Hokie Stone and Flowers - Nicole Regina White
description: A large flower arrangement rests in front of Nicole Regina White's new hokie stone at the memorial on the drillfield. The card reads: "We love you Nicole - love, Mom, Dad, Evan, and Your Family." The photo was taken on Monday, August 20, 2007, the first day of Fall 2007 classes. The memorial had been dedicated the day before. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0.
creator: Brent Jesiek
date: 2007-08-20
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0
language: eng

Daisies After Dedication
description: On the morning of Monday, August 20 - the first day of Fall 2007 classes - an unidentified visitor places a white daisy next to each victim's hokie stone at the intermediate memorial. The memorial had been formally dedicated the previous day. Many new flowers and mementos continue to be added to the site, while old items are gradually disposed of or put in storage. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0.
creator: Brent Jesiek
date: 2007-08-22
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0
language: eng

VT Killer Needs Closer Look
description: 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 con…
creator: Eric Quach
publisher: New University
date: 2007-08-23
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Zachary Gale <newueic@gmail.com>
language: eng

Officer Enabling
description: By: Editorial Board Posted: 4/19/07 With the tragedy that occurred on the Virginia Tech campus on Monday we are forced to ask hard questions about the safety of students here at UR. Surely, as statistics show, we live on a very safe campus, even given the large city to which we are adjacent. Students are kept safe by a very respected and well-trained team of Security officers and a very thorough Security system, which includes blue light phones, among other precautions. But given the recent violence, our placement as a University surrounded by a large city and our ever-expanding campus, which includes URMC and the Brooks Landing project in the 19th Ward among other areas, is the current level of security enough to protect the thousands at UR? Further, is the current level of training and certification that our Security officers have enough given the jobs we ask them to assume? Currently, Security officers are severely limited in the actions they can take by their current level of training and certification. They cannot make arrests, investigate crimes, set up traffic stops or access criminal records to check for warrants. They carry no offensive or defensive weapons with them, lethal or non-lethal - that means no guns, nightsticks, mace or stun guns. Rather, they are expected to carry out their duties with just handcuffs and possibly a flashlight. The jobs of Security officers often put them in harm's way. They deal with affiliated and non-affiliated people on the UR campus every day. This includes violent criminals at Strong Memorial Hospital along with other potentially violent people in all of their patrol areas, including Brooks Landing or even the Fraternity Quad on a normal social night. Yet, in the presence of violence, Security officers are expected to detain the person with just the handcuffs they carry and just wait for RPD to arrive. It is simply not safe for anyone affiliated with UR to have the first responders to any scene, violent or not, unprotected …
creator: Editorial Board
publisher: Campus Times
date: 2007-08-23
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Alexander Moeller <amoeller@mail.rochester.edu>
language: eng

Virginia Tech | History of major shootings on college campuses
description: By: Melanie Hicken Posted: 4/26/07 Aug. 1, 1966 - University of Texas at Austin From the top of a 27-story tower, Charles J. Whitman shot and killed 13 people and wounded 31 others before he was killed by police fire. July 12, 1976 - California State University at Fullerton A school custodian, Edward C. Allaway, shot and killed seven people and wounded two others in the basement of a library. Nov. 1, 1991 - University of Iowa Gang Lu, a graduate physics student, shot and killed five people and paralyzed another after he did not receive an award for his dissertation. Dec. 14, 1992 - Simon's Rock College of Bard Wayne Lo shot and killed two people and wounded four others before surrendering to police. Aug. 15, 1996 - San Diego State University A 36-year-old graduate student Frederick Davidson shot and killed three professors while defending his engineering thesis. Aug. 28, 2000 - University of Arkansas at Fayetteville A 36-year-old student shot and killed a professor after being dropped from a doctoral program, and then killed himself. Jan. 16, 2002 - Appalachian School of Law A 43-year-old law student Peter Odighizuwa shot and killed three people and injured three others. Oct. 28, 2002 - University of Arizona Nursing College A 40-year-old student who was failing academically shot and killed three people. Sept. 2, 2006 - Shepherd University Douglas Pennington shot and killed his two sons, who were students at the school, and then himself. -- Original Source:The Daily Orange - April 26, 2007
creator: Melanie Hicken
publisher: The Daily Orange
date: 2007-08-23
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Peter Waack <pwaack@dailyorange.com>
language: eng

