Virginia Tech shooter identified
description: UC Davis to hold candlelight vigils to honor victims By: Talia Kennedy Posted: 4/20/07 The gunman who shot and killed 32 students at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University on Monday was identified this week as Cho Seung-Hui, 23, a senior English student at the university. On Wednesday, NBC News reported receiving videos and a letter from Cho, sent between the time Cho shot and killed two students in an on-campus residence hall Monday morning and when he gunned down 30 more people before turning his weapon on himself. "You have vandalized my heart, raped my soul and torched my conscience," said Cho in one video, in which he is shown brandishing firearms, a hammer and other weapons. "Thanks to you, I die like Jesus Christ to inspire generations of the weak and the defenseless people. "You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off," he said. Published reports have said Cho was receiving mental-health services, but that they were not provided by Virginia Tech. He was also accused of making unwanted phone calls and sending unwanted instant messages to two fellow students in 2005, but both declined to press charges. A professor said he made students in her class uncomfortable with his violently themed writing and by taking photographs of female students from under the desks in the classroom. A counselor once recommended Cho be committed to a mental-health facility on an involuntary basis, but a judge denied the request, saying Cho was not a danger to himself or others. In the aftermath of the shootings, universities across the country have scheduled prayer vigils to honor the fallen Virginia Tech students and faculty members. The Cal Aggie Christian Association held a prayer vigil on campus Wednesday to honor the Virginia Tech victims, and two more services are scheduled for today. The UC Davis student assistants to the chancellor, Hayley Steffen and Alfredo Arredondo…
creator: Talia Kennedy
publisher: The California Aggie
date: 2007-08-23
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Eddie Lee <editor@californiaaggie.com>
language: eng

Guest Opinion: Brian Hanley
description: A different perspective on the Virginia Tech shootings By: Brian Hanley Posted: 4/19/07 My time here at UC Davis comes after spending years in Central Asia. This tragedy at Virginia Tech is uniquely America of this era, but it is not unique in terms of death. It is most unique in the utter divorce from any apparent meaningful social grouping for the young perpetrator. The city where I ran an office had seen two civil wars. I have walked by multiple flaming barricades with flames leaping 30 feet in the air, quietly acting the part of someone who belonged there. I have watched events develop of many kinds, and employed staff who grew up playing games as young boys of counting the most dead bodies. Our office was in a fairly secure building, where men with AK-47s sat in a pillbox built in the lobby. I know of an incident where young men attacked an apartment in broad daylight with hand grenades and guns, but in a gallows humor twist worthy of "South Park," they were defeated by the mothers inside who had lived through the wars. Living in a place where beheading, kidnapping and simple murder as well as accidentally being caught in crossfire was as real a possibility as being hit by a car while crossing the street, I have thought about such violence. In another time and place, perhaps this man would have joined a violent political movement, or maybe he would have joined the gangster army of a warlord intent on enriching himself and accruing fabulous power. In another time and place, perhaps he would have been a willing recruit to drive a truck bomb into a crowd, cloaking himself in some convenient ideology, hopeful that in his dying, he would further the cause of sparking wider war. Such is an atavistic hate-filled impulse to destroy. But underneath it is more than this. It is also fueled at a deeper level by a very personal, desperate impulse to make a mark upon the world, to "be somebody." This is something we should remember when we look at CNN and see truck bombs or …
creator: Brian Hanley
publisher: The California Aggie
date: 2007-08-23
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Eddie Lee <editor@californiaaggie.com>
language: eng

