedy. It is kind of scary too," LPN student Quana Ellis said. "It is really an eye-opener."

"It makes you think," Chelsea Johnson, also a nursing student said.

"Anything can happen at any given time," Lamb said.

Another nursing major again reacted with fear.

"Red flags were raised. They had warnings and they did not take heed. It is scary," Chelsea Johnson said.

"I hope it does not happen here," Rebecca Allen said.

Some students simply did not understand.

"When they found two people shot they should have closed the school," said Ashley Linzy.

Reacting to the accusations he had heard about the shootings, another student, James Stuart, said, "There&#39;s a lot of second guessing going on right now."

Stuart said he did not really see that tightening of security would make a big difference in such a situation.

"You would have to have guard shacks at every entrance and door," he said. "I think if someone wanted to do something like that they would some way, somehow to take out there frustrations."

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Original Source: <a href="http://www.hopestar.com/articles/2007/04/20/news/news1.txt">http://www.hopestar.com/articles/2007/04/20/news/news1.txt</a>

Licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5</a>.

Stephanie Harris Thomas

2007-06-01

Brent Jesiek

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5

eng