VT aftermath continues; SU reflects with speak out
description: By: A.J. Donatoni Posted: 4/26/07 Seung-Hui Cho took the lives of 32 Virginia Tech students and faculty in a senseless act of violence April 16. On Wednesday, 32 Syracuse University students and area residents came together in the Panasci Lounge at the Schine Student Center to participate in the Speak Out Against Violence in response to that act. The speak out, sponsored by the Greek Council and the Student Association, was a forum designed to commemorate the victims of the shootings and give those in attendance a chance to voice their opinions on what occurred that morning. One by one, several participants walked up to the podium located at the back of the lounge and addressed the rest of the group by either sharing a personal experience or simply giving their perspective on what transpired on the campus of Virginia Tech. Senior Amanda Torres helped organize the Speak Out and has coordinated several events around the campus in honor of the Virginia Tech community. "When I was in high school, 9/11 happened and I was going to school in New York City," said Torres, entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises major. "That's the reason why I decided to become in involved in this." Torres spoke of her own personal experience in New York City when the World Trade Center was attacked but said that the shootings had a similar feel to them, which motivated her to do whatever she could to help out. "I was watching it on the big screen in Schine, and I stood there in disbelief, like I couldn't believe this was happening at a college that was comparable in size to us," said Torres of the shootings. "I can't imagine the fear that was going through the families and friends there." Junior Jacqueline Cho said the shootings touched her personally because she is Asian American. Because she shares the same last name of the shooter - Cho - she said the events have affected her on a deeper level. "My sister lives in London, and the day after it happened, when she went to work, she got bac…
creator: A.J. Donatoni
publisher: The Daily Orange
date: 2007-08-23
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Peter Waack <pwaack@dailyorange.com>
language: eng

Virginia Tech | SU counseling center resources
description: By: Melanie Hicken Posted: 4/26/07 As more information rapidly becomes available through media reports, it has become quite clear Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho was deeply troubled. He had few friends. He had harassed several female students. A counselor had recommended involuntary commitment. A judge had ordered a mental evaluation. A doctor had declared him mentally ill. But he was not committed, and rather was to have outpatient mental health treatment, according to an article in The New York Times. It is unknown whether he ever attended. Though no one can know if treating Cho could have prevented the tragedy, Syracuse University officials say they urge anyone who feels they or a friend needs counseling of any kind to contact the Syracuse University Counseling Center at any time. The center offers a full range of mental health services, including regular counseling, a 24-hour crisis line and training to the campus community, said Rebecca Dayton, director of the counseling center. The center also offers consultations, in which anyone with concerns about an individual can be given advice on how to help them. "Dealing with someone who is emotionally distressed is often very difficult," said Dayton, who co-chairs the Critical Incident Management Team. "People often don't know what to do." Dayton said in the end, she believes counseling centers do the best they can. "We do out best," she said. "I think we do a really good job of listening to and attending to and giving people appropriate resources and intervening at the appropriate time." But even then, it may not always be enough, she said. "Nobody can predict human behavior," she said. "It's complex. Human behavior and human emotions are incredibly gray." -- Original Source:The Daily Orange - April 26, 2007
creator: Sara Hood
date: 2007-08-23
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Peter Waack <pwaack@dailyorange.com>
language: eng

Virginia Tech | How are classes canceled?
description: By: Melanie Hicken Posted: 4/26/07 The first shooting at Virginia Tech happened at about 7:15 a.m., yet classes continued - a decision questioned by many in the last week. Right or wrong, it has led many Syracuse University students to ask: Who would make such a decision at SU? At SU, the decision would be a group effort made by Chancellor Nancy Cantor, Vice Chancellor Eric Spina and the Logistics Committee, which is headed up by SU Chief Financial Officer Louis Marcoccia and made up of representatives from various university departments (see: "What is the Logistics Committee?"). "Clearly what we have on the committee is broad representation from across campus," Marcoccia said. "It's a group that we hope can provide us the right kind of advice on any decision we would have to make." Cantor said she had little doubt classes could be canceled and students notified of this "very quickly" in the case of an immediate threat situation. The most recent cancellation of classes - a half-day cancellation due to snow - worked as a good practice for the system, Cantor said. -- Original Source:The Daily Orange - April 26, 2007
creator: Melanie Hicken
publisher: The Daily Orange
date: 2007-08-23
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Peter Waack <pwaack@dailyorange.com>
language: eng