Rob Olson: A question of humanity
description: By: Rob Olson Posted: 4/19/07 This is how it happens, a tragedy so great that if we were to truly comprehend it, we would find ourselves incapacitated with grief. Speeches, national debates, 24-hour news channels, investigations, prayers and vigils. Feelings of confusion, anger, sorrow, despair. Politicians and community leaders across the nation issuing statements with identical tones and meanings. The same words appear in every one: tragedy, grief, horrific, shock, violence prevention, counseling services, thoughts and prayers, and so on. We go through the same motions and emotions. We find the old familiar paths in our minds that we've tread before with other instances of mindless slaughter: Columbine, the Amish schoolhouse shootings, people going postal at work. At least 9/11 and other terror attacks were part of some greater war of ideologies, a "clash of civilizations," as historian Samuel P. Huntington has dubbed it. This was about nothing. It had no larger purpose, no thought or reason, none of the usual gains for the perpetrator, like money or power. This was evil in its purest, most basic form. Evil for the sake of evil. Killing for the sake of killing. I write a political column. So what's my political angle? The abhorrent way some in the world community have spun the tragedy, with the Italian Il Manifesto newspaper calling it "as American as apple pie"? A vessel to expand the debate on gun rights versus gun control in America? No, I don't feel up to the task of such columns. They feel like hollow diversions in the face of such an atrocity. I want to take no political angle. Politics is about division and conflict. A tragedy of this magnitude should not be used for political debate; not yet, anyway. I don't know if justice can be done to the topic, or if I have the capability to address the worst school shooting in United States history. But here I write, attempting to describe the indescribable. How naive of me. Sueng-Hui Cho, 23, killed 32 people on the…
creator: Rob Olson
publisher: The California Aggie
date: 2007-08-23
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Eddie Lee <editor@californiaaggie.com>
language: eng

Zach Kun Lin Han: The Virginia tragedy
description: By: Zach Kun Lin Han Posted: 4/19/07 The massacre at Virginia Tech gripped the nation the way Hollywood films always do. Except that it wasn't a film. The slayings were real, brutal and heartless. And while the gunman shot "randomly," it was also with an unmistakable precision. Death is always a surreal event. It marks the natural conclusion of a unique cycle, which, like birth, isgrotesque and beautiful in equal measure. Yet when death is inflicted by force, we can never speak of the unspeakable loss and can never express the torment a victim experienced during that brush with mortality. For some, it might be an endless eternity; for others, a fleetingly swift one. And for those who fell during that battle, through tributes and condolences we remember and commemorate the memories they left. During these times, we mourn and grieve with empathy for the victims. Our roles as part of the community become especially magnified, and our responses become a warning that such behavior of acting upon others is a behavior nobody tolerates. Nonetheless, where does the Virginia Tech massacre leave us? It is important to understand the reasons why the massacre occurred in the first place. Cho Seung-Hui has frequently been described by his peers as a socially isolated individual. Twice, his professors were shocked by the severity of the plays he composed, in which he described certain themes of revenge and bloodlust in graphic detail. And he acted as a result of societal disillusionment. The moral collapse of "what he considered the more privileged students on campus" was cited as the underlying motivation behind his actions. The signs were there, but it wasn't acted upon sufficiently enough, due to both external as well as internal factors. This shouldn't be a blame game about responsibilities, though. From a national perspective, the blame game about gun-possession merits reverberates even louder. It seems fatalistic to conclude that the event was an inevitable conclusion of a g…
creator: Zach Kun Lin Han
publisher: The California Aggie
date: 2007-08-23
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Eddie Lee <editor@californiaaggie.com>
language: eng

Jenny Pedersen: Support the Hokies
description: By: Jenny Pedersen Posted: 4/18/07 Let's be honest: this isn't my original column. I was up late last night scribbling down something about "relationship people" and trying to finish a paper. Like most of us I didn't get enough sleep, I woke up late and barely rolled into lecture. In spite of the usual college stresses, I still managed to start smiling after my morning latte. However, all things changed once I read the morning news. In the state of Virginia, lattes are not enough to make anyone smile. I've been to Virginia; it's where my favorite high school history teacher grew up, and one of my best friends attends a college two hours north of Virginia Tech. The state was green, the people were friendly and I had an amazing fudge sundae at a place called Shoney's. Virginia Tech has been described as a quiet place where not much happens. It is an agricultural school in a small town similar to Davis and the school website shows pictures of students feeding large groups of mallard ducks just like the ones that patrol our own campus. We both have slightly ridiculous mascots - we're the UC Davis Aggies and they're the Virginia State Hokies. We have The California Aggie and they have The Collegiate Times. Much like us, students online discuss the lack of nightlife options in the mountain town of Blacksburg, Va. and jokingly point out that the town doubles in size when school is in session. Instead of an annual Picnic Day, in Virginia they host the International Street Fair each April. I imagine before yesterday Hokie students could easily have complained about bored Blacksburg cops breaking up their parties, citing them for noise violations and other such superfluous things, just like we were probably ecstatic about the start of spring because nobody knows what to do with themselves in a small town when it's cold. They're college students just like us in a community much like ours. They had no idea that this would change for them on any other Monday morning in April. Th…
creator: Jenny Pedersen
publisher: The California Aggie
date: 2007-08-23
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Eddie Lee <editor@californiaaggie.com>
language: eng

