A Gray Haze over Everything
description: Campus life after the tragedy at Virginia Tech. Philip Yancey | posted 6/06/2007 08:01AM "April is the cruellest month." When T. S. Eliot penned that opening line to "The Waste Land" in 1921, he had no idea how it would resound in modern America. Oklahoma City, Columbine High School, and Virginia Tech—our calendars mark all three within a span of five days, a week soaked in grief. "As a youth minister, you anticipate weddings, not funerals," said Matt Rogers of New Life Christian Fellowship (NLCF), a Christian community that meets in the Student Center at Virginia Tech. "We have no playbook for something like this." I spoke at NLCF two weeks after the tragedy, accompanied by the Ruegsegger family, whose daughter Kacey survived gunshot wounds at Columbine High School eight years ago. "Very few people know what you're going through," Kacey told the students gathered for the somber service. "We've been there." The news media portrayed yet another mass killing on a U.S. campus. What greeted the visitor, though, was an overwhelming display of national solidarity. Banners and posters hung in many school buildings, covered with tens of thousands of handwritten messages of support. And a cluster of spontaneous memorials appeared around campus. Each day, visitors filed past the mounds of mementoes—a baseball, a Starbucks cup, a teddy bear, a favorite novel—that gave individuality to the 33 who'd died. Spring arrived late in western Virginia. As April faded into May, redbud and wild dogwood trees dotted the surrounding hills. Tulips and daffodils set off the gray stone university buildings. "It's usually such a happy time," mused one student. "We pack our books and stereos and head home, some of us with diplomas. This year, a gray haze hangs over everything." Before departing, many students paid one last visit to Norris Hall, blocked off with a green fence and yellow police tape. Where they used to attend classes, state patrolmen now stood guard. Copyright © 2007 Chris…
creator: Philip Yancey
date: 2007-06-18
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Becky Custer, Editorial Coordinator (bcuster@christianitytoday.com)
language: eng

Where Is God When It Hurts?
description: A sermon given on the Virginia Tech campus two weeks after the shootings. Philip Yancey | posted 6/06/2007 05:31PM We gather here still trying to make sense of what happened in Blacksburg, still trying to process the unprocessable. We come together in this place, as a Christian community, partly because we know of no better place to bring our questions and our grief and partly because we don't know where else to turn. As the apostle Peter once said to Jesus, at a moment of confusion and doubt, "Lord, to whom else can we go?" In considering how to begin today, I found myself following two different threads. The first thread is what I would like to say, the words I wish I could say. The second thread is the truth. I wish I could say that the pain you feel will disappear, vanish, never to return. I'm sure you've heard comments like these from parents and others: "Things will get better." "You'll get past this." "This too shall pass." Those who offer such comfort mean well, and it's true that what you feel now you will not always feel. Yet it's also true that what happened on April 16, 2007, will stay with you forever. You are a different person because of that day, because of one troubled young man's actions. I remember one year when three of my friends died. In my thirties then, I had little experience with death. In the midst of my grief, I came across these lines from George Herbert that gave me solace: "Grief melts away / Like snow in May / As if there were no such cold thing." I clung to that hope even as grief smothered me like an avalanche. Indeed, the grief did melt away, but like snow it also came back, in fierce and unexpected ways, triggered by a sound, a smell, some fragment of memory of my friends. So I cannot say what I want to say, that this too shall pass. Instead, I point to the pain you feel, and will continue to feel, as a sign of life and love. I'm wearing a neck brace because I broke my neck in an auto accident. For the first few hours as I lay str…
creator: Philip Yancey
date: 2007-06-18
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Becky Custer, Editorial Coordinator (bcuster@christianitytoday.com)
language: eng

Deepest Sympathies
description: Display in our Student Union Building at The University of British Columbia. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tyfn/467527061/ Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical-NoDerivs 2.0
creator: Phillip Jeffrey
date: 2007-05-29
contributor: Chad Newswander
rights: Phillip Jeffrey http://www.flickr.com/photos/tyfn/467527061/ Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical-NoDerivs 2.0
language: eng

UCLA Vigil
description: Photo by: Jessica Lum Students and university employees joined together last night in De Neve Plaza in remembrance of victims at Virginia Tech.
creator: Photo by: Jessica Lum
publisher: The Daily Bruin
date: 2007-07-15
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Saba Riazati <editor@media.ucla.edu>
language: eng