Virginia Tech coverage not lacking when D.O.'s resources considered
description: By: Shannon Pittman-Price Posted: 4/26/07 Last week, the worst school shooting in American history happened on the campus of Virginia Tech. The day after the shooting, most students went to The Daily Orange to read the coverage on the shootings. Some students were disappointed with how much coverage was shown in the student newspaper. D.O. reader Alisa Lopano wrote, "I'm very disappointed in the minimal story coverage in Tuesday's Daily Orange of the tragedy that occurred at Virginia Tech ... Rubin stepping down as dean of Newhouse and the inadequate condition of South Campus are important, but not as important as one of the most memorable and horrific days of recent years." Ashley Tabor, sophomore English and textual studies and political science major, and Sydney Axson, sophomore political science and biology major, wrote, "It is a shame to admit, but for some students, The D.O. is their primary source of information. It's the paper they pick up first in the morning before anything else. There is no excuse for making an article about something as infinitesimal as housing woes... out to be a bigger issue than an event that has shattered the lives of so many." Last week's editions may not have seemed to reflect much coverage of the Virginia Tech tragedy to some readers, but with the resources The D.O. had, it did provide as much information as it could have at the time. "What goes on the front page is a decision made by all head editors of each section," said Melanie Hicken, The D.O.'s news editor. "We did try to get in contact with people down there, but we did not get a hold of anyone." As a campus newspaper, there are only so many resources that are available. There are not any reporters or photographers that would have been at the scene to provide stories and photos. The paper also has a policy of not running stories that are not written by staff. That would rule out any wire photos and stories. Hicken said The D.O. tries to take stories like this particular one…
creator: Shannon Pittman-Price
publisher: The Daily Orange
date: 2007-08-23
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Peter Waack <pwaack@dailyorange.com>
language: eng

Virginia Tech | Too close for comfort: Students cope with shootings on campus
description: By: Melanie Hicken Posted: 4/26/07 Oklahoma City. Columbine. 9/11. For a generation that came of age during such memorable acts of violence, tragedy is not new. But for the largest fatal shooting in U.S. history to occur on a college campus may hit a little too close to home. "I was shocked," said sophomore Catherine Long of her initial reaction to the Virginia Tech shooting. "But mostly I was shocked to hear it was a student. You don't think of any of us doing that to other students." Long said she couldn't help but have thoughts run through her head about what she would do in a similar situation. "What if you were sitting in class and all of a sudden that happened to us," said Long, advertising major. "What would I do?" Such scattered emotions ranged through campus last week as various members of the campus community explored their own feelings and connections to the incident. "The higher education world is a very interconnected world," said Dean of Hendricks Chapel Thomas Wolfe, who co-chairs the Critical Incident Management Team (CIMT). Faculty research with faculty from other campuses, students have friends from high school at schools across the country, and the connections continue, he said. "It's rare that you're not going to have had contact with or know someone at another campus," said Chancellor Nancy Cantor, comparing it to the "six degrees of separation" theory. And indeed, as more information became available, direct Syracuse University connections to Virginia Tech began to come to light, Wolfe said, including a student who lost a friend to the shooter. But even those not directly affected by the tragedy felt connected. "Some may argue that it is hard to truly grieve or relate in a situation that we are so 'far removed from.' I beg to differ," wrote Student Association President Ryan Kelly in a letter published in The Daily Orange on April 18. "We are very close to this situation. Virginia Tech is a peer institution, with students that come from near an…
creator: Melanie Hicken
publisher: The Daily Orange
date: 2007-08-23
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Peter Waack <pwaack@dailyorange.com>
language: eng