UC Davis responds to Virginia Tech shootings
description: Officials discuss emergency notification systems By: Talia Kennedy Posted: 4/17/07 Editor's note: Monday's shootings at Virginia Tech marked the deadliest act of violence on a college campus in American history. Here, The California Aggie provides information on the shootings and responses from the UC Davis campus community. When an unidentified gunman entered the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University on Monday morning and opened gunfire, killing two students in a residence hall, the news instantly made national headlines - but the 25,000 students enrolled at the Blacksburg, Va. college were not notified of the incident until hours later, when dozens more had been injured or killed, reports said. At about 7:15 a.m. in Virginia, the gunman entered a residence hall on campus, fatally wounding two students. According to reports, the campus community was not notified of the incident because university officials believed it to be an isolated event. "We knew we had two people shot," said Wendell Flinchum, a Virigina Tech police officer, at a press conference Monday afternoon. "We secured the building. We secured the crime scene. We acted on the best information we had at the time." About two hours later, the gunman returned, this time to Norris Hall, an academic building on the opposite side of the campus. It was here where the gunman reportedly lined students up against a wall, shooting them all. By noon California time, 33 were confirmed dead and at least 22 were reported injured. The shooter, whose identity had not been determined by press time, was found dead among his victims, apparently due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, according to reports. In the hours after the shootings, universities across the country began showing their support for the Virginia Tech victims, including the University of California. In a statement released Monday, UC President Robert Dynes said, "Shock and horror only begin to describe our reactions at the Universi…
creator: Sara Hood
publisher: The California Aggie
date: 2007-08-23
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Eddie Lee <editor@californiaaggie.com>
language: eng

Program from April 16th Memorial Dedication, August 19, 2007
description: Front and back of the program for April 16th Memorial Dedication, August 19, 2007. The text on the program reads: "In the hours following the April 16 tragedy, the student-driven volunteer organization Hokies United placed 32 Hokie Stones on the Drillfield. The semi-circle of stones became a place to gather, to mourn, and to reflect, and the poignant display inspired today's memorial. As a community, we dedicate 32 engraved Hokie Stones in honor and in memory of the members of our Hokie family who lost their lives. Hokie Stone has long symbolized the foundation of Virginia Tech. Now, it also symbolizes our relentless spirit, our courage to move forward, and our determination never to forget."
creator: Brent Jesiek
date: 2007-08-24
contributor: Brent Jesiek
language: eng

April is the cruelest month
description: By: George Henson, ghenson@smu.edu Posted: 4/26/07 No matter how much we try to make sense out of the horrific events of Monday, April 16, we can't. Last Wednesday, under the guise of news reporting, NBC pimped the "manifesto" and video that the Virginia Tech assassin FedEx-ed the network during the two-hour gap between the first and second shootings. "The Today Show" last Thursday morning hyped the same video footage, feigning that journalistic imperative outweighed tabloid sensationalism. For all intents and purposes, the morning infotainment show was co-hosted by a deranged murderer. It was journalistic pornography. Sideshow journalism. Capitalism. I don't know who's worse-them or us. The pornographers or those of us who consume their pornography. To their credit, the students of Virginia Tech ordered all media off their campus by Monday. The question still remains: do we really want to allow a for-profit infotainment corporation to be the voice of our national conscience? Throughout history, poets have given a voice to the tragic events that marked the time in which they lived. In 1865, Whitman's "When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom'd" gave voice to the assassination of President Lincoln. In 1922, the American modernist poet T.S. Eliot published "The Waste Land," gave voice to the chaos following World War I, the irrationality of modern society, the age-old theme of the universe in chaos. That's how many have felt during the last week. The first three lines of the first canto, "The Burial of the Dead," read, "April is the cruelest month, breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing / Memory and desire, stirring / Dull roots with spring rain." Those lines are especially poignant now - in the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy. If you've never read the poem, it's worth a read. Don't worry if you find the language difficult or the references obscure, let the imagery speak to you. You'll be surprised how much clarity - context - the poem will lend to the horrif…
creator: George Henson
publisher: SMU Daily Campus
date: 2007-08-24
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: "Norris, Mark William" <mnorris@mail.smu.edu>
language: eng