West AJ
description: A range of items are placed outside of West Ambler Johnson Hall. Photo Courtesy of Garry Thompson
creator: Photo Courtesy of Garry Thompson
date: 2007-06-28
contributor: Chad Newswander
rights: Permission: Garry Thompson sthomp2813@aol.com
language: eng

Virginia Tech
description: Por Pierre Lemieux 23 de abril de 2007 Virginia Tech (Blacksburg), Columbine (Colorado), Polytechnique (Canadá), Dunblane (Escocia), Jonesboro (Arkansas), Nickel Mines (Pensilvania), y Dawson College (Canadá). ¿Qué tienen en común todas estas trágicas matanzas masivas de estudiantes y escolares? La respuesta no es obvia. Lo que resulta obvio, para aquellos de nosotros que vemos más allá de los titulares, es que las matanzas masivas eran inusuales cuando las armas se encontraban fácilmente disponibles, pero se han incrementado a medida que las armas se han vuelto más controladas. A comienzos del siglo 20, las armas estaban fácilmente disponibles para la gente común en todos los países civilizados, incluida Inglaterra, Canadá, los Estados Unidos y Francia. En muchos casos, los individuos podían portarlas ocultas libremente. Pero todo eso ha cambiado. La masacre de Dunblane en Escocia en 1996, por ejemplo, la cual se cobró las vidas de 16 niños, ocurrió en un país donde, tras siete décadas de crecientes controles sobre las armas, se había vuelto muy difícil para los ciudadanos comunes poseer armas, especialmente pistolas, e ilegal portarlas virtualmente en cualquier lugar. De manera similar, los tiroteos en el Dawson College en Canadá en 2006 acontecieron después de 15 años de controles sobre las armas cada vez más rígidos, que tornan ilegal incluso portar armas en su propia propiedad. En los Estados Unidos, donde la mayoría de las trágicas balaceras han ocurrido, los controles federales sobre las armas se han incrementado prácticamente de manera continua desde los años 60. Ninguna de las masacres fue perpetrada por personas a las que se les permitió legalmente tener armas allí donde cometieron sus crímenes, y muchas de las matanzas tuvieron lugar en "zonas libres de armas" por disposición gubernamental. Lo cierto, tal como nos recuerda la tragedia en Blacksburg, es que resulta imposible estar totalmente protegidos por la policía con…
creator: Pierre Lemieux
date: 2007-08-02
contributor: Elva Orozco
rights: Gabriel Gasave Reasearch Analyst Center On Global Prosperity The Independent Institute ggasave@independent.org August 2, 2007
language: spa

La universidad de Virginia Tech reanuda clases tras la tragedia
description: Por Andrea Hopkins 23.04.2007 - 23:01h BLACKSBURG, Virginia (Reuters) - Los estudiantes de la universidad de Virginia Tech, portando 33 banderas blancas que representaban a las víctimas y al responsable del tiroteo más trágico de la historia de Estados Unidos, reanudaron las clases una semana después de la masacre. Justo antes de las primeras clases del lunes, el grupo de estudiantes que llevaba las banderas marchó sobre el campus acompañado de un grupo de tambores y trompetas que tocaron 'America the Beautiful' para recordar a los 27 estudiantes, 5 profesores y al asesino Seung-Hui Cho. A las 9:46 a.m. la campaña de la universidad sonó 32 veces y se soltaron 23 globos, señalando los momentos en los que hace una semana Cho, de 23 años, disparaba a sus víctimas en un edificio de clases cercano. Segundos después, se soltaron un millar de globos naranjas y marrones, y llenaron el cielo de los colores de la escuela. Miles de estudiantes, empleados de la universidad y residentes de la ciudad se reunieron en el campo de entrenamiento para ver las ceremonias en silencio, algunos lloraban silenciosamente y otros se abrazaban dándose consuelo. Cuando finalizó, los estudiantes fueron silenciosamente a sus clases, listos para volver a la normalidad tras una semana de duelo, ceremonias emotivas y estar en el punto de mira de los medios de comunicación. La universidad ha dicho que las clases eran opcionales para todos los estudiantes, pero la asistencia fue alta en general, según dijeron los responsables de la escuela en una conferencia de prensa. 'Yo quería volver aquí con mis amigos, porque ellos entienden lo que ha pasado', dijo el estudiante de primero de ingeniería John Meyer, de 18 años, cuando se dirigía a su clase de cálculo. Meyer afirmó que había vuelto a su casa de Frankfort, Kentucky, para estar unos días con su familia, pero nunca se cuestionó volver a terminar las últimas semanas del año escolar. Aún siguen las preguntas sobre cómo Cho…
creator: Por Andrea Hopkins
date: 2007-07-26
contributor: Elva Orozco
rights: Creative Commons Reconocimiento 2.1 España
language: spa