Virginia Tech | In case of emergency: VT tragedy spurs analysis of SU's safety procedures
description: By: Melanie Hicken Posted: 4/26/07 April 16, 2007. Another day to mourn. Another day Americans will never forget. But while the Virginia Tech community begins the healing process after the largest massacre in U.S. history, college campuses across the country are beginning a process as well - a reevaluation of protocols and procedures in place to help prevent or minimize such a tragedy. "Monday's incident changes everything for universities around the country," said Interim Chief Tony Callisto, of Syracuse University's Public Safety. It's been a busy 10 days for Callisto. Interviews. Meetings. Phone calls. E-mails. All asking: What would we do if it happened here? SU was one of many college communities across the nation that were jarred by this scary realization - that something so violent, so tragic could occur on a campus just like its own. "I think we all know that this could have happened anywhere," said Dean of Hendricks Chapel Thomas Wolfe, who co-chairs the Critical Incident Management Team (CMIT). Within hours of the breaking news of the shootings, the SU Logistics Committee and the CIMT, two university bodies that help manage emergency and crisis situations, convened to discuss what this tragedy meant for SU and how the campus should respond. The Logistics Committee handles technical and physical needs in an emergency situation, while the CIMT manages all human responses. The CIMT and Public Safety will study the Virginia Tech incident to help enhance SU's year of task force examinations dedicated to keeping the school continuously up to date in various areas including campus safety and communication in the case of an emergency, said Chancellor Nancy Cantor in an interview. "I have asked the CIMT and the Department of Public Safety to quickly analyze what we currently know about the Virginia Tech incident," said Cantor in an e-mail sent to the campus community on April 17. "That team will continue to meet with me and the University's leadership in the coming…
creator: Melanie Hicken
date: 2007-08-23
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Peter Waack <pwaack@dailyorange.com>
language: eng

Pundits wrong to blame society's woes on entertainment industry
description: By: Dave Arey Posted: 4/25/07 Hours after the Virginia Tech shootings, people were already looking for something to blame. Fox News had on lawyer and "school shootings expert" Jack Thompson, an infamous critic of video games. He gave the dubious statement that when looking at most school shootings there was a common thread, that being "the immersion of the perpetrators in incredibly violent entertainment, most notably violent videogames." This was before the killer had even been named. When it was found out that Seung-Hui Cho had little contact with violent videogames, other possible explanations were discussed. In a video sent to NBC, Cho can be seen holding a hammer in a pose reminiscent of the movie "Oldboy." As a result, many began wondering if the killings were influenced by that. In reporting on the story, Jake Coyle of the Associated Press wrote that, "Notorious killers are commonly linked to movies or music." Such an assumption is very dangerous, but sadly, it is also common. It is true that John Lennon's killer read "The Catcher in the Rye." It is also true that Charles Manson loved The Beach Boys and The Beatles. But they were very troubled people who did not need entertainment to inspire their actions. The killings at Virginia Tech have followed a never-ending string of cases where entertainment has been blamed for the actions of an individual. One of the more ludicrous recent examples was Don Imus' comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team. Ever since, many people in the media have blamed rap music as much as they have blamed Imus himself. Imus started the conversation by mentioning on his show that he was simply repeating the vernacular of rappers. Many others in the media picked up on this. In a column printed April 11, Jason Whitlock of the Kansas City Star wrote that, "I'm sure at least one of the marvelous young women on the Rutgers basketball team is somewhere snapping her fingers to the beat of 50 Cent's or Snoop Dogg's or Young Jeezy's l…
creator: Dave Arey
date: 2007-08-23
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Peter Waack <pwaack@dailyorange.com>
language: eng

SU must bolster security efforts in light of shootings at Virginia Tech
description: By: Kris Miller Posted: 4/19/07 How do you think Syracuse University would respond to a shooting like the one at Virginia Tech? What could we do differently to make ourselves safer? These questions must be addressed immediately. The university is working diligently to strengthen campus security. Nevertheless, students must sustain pressure on Chancellor Nancy Cantor until emergency response systems are more robust and better integrated. To that end, technology is critical, especially when fewer than 20 public safety officers are on patrol at any time. These officers are responsible for the safety of more than 19,000 students. The chancellor wants SU's endowment to reach $2 billion. Awesome. But I say a significant portion of SU's budget should fund technologies including closed circuit cameras (CCTV) and mass-alert communications systems. As a law student senator, I was concerned when I learned last fall that CCTV systems were not prevalent on campus. Public Safety was also concerned, and to its credit, a vigorous effort is under way to overhaul security technologies on campus. Tony Callisto, the Interim Director of Public Safety, informed me that SU recently hired Mike Kearns to be Manager of Technology and Security Services, which is a new position. Mr. Kearns is a 12-year veteran of the Oswego police force and holds a masters degree in information technology. The chancellor also formed a CCTV committee, which recently examined IT security practices at similarly situated universities. The committee identified 14 priorities for upgrading security technology on campus, but details have not been released yet. SU's challenge is to fully integrate existing CCTV systems. Concurrently, SU is working to expand its network and ensure that all systems are managed from its central monitoring station. The ultimate goal is to share this data with other emergency services like the Syracuse Police Department. This raises another key issue: interoperability. Anyone who has partic…
creator: Kris Miller
publisher: The Daily Orange
date: 2007-08-23
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Peter Waack <pwaack@dailyorange.com>
language: eng