Threat scrawled on desk chair found in Hyer Hall
description: By: Mark Norris, Editor In Chief, mnorris@smu.edu Posted: 4/25/07 A message scrawled on the back of a desk chair by an unknown person has prompted an investigation by SMU Police. The note says "I'm going to shoot up SMU on 8-06-07." The message was discovered Monday but was not reported to SMU Police until Tuesday morning. Authorities promptly responded, said Interim Police Chief Richard Shafer. "We have no leads and don't know who did it or why," Shafer said. The threat was discovered in Room 111 of Hyer Hall some time Monday. The professor of the class that meets there at that time reported the message to SMU Police. The message was written in pencil and still "looks fairly fresh," according to police. Shafer said the date of the threat is odd since classes are not in session at the time. The Summer II session is completed by then and the 2007-2008 school year has not begun yet. Police are looking at what classes meet in the room to determine if any names of interest appear on the class rosters. Shafer said the person who wrote the message probably has a warped sense of humor. "We don't think it's a viable or credible threat, but you never know," he said. The police investigation into the matter is still ongoing. This is the first threat made at the SMU community after the shootings at Virginia Tech. "Three weeks ago they probably wouldn't have thought about it," Shafer said. He said the police department is glad that the professor and students took the time to report the threat. He encouraged members of the SMU community to report anything they believe is suspicious. "Give us a call and someone will look into it," Shafer said. This story is exclusive to 'The Daily Campus.' Mention of this story by other media organizations must credit the paper. -- Original Source:SMU Daily Campus - April 25, 2007
creator: Mark Norris
publisher: SMU Daily Campus
date: 2007-08-24
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: "Norris, Mark William" <mnorris@mail.smu.edu>
language: eng

High crime a concern for dorm residents
description: By: Ben Briscoe, Contributing Writer, bbriscoe@smu.edu Posted: 4/25/07 First-year Weston Ashley went out to benches in front of his residence hall, Mary Hay, at 2 a.m. on the night of Oct. 12, 2006 to get his last nicotine fix before heading to bed, like he had done so many times before. But this night was different. As he sat alone in the cold air listening to The Killers on his iPod, a man Ashley had never seen before walked up to the four empty benches and sat down right beside him. "At first I didn't think anything of it," Ashley said. "He just asked me if he could buy a cigarette from me, and I said no and gave him one instead." The two then chatted for about 10 minutes about the lack of diversity at SMU before Ashley caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye of something alarming. "I remember turning to him and sticking out of his big puffy jacket was a butcher knife," Ashley said. "I just pretty much froze. In my head I was like, 'Oh my God, I am gonna die.'" But Ashley's nerves calmed, and his instincts kicked in. He quickly told the man goodnight and then walked briskly, "hell almost running," to his room and called the police. About 20 minutes later police caught up with the man. He was holding another student by knifepoint outside of the Owen Fine Arts building. While the man was quickly taken to the Dallas County Jail, the memory still lingers in Ashley's mind. "Every once and a while I will think about it, and my heart will skip a couple of beats," he said. "You feel you're so safe because we live in this Highland Park bubble where everything is so nice and pretty and clean, but the truth is that we're not safer here than anywhere else. It's a hard thing to realize." That's exactly how Virginia Tech Wildlife Science major Danielle Kulas said she felt after the shootings last Monday. "I just remember thinking at first that April Fools Day had already gone by. I couldn't believe this was happening here," she said. "The part that really baffled me was …
creator: Ben Briscoe
publisher: SMU Daily Campus
date: 2007-08-24
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: "Norris, Mark William" <mnorris@mail.smu.edu>
language: eng

