Virginia Tech: The Challenge of Instant Communication in a Crisis
description: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 I have been percolating some ideas about how to better integrate technology into a crisis plan I am currently working on. My work with the Red Cross over the years has sharpened my senses and I do have some idea of how to successfully communicate during a crisis. However, this week's events at Virginia Tech have given me some further ideas. I don't want to start getting clinical about this before I say that I am deeply moved by the tragedy this week. Having lived in Virginia for many years I feel close to the tragedy, and moreover, because we have a dear friend who is a professor in the engineering department in V-Tech. I heard from him Tuesday night and am grateful that both he and his freshman daughter are okay. That expressed, there are many lessons to start learning, especially as we prepare for the unexpected and communicating to large groups in crisis. There was a great story in the Wall Street Journal today that (registration req.) discussed the use of disseminating information via texting in a crisis. I have pulled some of the information about services from that article. My main takeaway from this event is the need for redundancy of communication. There need to be both high and low tech layers of communication to be most effective. First and foremost, an organization has to have a strategy to get in touch with all of the stakeholders and employees that need to be reached. A good start is a list of employee cell phones and home phone numbers that are ready to use in an emergency, as well as emergency contacts. Having a crisis communication plan is essential to get the most out of our communications, but here is an incomplete checklist of tactics to consider: High Tech Strategies Have a service set up to send instant text messaging (SMS), one such service is run by Omnilert and costs about $9,000 per year, another for schools is and opt in service run by Mobile Campus Set up redundancy in the servers to handle any increased load Set …
creator: Kami Huyse
date: 2007-06-19
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License
language: eng

No Shortage of Manliness
description: April 23, 2007 Filed under: Feminism, Minnesota Monitor, Virginia Tech — Jeff Fecke @ 12:21 pm It is human nature to try to figure out why bad things happen. Long ago, we blamed natural disasters on the capriciousness of the gods. The flood was caused by Poseidon's wrath, the storm by Thor's fury. Gifts were given to the gods, sacrifices of fruit, of animals, even of people, in order to placate them and turn their anger into love for their human charges. Today most of us (Pat Robertson excepted) reject the notion that bad things happen because of an angry and vengeful God. And yet, when tragedy strikes, we still seek to find the pattern underlying the madness, our ultimate failing that led to our punishment by...well, we're never quite sure, but we're sure we're being punished. After Cho Seung-hui opened fire on his classmates in Blacksburg, Va., it was only natural for us to ask why. The primary answer — that he was a deeply troubled, possibly schizophrenic and certainly psychotic man who was operating outside the bounds of normal society — is unsatisfying and seems to beg more questions than it answers. And so some writers have seized on an explanation that has a mythic history as rich and powerful as any blameworthy figure in human lore: It's the women's fault. Not all women, of course, but specifically feminists. These horrid people have, we are told, upset the natural order. They have made women more like men, causing them to demand for themselves the same privileges and prerogatives that men alone have traditionally enjoyed. At the same time, they have demanded that men stop behaving like louts, thus feminizing them, making them more female, robbing them of their manly virtue. National Review columnist John Derbyshire started the drumbeat by arguing that all of the students should have been armed, the better to kill the shooter. But that wasn't his main point. "Setting aside the ludicrous campus ban on licensed conceals," he wrote, "why didn't anyone rus…
creator: Jeff Fecke
date: 2007-06-19
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States
language: eng

Confessions of a Would-Be School Shooter
description: By now the subject of Virginia Tech has been much publicized and probably hackneyed. We talk about lax gun control laws, wasted lives, disturbed young men and how we wish things like these would never happen again. In my previous entry[link], I talked about how problematic Cho Seung-Hui is and the difficulty with which we tend to see the minds of these people. We always talk about things like these happening to someone else. However, as Bill Watterson once said in his great comic strip series Calvin & Hobbes, "We are all someone else to someone else." And so instead of talking about Cho from a distance and saying how crazy he was, I'd like to talk about how I was probably just like him. As I read through TIME's articles on the VTech massacre, I began reflecting on my own past and how disturbingly close I came to becoming a school shooter. In real life, I'm a very quiet person—meaning I don't speak much. If I have something to say and feel it's absolutely necessary, I have a very loud voice. Most of the time, though, I prefer to keep to myself and do not really talk. This habit caused one of my co-teachers to remark "You know, if one of us is going to become a psychopath, it would be Joey." Of course, I'd just laugh and shrug off the remark. It was only today that I realized how close I was to this. In one of my earlier posts I talked about how I was so maligned by my classmates in grade school. I really hated them; there were times I'd think about seeing their corpses hanging from a large weeping willow tree on campus. Seriously. I think this started after my parents' marriage was annulled, but I don't blame it entirely on them (and I presently harbor no bitterness toward them in this matter). There were a lot of events that led to certain, er, emotional imbalances I had in the past, I myself am not really sure how they add up to one another. Regardless, I was a young boy who was full of hate and I can very clearly remember that at one point I really thought about…
creator: J. R. R. Flores
date: 2007-06-20
contributor: Melisa Rivera
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
language: eng