Atónita la familia del isleño abatido
description: Por El Nuevo Día - Puerto Rico Hace un año, los recién casados Juan Ramón Ortiz y Liselle Vega se trasladaron a Virginia a estudiar sus respectivas maestrías. BAYAMON - Amante de los bongós. Estudiante de talento extraordinario. Sano y sin vicios. Ése fue el Juan Ramón Ortiz Ortiz que describieron ayer sus familiares, atónitos aún ante el fallecimiento del joven de 26 años a manos del desquiciado que ayer mató a 32 personas en el campus de la univesidad Virginia Tech en Blacksburg, Virginia, en la peor matanza a tiros en la historia de Estados Unidos. "Él era un tipo completamente sano, sin vicios y buen hijo" El doctor Oscar Marrero, primo hermano del difunto, dijo que fue la esposa de Ortiz Ortiz, Liselle Vega, quien se comunicó al hogar de sus suegros para dar la mala noticia de la muerte del joven de 26 años graduado con altos honores de ingeniería civil de la Universidad Politécnica. Vega también estudia en Virginia Tech, pero no se encontraba en los predios al momento de la tragedia. "Ella estaba llamándolo, pero no lo conseguía en el celular. Luego llamó a un hospital y le dijeron que el cuerpo estaba en la lista del la morgue", dijo Marrero, entrevistado en las afueras de la residencia familiar, mientras se escuchaban personas orando en el interior del hogar. "La verdad es que no tenemos muchos detalles. Liselle es el enlace con la familia y ni siquiera le dejan ver el cuerpo", agregó Marrero. Explicó que la familia no tiene idea de cuándo el cuerpo podría arriba a a Puerto Rico. Ortiz Ortiz y Vega, quien es oriunda de Manatí, llevaban apenas un año casados y no tenían hijos. Ambos graduados de la Universidad Politécnica, decidieron partir rumbo a Virginia Tech para completar sus respectivas maestrías. Debido a su excelente promedio, Ortiz Ortiz, se desempeñaba como profesor y estudiante. Estaba pautado a terminar su maestría en diciembre. Los familiares que hablaron con El Nuevo Día describieron a Ortiz Ortiz, graduado del C…
creator: Por El Nuevo Día - Puerto Rico
date: 2007-07-26
contributor: Elva Orozco
rights: abc.gov.ar
language: spa

PERSPECTIVE: Covering Virginia Tech as a student journalist in Blacksburg
description: By:Priyanka Dayal Posted: 4/23/07 I spent three days last week at Virginia Tech University as a reporter covering the heinous murder of 32 innocent people. I had never felt so many things all at once. I had never been so nervous and so excited and so sad and so scared all at the same time. I had never eaten so much fast food, then slept for three hours then worked for 16. I've spent this semester at Boston University's Washington Journalism Center, where I write for a newspaper in Massachusetts and intern at USA TODAY's main bureau in McLean, Virginia. Last Monday, I was sitting at my desk doing some mildly interesting research. That's when I heard the first reports that people had been shot at Virginia Tech. The newsroom started bustling. What was going on in Blacksburg? Which reporters and editors would go? How many should go? Mindy, a reporter who sits next to me and, for weeks, has been the best mentor an intern could have, started gathering some fresh notebooks and yelled over the wall dividing our desks if I wanted to go. "Go where?" I asked. "To Blacksburg!" she said. That's not what I expected to hear. My heart started beating really fast. I've been a reporter, albeit a student reporter, for four years. I've never had that kind of an adrenaline rush before. I know I should have jumped on the assignment. But I didn't. I got scared. I didn't know what to do. Did I really want to go straight to a place where a psychopathic killer had just stunned the world? Yes. Once we reached Blacksburg, I wasn't nervous anymore. I set about reporting the story like I would report any other story. I talked to people about the situation. But I wasn't always prepared for their answers. Through tears, a girl my age, named Tina, who was in Norris Hall last Monday morning, told me about hearing gunshots in the classroom below her. She heard pounding. She heard screams. She heard maniacal laughter. Later that night, she heard all those things again in her dreams. While Tina was tel…
creator: Priyanka Dayal
publisher: The Daily Free Press
date: 2007-08-13
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Matt Negrin <editor@dailyfreepress.com>
language: eng