Korean feelings on Virginia Tech massacre
description: By: Hae Min Sung, Contributing Writer Posted: 4/24/07 There was a Virginia Tech Massacre. Everyone was horrified. The killer committed suicide in the end, but he had already killed 32 people. Whenever I turned on the television, I saw the killer's face, and I watched the video clips the killer sent to NBC. I am a Korean. And at some point, I wish that I could speak some Japanese or Chinese so that I wouldn 't have to admit it. That doesn't mean that I don't want to be a Korean or I hate my nationality. But for now, I really don't want to face. When I heard the killer was a Korean, I didn't want to believe it. Korea is a peaceful nation, and we don't do that kind of terrible thing, I thought. I didn't do it, but I am so ashamed as a Korean. He just ruined my country's name. There was a cherish ceremony in Los Angeles' Korea town right after the massacre was broadcasted. Some people say it's an overreaction that Korean people blame themselves, so much so that many Americans scoff at Koreans. Unlike America, Korea is a nation of collectivism. Nation, society and groups come first, then individuals. That is why people are ashamed themselves as parents, as students and as Koreans. It is not only the killer's problem, but also Koreans'. I don't know what to say to those victims' families and to Americans. I cannot say anything but "I'm sorry." Whenever people talk about the massacre, I really want to leave. Wherever I go, I feel like people see me in anger because I am Korean, even though I know that they really don't know whether I am or not. At some point, I am scared that people might hate me because I am a Korean. At another point, I am scared that people might hit me or say something because I am a Korean. I don't think that American people are that irrational to hit somebody only because they have the same nationality that killer has. But I am afraid because as a Korean, I am ashamed of myself. The killer said that the society made him like that and he didn't have a…
creator: Hae Min Sung
publisher: SMU Daily Campus
date: 2007-08-24
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: "Norris, Mark William" <mnorris@mail.smu.edu>
language: eng

Time for the second guessing
description: The media are once again turning into the public's whipping boys By: The Daily Campus Ed Board Posted: 4/20/07 The nation is still focused on Blacksburg, Va. as all Americans honor the victims of the Virginia Tech shootings. But as the initial shock wears off, news organizations need to be weary of hyping a story that doesn't need the standard cable news sensationalism. This story has been sent across the globe since it occurred at the beginning of the week. People in Australia, London, India, South Korea and more are all discussing the matter. South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun offered condolences to victims for a third time and, among the South Korean public, a sense of despair prevailed. "I and our people cannot contain our feelings of huge shock and grief," said President Roh Moo-hyun. "I pray for the souls of those killed and offer words of comfort from my heart for those injured, the bereaved families and the U.S. people." Hundreds left messages on the country's top Web site, Naver. "I'm too shameful that I'm a South Korean," wrote an Internet user identified only by the ID iknijmik. "As a South Korean, I feel apologetic to the Virginia Tech victims." Ed Board understands that the Koreans are apologizing for Seung-Hiu because they do not want any race-related retaliation to occur. Asian-American groups have released similar statements for the same reason. But this is an angle of the story not worth the time devoted to it. There have been no retributions and there is no need for the Korean peninsula to apologize for a killer. Seung-Hiu wasn't acting on behalf of his country, he was only carrying out his personal desires. Not to mention the flap about NBC's airing of the controversial video made by the killer. As (amateur) members of the media, we appreciate that the network has to walk a careful line between letting people know the whole truth and not offending its viewership. We know that many don't want to pay the killer attention. But we also know that the …
creator: The Daily Campus Ed Board
publisher: SMU Daily Campus
date: 2007-08-24
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: "Norris, Mark William" <mnorris@mail.smu.edu>
language: eng