Remove cause of violence by ending social divide
description: By: Katherine Paster Posted: 4/18/07 Another school shooting has claimed the lives of more young victims, and we are left wondering why so many of our peers had to die. In all, 33 people were killed at Virginia Tech on Monday in what officials are calling the most deadly school attack in U.S. history. As we begin to grieve this substantial loss, college campuses around the nation are struggling to figure out how to prevent such senseless acts of violence from occurring in the future. While some students are looking to their university administrators to address safety concerns, it may not occur to them that they could also play some role in keeping tragedies of this nature from reoccurring. The most alarming part of the tragedy is not the record-breaking number of casualties, the warning signs leading up to it, or the university's unprepared response. It is that the gunman was neither a misguided Marilyn Manson protégé nor a terrorist as we may have assumed. Instead, Cho Seung-hui was a 23-year-old English major who lived in the dorms on campus like countless other undergraduate students around the nation. "He was a loner, and we're having difficulty finding information about him," said Larry Hincker, Virginia Tech's associate vice president for university relations, in a press release. From the little information available, it appears as though Cho was not unlike many college students who struggle to fit in with the white, upper-middle class group of elite students who often dominate the social scenes of universities around the country. Cho poured his hatred and resentment for this exclusive group of socialites into a lengthy note found in his dorm room on Tuesday morning. His passionate disdain for the "in" crowd calls attention to the dangerous divide that exists between the popular students and social outcasts. As we walk carelessly around campus, Syracuse University students never expect to encounter an armed gunman in our classrooms or dormitories. Yet the un…
creator: Katherine Paster
publisher: The Daily Orange
date: 2007-08-23
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Peter Waack <pwaack@dailyorange.com>
language: eng

SU community reacts to Virginia Tech massacre
description: By: Melissa Daniels Posted: 4/17/07 The doors to Hendricks Chapel remained open on Monday, with a candle lit at the end of an aisle. Chaplains were available throughout the day, willing to talk to anyone who wished to enter. The Virginia Tech shooting on Monday caused widespread raw emotion throughout the country, and Syracuse University was not exempt. "Everybody's hearts are going out to Virginia Tech today," said Dean of Hendricks Chapel Thomas Wolfe. "This is a monumental disaster, a tragedy that has befallen them." An unidentified gunman opened fire in a Virginia Tech dorm in the morning, beginning the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history. By the end of the day, the death toll reached 33, including the death of the gunman himself. Sources had varying reports throughout the day about whether the gunman committed suicide or if he was killed by police. A two-hour gap between shootings raised the possibility of more than one shooter. Wolfe is also co-chair of the Critical Incident Management Team. The group touched base this morning after hearing about the shootings. The team, which focuses on human response in tragic events, encouraged contacting the counseling center and reflecting in Hendricks for students who may have been affected emotionally by the shooting. "When something like this happens," he said, "the whole university community feels it." Chancellor Nancy Cantor sent a letter to the president of Virginia Tech, extending Syracuse University's sympathies. Wolfe described the letter as "a very genuine gesture." "The higher education world is a very connected world," he said. Interim Chief of Public Safety Tony Callisto said SU is prepared for unexpected violent incidents like Monday's events at Virginia Tech as best as it can be. "Every incident results in learning for the next time," he said. Public Safety officers are trained in active shooting scenarios in case they would ever need to go after an armed suspect, Callisto said. They are also all tra…
creator: Melissa Daniels
publisher: The Daily Orange
date: 2007-08-23
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Peter Waack <pwaack@dailyorange.com>
language: eng