DAY OF THE DEAD ALTAR TO HONOR VIRGINIA TECH SHOOTING VICTIMS
description: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Quinn Densley 602-740-8569 DAY OF THE DEAD ALTAR TO HONOR VIRGINIA TECH SHOOTING VICTIMS A Day of the Dead shrine honoring the victims of the April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech will be on display at the Vision Gallery in Chandler, Arizona from October 22 - November 4, 2007. A special invitation is extended to Virginia Tech alumni, former students and friends to visit the gallery and pay tribute to their fellow Hokies. The shrine was assembled by artist Ruben Maqueda, who is best known for his work at the Museo Chicano, located in Phoenix, Arizona, where he has most recently created Day of the Dead shrines for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez. The shrine will incorporate traditional Mexican elements such as skulls and cut paper, but will also include other items associated with college students. The dominant color scheme of the shrine will be maroon and orange. The public will also have the opportunity to write a message which will be forwarded on to the students, faculty and staff of Virginia Tech. Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday which dates from pre-Columbian times. It is observed the night of November 1st to the morning of November 2nd. It is believed that on this night, the spirits of the departed return to earth to visit those whom they loved in life. Gravesites are cleaned and decorated, and special altars with offerings of food and drink are erected in honor of the deceased. Admission is free. Vision Gallery is located at 80 S. San Marcos Place in Chandler, Arizona. The gallery is open Monday through Friday 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. A Day of the Dead festival will take place in historic downtown Chandler on November 3, 2007 from 12:00 to 8:00 p.m.
creator: Quinn Densley
date: 2008-02-05
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Quinn Densley (qsdensley@yahoo.com)
language: eng

In Praise of Korean Apologies
description: In Praise of Korean Apologies By Yitzchok Adlerstein Despite initial apprehensions, Korean-Americans were not victimized in reaction to the Virginia Tech massacre. But this tragedy seems to have brought out the best in most Americans. Koreans initially took the news hard. Lee Tae-sik, South Korea's ambassador to the United States, suggested that Koreans in the U.S. fast for 32 days, one day for each victim. President Roh Moo-hyun devoted a press conference to the story; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs felt compelled to issue a statement. Cardinal Nicolas Cheong Jin-suk said, ``As a South Korean, I can't help feeling apologetic about how a Korean man caused such a shocking incident.'' Many in the United States followed with apologies of their own. Not everyone found this outpouring of apologies so admirable. One Los Angeles talk show host accused Korean-Americans of using the tragedy to stimulate sympathy for their community through a display of exaggerated contrition. He accused them of ``playing the race card.'' Now look who's stereotyping? An online Korean news source offered its own retort. ``It's an overreaction. It's doubtful whether the South Korean reaction will really help anyone.'' Perhaps it's now time to reflect on what it was that disconcerted Korean-Americans in the first place? If it was only fear of reprisals by other Americans, they were remarkably off-base. Their fellow Americans saw no more reason to target Korean-Americans than to go after gun shop operators or college administrators and hold them responsible for the shootings. Equally unfounded were any fears that the horrific crime would somehow impact the special status Korea enjoys in the United States, with more foreign students hailing from Korea than any other country, including China and India. Our country isn't that kind of place. Even more inappropriate were any pangs of guilt, a feeling that often defies understanding. Several times a year I get cold-calls from Germany, with someone on …
creator: Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein
date: 2007-10-11
contributor: Haeyong Chung
language: eng

Mention of shooter's ethnicity unnecessary
description: Apr 30 2007 Re: "CUPD Assesses Campus Safety," News, April 18 To the Editor: Thank you for the article "CUPD Assesses Campus Safety." In some ways, it made me feel a little bit safer knowing about the heightened security. However, it made me feel uneasy and unsafe at the same time after reading about the last shooting that occurred at Cornell. As a Korean-American, I have felt shame, sadness, pity, anger and fear about sharing the same ethnicity as the shooter at Virginia Tech. In a society where racial inequalities and stereotypes still very much exist, I feared for what this one young Korean-American student may have done for our future race relations here in the U.S. My fear was shared by many others, where Korean parents took their children home from VTech for fear of racial backlash. Thus, I strongly believe that your reference to the last shooting at Cornell was inappropriate and uncalled for. Although you did not specifically say that Kim, the shooter at Cornell, was Korean, it can easily be implied just by his name. I believe that your mention of this one horrific incidence in which the shooter just happened to be Korean only further aggravates the very sensitive issue of race. I believe that you should have referenced the incidence at Cornell without giving names of those involved, to prevent any kind of potentially dangerous stereotypes and consequences that it may have on other Korean-Americans around campus. Rachel Baek '07 -- Original Source: Cornell Daily Sun - April 30, 2007
creator: Rachel Baek
date: 2007-07-10
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Jonny Lieberman <jdl46@cornell.edu>, <lieberman.jonny@gmail.com>
language: eng