4/16: A product of psychology or gun control?
description: By:Adam Rizzieri Posted: 4/20/07 It is no mystery that the tragedy of April 16 at Virginia Tech stands out as the deadliest student-perpetrated school shooting in the history of the United States. It goes without saying that an immediate sense of shock spread across the nation as we learned of the tragedy unfolding from networks like CNN and Fox News. Among the 32 innocent lives that perished on a day that will be forever engraved into the memory of our nation was a Holocaust survivor, a few well-established professors and several bright minds who had a beautiful future stolen from them. With this tragedy, the debates about gun control and explicit video games and music are likely to re-emerge, just as they did after the events at Columbine and other instances where schools have fallen victim to this societal plague. Are guns too easy to obtain, and do violent music and video games truly desensitize people to the point where it's easy to take a human life? These are questions that have emerged in the past; however, in this case I feel that they are not what need to be asked. The shooter at Virginia Tech, Cho Seung-Hiu, was a 23-year-old who had a history of violence and irrational behavior. Before his murderous rampage, it should be noted that he was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital, was the subject of two police reports in 2005 for stalking, and was known among the Virginia Tech faculty as "intimidating." In fact, the chairman of the English Department, Dr. Lucinda Roy, took his dark poetry to campus police after his professor, Nikki Giovanni, expressed her intentions to quit if he wasn't removed from her class. Cho wasn't your typical student, and though I'm not a psychiatrist, I think it's safe to say that he didn't kill his peers because of music from Marilyn Manson or "shoot 'em up" video games. This kid was a product of psychology and his interpretation of personal grievances. It is very likely, and almost obvious, that he suffered from some t…
creator: Adam Rizzieri
date: 2007-08-24
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: "Norris, Mark William" <mnorris@mail.smu.edu>
language: eng

God isn't dead in America
description: By: Emily Sears, Contributing Writer, esears@smu.edu Posted: 4/19/07 Pat McDonald is an atheist. The junior anthropology major was raised Catholic but reconsidered his religion his freshman year at SMU when he became familiar with Zen Buddhism and atheism. "It surprised me because I never had considered atheism before. Atheism is a scary idea to me, because it seemed so dark and dreary," he said. McDonald represents only a small percentage of Americans today. A recent Newsweek poll shows that 91 percent of Americans believe in God, and of the nine percent who don't, only three percent consider themselves atheists. SMU, unsurprisingly, has about 20 religious or spiritual organizations on campus ranging from Christian to Hindu to Pagan. The university, associated with the Methodist church, turns to prayer in the face of tragedy. Students, faculty and staff united at Hughes-Trigg Student Center recently to pray for the victims of the Virginia Tech mass killings. Crosses were placed in the main quad in memory of the massacred victims. Dr. Jill DeTemple, an SMU professor of religious studies, says the number of Americans who believe in God does not surprise her. In fact, she thinks the percentage would increase if the poll had asked about belief in a higher power rather than God, which would then include many Buddhists and Hindus. "Technically Buddhism is an atheistic religion," she said. DeTemple says it's becoming popular again to be religious. In the '50s it was expected, in the '70s it was unpopular, and now, she says, it's once again the norm. "I do think religion has a more public place than it did a few years ago," she said. DeTemple said openly religious political leaders became popular with Jimmy Carter. "Since then we've expected public leaders to be religious." Emily Worland, a Roman Catholic and SMU sophomore economics major, says her religion has an impact on her political views. "Through Catholicism I believe that everyone is equal, so I follow liberal prin…
creator: Emily Sears
date: 2007-08-24
contributor: Sara AA Hood
rights: "Norris, Mark William" <mnorris@mail.smu.edu>
language: eng

Remembering the Fallen
description: Media Credit: Christina Parrish Members of the SMU community came together for a prayer service for those who were lost in Monday's Virginia Tech massacre. The service was to be held outside at the Flagpole but was moved inside due to inclement weather. -- Original Source:SMU Campus Daily - April 18, 2007
creator: Christina Parrish
publisher: SMU Daily Campus
date: 2007-08-24
contributor: Sara AA Hood
rights: "Norris, Mark William" <mnorris@mail.smu.edu>
language: eng