In the Mind of a Murderer
description: Justify it as you like, I cannot think of Cho Seung-Hui as anything other than a murderer. A lot has already been said about the subject, so apart from the links to his plays here[link], I won't be saying much. The content of his plays being sophomoric aside (in all honesty my high school freshmen have written richer and deeper material than this), I don't think the content of his plays immediately says that he "fits the profile of a school shooter." As a previous entry said, there is no such thing as a profile; each situation is born of unique circumstances mingling with the unique turmoil in each unique individual. However, it is a definite warning sign of a person being disturbed, coupled with his general attitudes and way of pushing others away. Help was offered, but he refused it and did what he wanted to do anyway. One can't help but feel powerless when confronted with a person like this. The other school shootings we had in the past were perpetrated by children who I think could have been talked to—just that insufficient attention was given to their behavior. However, this guy was already an adult—like many other instances of adults going on a rampage, they have already made up their minds and will no longer respond to reason. This is why it is imperative that schools should take events like this seriously. Sure, they are aberrations, but this implies that somewhere, something went wrong. The most immediate problem seems to be security, of course. Students will not be able to bring firearms (or poison, as in the case of Gelyn Fabro) if the security weren't so lax. Guards search bags, yes, but do they know what they're searching for? Of course, there's also the whole issue with of how the person is treated. The school can only do so much—personal and parental problems are already beyond the reach of guidance counselors—but still, the school can provide the student with an environment where he or she can express his or her frustrations in a harmless way…
creator: J. R. R. Flores
date: 2007-06-20
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
language: eng

Flags at Half Staff
description: These flags flew at half-staff in front of the Metropolition Art Museum in New York City the weekend after the shootings at Virginia Tech, showing national solidarity and support for the University.
creator: Lindsay Hughes
date: 2007-06-18
contributor: Lindsay Hughes
language: eng

Memorial Balloon Release
description: With both state and national flags flying at half-staff, the memorial balloons are released into the heavens.
creator: Lindsay Hughes
date: 2007-06-18
contributor: Lindsay Hughes
language: eng

ANOTHER INCONVENIENT TRUTH: The Tragedy at Virginia Tech
description: Bethany Gizzi and Christine Plumeri 26 Apr 2007 The tragedy at Virginia Tech on April 16th, 2007 is no doubt on many of our minds. We struggle with the impossible task of trying to understand how such a horrific act of violence could occur on a beautiful, thriving college campus. Some of us have to try to explain this to our young children. We turn to the media for information, for facts, evidence, and perhaps, an explanation for something that is so difficult for us to comprehend. As those who work in the media work tirelessly to gather information and share it with the public, we cannot help but notice that almost all of the attention thus far seems to be on individual, blame-centered explanations for why this troubled young man took his and 32 others' lives. Certainly, this is understandable and necessary to help us to make sense of such incredulous violence. Yet, we wonder why not also focus on the larger, cultural, macrolevel factors that are common denominators in our nation's acts of mass murder in the workplace and in educational institutions? We would like to raise our voices to encourage the media to follow one of the most important aspects of this story. One which can provide us with an understanding of this tragedy and a way in which we can create positive and necessary social change out of this tragic act. As professors of Sociology, we study and teach courses on Sex & Gender and Criminology. It is obvious to us that the time is now to face the issue of gender and gender based violence. This is not just a gun control or "hawk versus dove" debate and this is not just a woman's issue. To quote Jackson Katz, an anti-violence educator who writes and lectures on gendered violence, "we need to say this is a men's issue", too (www.jacksonkatz.com). In 2003, according the F.B.I.'s arrest-based Uniform Crime Reports, 90.1% of homicides were perpetrated by males and 77.5% of their victims were other males. The perpetrator of these violent acts at Virginia Tech wa…
creator: Bethany Gizzi and Christine Plumeri
date: 2007-06-07
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication
language: eng

Israeli VA Tech massacre victim laid to rest
description: Hundreds of mourners accompany Prof Librescu to his final resting place. 'After surviving the Holocaust and Nicolae Ceausescu's regime in Romania, he ended up being shot in Virginia,' friend says Ines Ehrlich Published: 04.20.07, 12:44 / Israel News Professor Liviu Librescu, who was murdered in the Virginia Tech shooting this week, was buried Friday morning at the Ra'anana cemetery. Hundreds of mourners accompanied Librescu to his final resting place. Among those who came to pay their respects was the head of Jewish Agency Zeev Bielski who was also the former Mayor of Ra'anana, the Romanian consulate general, friends, relatives and media from all over the world. Shmulik Moyal, a neighbor and friend of Professor Librescu for twenty years, spoke of how one can never know how life will turn out. "After the professor survived the Holocaust and Nicolae Ceausescu's regime in Romania, he ended up being shot in Virginia." "He died in the place he most loved; he stopped the killer with his own body so that students could live," Moyal said. 'Never gave up on his dream' Choked by tears, the professor's wife, Marlena, thanked her husband for the two sons he gave her, saying that she hoped he would look after them from above. The professor's two sons, Joe and Arieh, eulogized their father in Romanian, English and Hebrew, saying that their father had always taught them to be good people, but he never taught them how to become heroes. In his eulogy Bielski said that it seems that the way Librescu met his death reflects more than anything his personal life story. "As a Holocaust survivor he managed to rehabilitate his life, to raise a warm and loving family with his wife Marilena who had also been through the Holocaust," Bielski said. "He struggled to come to Israel, never giving up his dream of living a meaningful Jewish life; he realized his dream of coming to Israel in 1978 thanks to the personal intervention of Menachem Begin with Romania's leader at the time Ceausescu; he beca…
creator: Ynetnews
date: 2007-06-20
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: Efrat Yaari,Marketing Manager,Ynetnews (Efrat-ya@y-i.co.il)
language: eng