Ban lifted from UH professor - Hearing set for D'Andrea's defamation claim
description: Issue date: 4/23/07 Section: News By Rachel Manuel Ka Leo Staff Reporter A ban imposed on a tenured professor prohibiting him from entering campus and from speaking with his students, was lifted after the University of Hawai'i made an agreement during a court hearing last week. Michael D'Andrea, a professor in the Department of Counseling Education at UH's College of Education, was banned from campus and from contacting individuals at the college after receiving a letter from Interim Chancellor Denise Konan notifying him of his immediate reassignment to work at home. After arguments made on behalf of D'Andrea and a recess in the hearing before U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor on April 16, attorneys for UH volunteered to restore his freedom to communicate with students and faculty about the grievance process and complaints made against him, according to D'Andrea's attorney Eric Seitz. UH agreed to lift the ban while allegations that D'Andrea bullied students and faculty at the College of Education are investigated. A July hearing is scheduled to look at D'Andrea's claims for damages and defamation. On April 12, D'Andrea had filed a lawsuit against the university for what he called an infringement of his constitutional rights. According to the letter sent from Konan to D'Andrea, there were concerns about his "alleged intimidating, hostile and bullying behavior." UH officials issued a statement that the university is committed to and has an obligation to provide a safe and healthy working and learning environment for faculty, staff and students. The agreement reached last Monday that was entered into by UH also granted that current and former students, faculty and staff know that they have a right not to say anything to D'Andrea, according to UH attorney Gregory Sato. Sato had argued that UH feared D'Andrea might engage in bullying when communicating with students and faculty while Seitz argued that the ban imposed on D'Andrea was unconstitutional and an infringement …
creator: Rachel Manuel
date: 2008-03-12
contributor: Kacey Beddoes
rights: Kumari Sherreitt <editor@kaleo.org>
language: eng

Releasing the balloons
description: Balloons released before the Yankees vs. Hokies baseball game on March 18, 2008. Photo by Rachel VanPelt -- Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hokiefacs/2356325114/in/set-72157604217657636/
creator: Rachel VanPelt
date: 2008-03-26
contributor: Kacey Beddoes
rights: Rachel VanPelt (rvanpelt@vt.edu)
language: eng

Souvenir seat cushion
description: Free seat cushions given out at Yankees vs. Hokies baseball game on March 18,2008. Photo by Rachel VanPelt -- Original Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hokiefacs/2356328702/in/set-72157604217657636/
creator: Rachel VanPelt
date: 2008-03-26
contributor: Kacey Beddoes
rights: Rachel VanPelt (rvanpelt@vt.edu)
language: eng

Exhibition game poster
description: Promotional poster for Yankees vs. Hokies baseball game. Photo by Rachel VanPelt -- Original Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hokiefacs/2356343318/in/set-72157604217657636/
creator: Rachel VanPelt
date: 2008-03-26
contributor: Kacey Beddoes
rights: Rachel VanPelt (rvanpelt@vt.edu)
language: eng

Let's Go Hokies!
description: Scoreboard during Yankees vs. Hokies game on March 18, 2008. Photo by Rachel VanPelt. -- Original Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hokiefacs/2356341282/in/set-72157604217657636/
creator: Rachel VanPelt
date: 2008-03-26
contributor: Kacey Beddoes
rights: Rachel VanPelt (rvanpelt@vt.edu)
language: eng