Back to normal
description: By: EDDIE LEE Posted: 8/6/07 I recently received an e-mail from a graduate student at Virginia Tech. She asked me if I would be willing to release any articles that The California Aggie had written on the school's tragedy in April to be part of a larger database that is working to preserve and present stories from around the country. When I read the e-mail, it quickly reminded me of that terrible day on Apr. 16, when a lone student went on a shooting rampage on the Virginia Tech campus leaving 33 people dead, 25 injured and scores more scarred for life. College campuses across the country, including UC Davis, began reviewing and reevaluating their emergency response services in the case a similar attack should happen. Schools were no longer safe and seemingly anyone was capable of committing such a horrific act. Eventually, though, these thoughts became memories. Students here at UC Davis were able to continue to attend class, eat at the Coho and play intramural sports without worry. Of course, that's how it should be, and not just here, but everywhere. We should never have to live in a world of constant fear and trepidation, and should instead strive to live our lives as normally as possible. However, it is clear that normalcy is a status that many students in Blacksburg, Va. understandably continue to seek. Virginia Tech is not so different from UC Davis. It is a public institution with an undergraduate population of nearly 22,000. Blacksburg, like Davis, is also dominated largely by the local university. The population of the town is nearly 40,000 citizens, 60 percent of which is college students. Compare that to Davis, with a population around 60,000, about 50 percent of which is comprised of students. If you think that it can't happen here in quiet Davis, you are sorely mistaken. That being said, however, this is not a column trying to scare the population here on campus or the city at large that an attack is imminent. Instead, it is to serve as a reminder of h…
creator: EDDIE LEE
publisher: The California Aggie
date: 2007-08-23
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Eddie Lee <editor@californiaaggie.com>
language: eng

UNLV proposes arming faculty, staff to increase campus security
description: By: Teresa Pham Posted: 5/14/07 In the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, some universities are looking into tightening security measures on campus. In Nevada, one man is proposing a reserve police officer program that would allow employees at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas to carry guns. Regent Stavros Anthony, also a Las Vegas police captain, said the program would allow normal employees at the university, such as faculty members, to be trained as reserve police officers. "The way it works is that an employee would apply with the police department to become a reserve police officer," he said. "They would have to go through the same selection process as their police officers." That selection process, he added, is very thorough and covers all the basic training that regular police officers go through. "They'd take a written test, a psychological exam, a polygraph and a background check," he said. "Then they would go through the same police academy that the police officers go through, which is about four or five months. Then, once they graduate, they're considered city reserve police officers and have to go through the renewal training just like police officers for as long as they want to keep their certification. It's a pretty stringent program." However, there are some groups that oppose letting schools control firearm possession rules on campus. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence released a press release May 3 regarding the risk of guns on college campuses. Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Center, stated in the press release that guns should be either carefully monitored or banned on campus. "Our schools should be sanctuaries, not armed camps," Helmke said. "Institutions of higher education already have chosen policies either banning or tightly controlling guns on campus. That is as it should be." Other schools have chosen to reevaluate security measures after Virginia Tech, but have not taken the same measures that UNLV is proposing. Paul Browni…
creator: Teresa Pham
publisher: The California Aggie
date: 2007-08-23
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Eddie Lee <editor@californiaaggie.com>
language: eng

UC Davis examines emergency services, notification systems
description: Chancellor urges students in need to seek assistance By: Talia Kennedy Posted: 4/24/07 In the wake of the Apr. 16 shootings at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, students across the nation are asking, "Could something similar happen at my school?" The implications of the query, posed by many at UC Davis, can be difficult to comprehend. But in an e-mail sent Monday to the entire campus community, Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef said it is a question he is trying to answer. "I know from some of the questions you've asked this past week that it's hard for us all not to feel more vulnerable now," he wrote. "You've asked about our preparedness for such a circumstance, about how you would be kept informed, and about how such a tragedy might be prevented. The campus is doing lots, but that's not to say there isn't more to do." Vanderhoef went on to say the UC Davis Police Department and the UC Davis Fire Department have been trained in rapid response to emergency situations such as the one that unfolded last week at Virginia Tech, when senior English major Cho Seung-Hui, 23, went on two shooting rampages, killing 32 students and faculty members before turning a gun on himself. Vanderhoef said the UCDPD is developing a new community-response program to help inform locals "what to do in the event of a critical incident like Virginia Tech's." The way students, faculty and staff are informed of campus emergencies may also soon be changing. In an interview last week, Lisa Lapin, the assistant vice chancellor for university communications, said UC Davis' current emergency-notification systems are less than ideal. "We have a system that can dial all campus phone numbers, but it takes three hours," she said. "We can also send e-mails to everyone, but it also takes three hours." In today's age of high-speed technology, many may wonder why some of the top universities in the nation can't immediately notify their students of a threat on campus. At Virginia Tech, it took…
creator: Talia Kennedy
publisher: The California Aggie
date: 2007-08-23
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Eddie Lee <editor@californiaaggie.com>
language: eng