Senate acknowledges Virginia Tech shooting
description: By: Carey Elizabeth White, Contributing Writer, cwhite@smu.edu Posted: 4/18/07 Student Senate held a moment of silence for the victims and families of the Virginia Tech shooting and discussed campus safety yesterday in the second to last meeting of the semester. Senators discussed the need to increase awareness of safety procedures in addition to voicing their support of those affected by the Virginia Tech tragedy. One senator was concerned that no one knew the correct procedures for when the tornado sirens sounded last week. Senate agreed that more concrete legislation needs to be enacted to assure the safety of the students and our campus. Student Body President Taylor Russ said, "The first thing in our minds is survival," adding that, "We really do need an effective crisis management policy, because nothing in my mind outweighs the loss of a life." The current emergency preparedness plan can be found at smu.edu/newsinfo. The Senate hopes to help create a more effective policy for fall 2007. Later in the meeting, the League of United Latin American Citizens, otherwise known as LULAC, presented its case to be chartered as an organization on the SMU campus. The league advocates civil rights, supports leadership skills and provides scholarship funds to Hispanic educational communities. Several universities around the area charter this national organization. Universities like TCU, UT, UNT and TWU each have LULAC as a campus organization. Additionally, the executive committee ruled on the David Mingus Open Meetings Act. The act will create more transparency within Student Senate, making standing committees open at all times to all Senators and officers of the Student Senate, space permitting. The act was passed. The last Student Senate meeting of the year will be held next week on April 24. -- Original Source:SMU Daily Campus - April 18, 2007
creator: Sara AA Hood
publisher: SMU Daily Campus
date: 2007-08-24
contributor: Sara AA Hood
rights: "Norris, Mark William" <mnorris@mail.smu.edu>
language: eng

SMU says it's ready for campus emergencies
description: By: Mark Norris, Editor In Chief, mnorris@smu.edu Posted: 4/17/07 SMU officials say they are prepared if an incident like the one at Virginia Tech happens here. As recently as December 2006 an active shooter scenario exercise was held according to Lee Arning, the director of emergency preparedness and business continuity. But the shootings at the Blacksburg, Va., campus have changed things. "Today's event has rewritten the rulebook," Arning said in an interview Monday evening. A gunman killed 32 people at Virginia Tech in the deadliest shooting rampage in United States history. The victims were massacred in two attacks two hours apart on opposite sides of the school's campus, with Tech's police force unable to warn anyone before the carnage ensued. It ended with the gunman committing suicide - making the final death toll 33. Arning said he would attend a meeting Tuesday morning with other administrators to discuss the incident and its ramifications for the SMU community. At SMU, in the event of such an incident, the building managers would be responsible for either locking down their buildings or taking other measures necessary to keep its occupants safe according to Arning. They could also pass along information through a network of people within each building. The next wave of communication would come electronically: via e-mail, the official university Web site and phone tree messages. Any messages could also be announced on an intercom system; however, there is not a central intercom system and not every building on campus has one to begin with. One thing that will not happen, Arning said, is police officers driving around the campus notifying people over speakers or bullhorns. He said that would make the police cars and officers targets. SMU has emergency "Lockdown/Take Cover" guidelines that Arning said he discusses during the annual campus fire drills at buildings. The guidelines say if a person perceives a threat of violence to dial 911 immediately or call SM…
creator: Mark Norris
publisher: SMU Daily Campus
date: 2007-08-24
contributor: Sara AA Hood
rights: "Norris, Mark William" <mnorris@mail.smu.edu>
language: eng

The Virginia Tech massacre: Ed Board doesn't agree with the crisis policy or the media coverage
description: By: The Daily Campus Ed Board Posted: 4/17/07 The worst recorded shooting spree in American history occurred on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Va., yesterday. Thirty-three people were murdered, dozens suffered injuries and the entire campus now must deal with grief. How does someone begin to digest the incomprehensible evil exhibited by this shooter and the needless loss of innocent lives? Our thoughts are with the families of the victims and the entire Virginia Tech community. This is the natural reaction people should have. We were shocked when we saw how politicians, such as John McCain, a Bush administration spokesperson and the media turned this event into a discussion about the right to bear arms. Political policy should not be a part of the discourse and coverage of the massacre at this early stage. It is entirely inappropriate to even mention political policy right now, when families are still being notified of their relatives' deaths. This is a time for mourning, not campaigning. If people need something to talk about, rather than just trying to cope, the discussion should be about why officials took two hours to close down the campus after the first shooting in the dorm. When a murder-suicide occurred at the University of Washington April 2, the entire campus was locked down. Rather than close down the entire campus immediately, Virginia Tech officials did not give students elsewhere on campus any information or warning for two hours. By this time, the gunman had closed off the exits to the engineering building and had begun his killing spree. Furthermore, students were first notified via e-mail about the incident. Ed Board does not think e-mail communication is sufficient for such a drastically dangerous event. Police should have been in every building within minutes of the dorm shooting, going into classrooms and locking down the campus. We wonder how officials here at SMU would react to such an event and hope that they would take better precaut…
creator: The Daily Campus Ed Board
publisher: SMU Daily Campus
date: 2007-08-24
contributor: Sara AA Hood
rights: "Norris, Mark William" <mnorris@mail.smu.edu>
language: eng