Va. Tech victims remembered by candlelight
description: Students and community members gather at MemChu to reflect, pray April 19, 2007 By Rahul Kanakia Several hundred Stanford community members gathered yesterday evening at a Memorial Church service for the 32 Virginia Tech students and faculty who were slain Monday by a gunman. Deans of Religious Life Rev. Scotty McLennan and Rabbi Patricia Karlin-Neumann presided over the service. "We come together as religious and non-religious people. As faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends, we are all part of one community here at Stanford University," McLennan said. "Many of us have been overcome with feelings of shock, sorrow, fear, incomprehension, anger and hopelessness since Monday, all mixed up together. We come here to offer all of that up in prayer and contemplation and thoughtful reflection." As Karlin-Neumann read the names of the dead, McLennan rang a bell. The tone hung in the air after each name, fading almost to silence before Karlin-Neumann read the next name. Some attendees looked upwards, some stared at the floor, while others fixed their eyes on the front of the church. Alyssa Battistoni '08 said she lost a good friend from high school, Daniel O'Neil, who was an environmental engineering graduate student at the Blacksburg, Va. university. "I don't know," she said. "I wasn't really there, to tell you the truth. I was just thinking about how much it all sucks. He just got married, my friend Dan." After the service, Takeo Rivera '08 drew parallels between the victims' lives at Virginia Tech and student life at Stanford. "Their lives were cut tragically short," he said. "And that all sounds cliche and such. But the fact that it happened on a college campus makes it all so real. For instance, one of the victims was an RA, and I'm an RA. It was one of those things where you kind of reflect on your own mortality." Calley Means '08, a Washington, D.C. resident who was at the service because many of his friends at Virginia Tech lost friends in the attack, said he …
creator: Rahul Kanakia
date: 2007-06-13
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Permissions granted by James Hohmann Editor-in-Chief The Stanford Daily <jhohmann@stanford.edu>
language: eng

Va. shooting prompts Univ. policy review
description: Police trained, armed with special weapons, for crisis April 20, 2007 By Rahul Kanakia A new Stanford committee will conduct an evaluation of its emergency protocols in the wake of Monday's shootings at Virginia Tech University. The protocol review, which will be led by Vice President for Business Affairs Randy Livingston, was announced in a statement concerning the massacre by President John Hennessy. A University Department of Public Safety community service officer records the SLAC protest with a video camera and carries a camera with a telephoto lens to photograph activists. "The terrible ordeal suffered there reminds us how precious life is and how important it is that we all redouble our efforts to prevent such tragedies in the future," Hennessy said. "At Stanford, we plan to review all of our emergency response protocols. The safety of the Stanford community will always be a top priority for us." Police at Virginia Tech have drawn criticism for their decision not to lock down the campus after the initial shootings in West Ambler Johnson Hall, a dormitory. Chris Cohendet, a deputy at the Department of Public Safety (DPS), said the police train for what he called "an active shooter situation." In such a case, officers would call together nearby agencies and attempt to control the situation. "There's obviously a lot of things that go through your mind," he said. "You want to be sure the community is safe. But you've got to figure things out. For instance, at [Virginia Tech, officers] received what they thought was a domestic dispute call earlier on. And within that time frame the police department [was] getting numerous calls with differing information. It's really hard for a police department to filter all of this information." For these kinds of situations, Stanford's police cruisers carry a variety of weapons in addition to the standard issue handguns. They are also equipped with non-lethal weapons, such as tasers, as well as more powerful alternatives, inclu…
creator: Rahul Kanakia
date: 2007-06-13
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Permissions granted by James Hohmann Editor-in-Chief The Stanford Daily <jhohmann@stanford.edu>
language: eng

Virginia Tech Redux: Did the Old Media Lose it in Blacksburg?
description: April 18th, 2007 As the words continue to flow along with the tears after the deaths at Virginia Tech, one important observation rises above the ruins: the incident represented a triumph for what the pundits term the New Media over the Old. The keys to this triumph lie in the strengths of the New Media: its immediacy, diversity, and ability to speak personally. The immediacy of the New Media put them far ahead of the Old Media even as the crisis unfolded. The on-campus emails that first informed many students that something terrible had happened became like pebbles dropped in a pond, rippling out into the ether. New Media such as Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and search engines became the preferred sources for people desperate to find out what happened. Probably the most dramatic illustration of this was the group of students who fled to the library and then frantically searched the Internet to find out what was happening. A decade ago they might have turned on the radio or television. Even the Old Media had to acknowledge the role the New Media played for the students at Virginia Tech. CBS ran a story "Students Turn To Web In Time Of Tragedy" whose sub head read, "How the Internet Helped Va. Tech Students Cope with Shooting Massacre." The Los Angeles Times reported about University of Southern California sophomore Charlotte Korchak who instead of using a cellphone to check on friends at Virginia Tech, immediately went to Facebook. "I was able to immediately find out who was OK," she said. "Without Facebook, I have no idea how I would have found that out." As for the news on campus, the Old Media struggled to catch up. National Public Radio even published a desperate-sounding plea on their web site for witnesses of the tragedy to please contact them so they could line up interviews. In short, in the first few hours after the shootings the Old Media became just like the rest of us, searching the web for information and answers. Later National Public Radio would gloat, it…
creator: Ralph Brauer
date: 2007-06-08
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported
language: eng