Glendon Y. McCreary: Discussing a tragedy
description: By: Glendon Y. McCreary Posted: 4/24/07 It can be difficult to cover politics in the aftermath of a nationally felt tragedy like the one at Virginia Tech last week. And as we all remember the victims and reflect on the events that transpired, we are also on high alert to make sure we don't unduly "politicize" anything, because nobody wants to be seen as politically benefiting from someone else's tragedy. As a result, we often temper any discussions we have on the issues related to such incidents. Case in point, despite the fact that his unbelievably easy access to guns was one of the primary reasons the mentally unstable gunman, Cho Seung-hui, had the means to go on this rampage, our politicians all seem to be scrambling to avoid the issue of gun control. Unfortunately, we seem to be becoming so wary of courting sensitive topics in these situations that we end up not having the thorough debates we need to have in order to prevent a recurrence. As sad as it may be, it often takes a tragedy to grab our attention and put a much-needed spotlight on a particular issue. But that attention is fleeting. Remember Hurricane Katrina? As New Orleans was inundated with water and many thousands of impoverished residents languished in third-world conditions at the Superdome, politicians from Bill Clinton to George Bush told us that now was not the time to blame anybody or anything, and worked to assure us that there would "be a time" for that. We were told that eventually, Hurricane Katrina would open up a dialogue about race and poverty in America that had been long overdue. But that dialogue never materialized, because as time passed our attention focused on more mundane matters. As a result, the lofty goals of readdressing these issues have gone largely unfulfilled. Perhaps, had we gotten some answers sooner, we might have made more progress in rectifying mistakes made. Thus, an event even on the scale of Hurricane Katrina can manage to slip from our collective radar into the a…
creator: Glendon Y. McCreary
publisher: The California Aggie
date: 2007-08-23
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Eddie Lee <editor@californiaaggie.com>
language: eng

Guest Opinion: Leigh A. Needleman and Andrew Freshman
description: Advocating presence of more guns will not prevent another Virginia Tech By: Leigh A. Needleman and Andrew Freshman Posted: 4/24/07 Like so many of the other members of the Davis community, since I first heard about the shootings at Virginia Tech on Monday morning, I have been seeking answers. However, the more that I scour the Web and listen to the news, the more questions I have: Why? What was the motivation? How could this have been prevented? How can this be prevented from happening ever again? How could this be prevented here? On Tuesday, Apr. 17, I read the article "UC Davis responds to Virginia Tech shootings." I wanted to share my fellow Aggies' reaction to the news. To my horror, I read sophomore McKenzie Bryan's quote: "I really believe that if we did not have 'gun-free zones' or really strict gun control, there could have been people on that campus that could have stopped the shooter right after he got started, way before the SWAT teams got there." I had to reread this quote several times. Bryan seems to be advocating that members of university communities carry around guns, prepared for armed assault at any time. This very idea causes me to feel profoundly physically ill. (Leaving aside for a moment the idea of the typical college drinking party with the incendiary addition of guns....) I try to imagine how events might have transpired at Virginia Tech on Monday if members of the community had been armed: One day students are in class when a gunman suddenly enters and begins indiscriminately shooting. Some of the students in the class pull out their guns and fire back. Panic and confusion ensues - who is shooting whom and for what reason? Faculty and staff as well as students are drawn by the noise and join the skirmish. Innocent bystanders are caught in the crossfire. Half an hour later, the SWAT team enters. Several students have their weapons drawn and are shooting. The SWAT team, unable to determine deranged psychopath from righteous Samaritan, makes …
creator: Leigh A. Needleman and Andrew Freshman
publisher: The California Aggie
date: 2007-08-23
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Eddie Lee <editor@californiaaggie.com>
language: eng