Privacy Laws Should Be Changed
description: By: Alex Sanders Posted: 4/25/07 Once the chaos at Virginia Tech subsided, students began to seek answers. Questions rapidly arose after authorities discovered Cho Seung-Hui was the cause of the tragedy. Of course, one of the first questions was, why did he do it? Immediately after the shooting, the university worked with the authorities, sifting through student interviews and Cho's medical history, to figure out what could have possibly influenced somebody to carry out the largest mass shooting in U.S. history. ABC News reported, "in December 2005 - more than a year before Monday's mass shootings - a district court in Montgomery County, Va., ruled that Cho presented "an imminent danger to self or others." That was the necessary criterion for a detention order, so that Cho ... could be evaluated by a state doctor and ordered to undergo outpatient care." However, while receiving outpatient care, the doctor specifically evaluated him as a threat to himself due to mental illness, and not a threat to others. Because of this, his records were kept confidential and by law, the university didn't have a right to know, and they certainly didn't have the right to pull him out of school. This case provides significant evidence that privacy laws concerning mental illness need to be changed. We will never really know if the Virginia Tech shootings could have been prevented, but if the privacy laws concerning mental illness are altered, it is highly unlikely that a shooting of this nature will occur again. Numerous signs pointed to Cho as a possible danger. He had complaints of stalking and sending threatening messages, thinking suicidal thoughts, and writing violent stories. Granted, the state cannot remove a student from school for being troubled or behaving oddly, but they should at least be allowed to alert the university. Instead of strict privacy laws, counseling centers and state institutions should be able to flag students with suspicious behavior or concerning mental ill…
creator: Alex Sanders
publisher: The Daily Campus
date: 2007-08-24
contributor: Sara AA Hood
rights: Melissa Bruen <eic@dailycampus.com>
language: eng

Campus Saftey Measures Must Be Sensible
description: By: Daily Campus Editorial Board Posted: 4/24/07 The tragic shootings at Virginia Tech have provoked much discussion regarding measures to avoid future heartbreak. Perhaps the events in Blacksburg hit close to home in Storrs because of the similarities of the size and nature of the communities. Numerous measures have already been called for, some of which would entail strict regulation of the movement of people over campuses, including sign-in sheets and metal detectors. College campuses are open areas, and to restrict the movement of students over such a large area is both improbable and impractical. While the issue obviously needs to be addressed, any response must be reasonable, practical and not overbearing. Thankfully, events like this are rare. Due to this, it is impossible to detect when or where an individual may be driven to commit such an atrocity. It is equally impossible to plan for every eventuality. Regardless of the number of safeguards that may be enacted, it is impractical to expect to prevent something like this from happening again. Some hold counselors culpable for not taking appropriate action. It is extremely unfair to expect anyone to preempt this sort of tragedy by identifying and deterring those who may be likely to commit acts of violence. Even if violence were prevented, there would be no way to prove it was and anyone who took action would be open to liability imposed by our litigious culture. This threat of repercussion understandably causes most to pursue self-preservation rather than taking risks that may or may not save lives. Despite the inability to prevent, there may be more passive measures to keep people out of harm's way if such an incident does occur. Some deaths may have been prevented by a campus-wide notification system. Much of the campus was not aware that a shooting was ongoing. UConn currently has a call box system, the blue light emergency phones around campus, in place to allow distressed individuals to contact the UCo…
creator: Daily Campus Editorial Board
publisher: The Daily Campus
date: 2007-08-24
contributor: Sara AA Hood
rights: Melissa Bruen <eic@dailycampus.com>
language: eng