Israeli killed in Virginia massacre
description: One of victims in Virginia Tech shooting rampage Monday is Prof Liviu Librescu, senior researcher at university. Librescu was killed after he stayed behind his class to block door and protect students. Massacre claimed lives of 32 people Yitzhak Benhorin Latest Update: 04.17.07, 17:04 / Israel News WASHINGTON - Prof Liviu Librescu, a senior researcher and lecturer at Virginia Tech, is among the 32 people who were killed during a shooting rampage at the university Monday. His wife, Marlina, and two sons, Arieh and Joe, have already begun making arrangements for his burial in Israel. The Virginia Tech Police Department identified the campus gunman as Cho Seung-Hui, 23, a student and native of South Korea. An official at the South Korean Foreign Ministry said that it could not rule out that the shooter was from South Korea but said it had not received any such notification from the US Embassy. One of Prof Librescu's students, Alec Calhoun, who was with him at the classroom when the shooting started, told AP that at about 9:05 am, he and classmates heard "a thunderous sound from the classroom next door, what sounded like an enormous hammer." When students realized the sounds were gunshots, Calhoun said, they started flipping over desks for hiding places. Others dashed to the windows of the second-floor classroom, kicking out the screens and jumping from the ledge of the room. Calhoun said that just before he climbed out the window, he turned to look at the professor (Librescu), who had stayed behind to block the door. Librescu's wife drove him to work on Monday, and he was killed about an hour later. His daughter-in-law Ayala, who is married to his son, Joe, told Ynet: "I heard he blocked the door of the classroom he was teaching... he must have realized that the murderer was approaching. He saved his students and was killed by gunshots." "He has been teaching there for 20 years, and was a senior, world-renowned lecturer. He is the professor with the highest number of p…
creator: Ynetnews
date: 2007-06-20
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: Efrat Yaari,Marketing Manager,Ynetnews (Efrat-ya@y-i.co.il)
language: eng

Bush honors Israeli professor killed in Virginia Tech shooting
description: 'This Holocaust survivor gave his own life so that others may live,' US president says during Shoah memorial service in Washington. On Iran: You who have survived evil know that the only way to defeat it is to look it in the face and not back down Yitzhak Benhorin Published: 04.18.07, 20:24 / Israel News WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush on Wednesday honored Professor Liviu Librescu, an Israeli Holocaust survivor who died trying to keep a gunman from shooting his students in a killing spree at Virginia Tech University. Librescu, an aeronautics engineer and teacher at the school for 20 years, saved the lives of several students by using his body to barricade a classroom door before he was gunned down in Monday's massacre. "That day we saw horror, but we also saw quiet acts of courage," Bush said at a memorial service held at the US Holocaust Museum to a crowd that included many survivors. "We saw this courage in a teacher named Liviu Librescu. With the gunman set to enter his class, this brave professor blocked the door with his body while his students fled to safety. On the Day of Remembrance, this Holocaust survivor gave his own life so that others may live. And this morning we honor his memory and we take strength from his example. 'You who have found refuge in a Jewish homeland' President Bush continued to say that, "This is a place devoted to memory. Inside this building are etched the words of the prophet Isaiah: You are my witness. As part of this witness, these walls show how one of the world's most advanced nations embraced a policy aimed at the annihilation of the Jewish people." Turning his attention to the Iranian nuclear threat, the American president said, "You who bear the tattoos of death camps hear the leader of Iran declare that the Holocaust is a myth. You who have found refuge in a Jewish homeland know that tyrants and terrorists have vowed to wipe it from the map. And you who have survived evil know that the only way to defeat it is to loo…
creator: Ynetnews
date: 2007-06-20
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: Efrat Yaari,Marketing Manager,Ynetnews (Efrat-ya@y-i.co.il)
language: eng

Cartier Liviu Librescu
description: Evenimentul Zilei Nr. 4846 7 Iunie 2007 Silvia Vrinceanu Focsaniul va avea, de luna viitoare, un nou cartier, "Erou prof. dr. Liviu Librescu", situat chiar in centrul orasului, in jurul templului evreiesc, construit in 1896. Consiliul Local Focsani a decis, saptamana trecuta, sa atribuie fostului cartier evreiesc numele profesorului in semn de omagiu pentru ca si-a aparat cu viata studentii in timpul masacrului din 16 aprilie de la Universitatea Virginia Tech din SUA. Propunerea se afla acum la avizare la Comisia Judeteana de Atribuire de Denumiri de pe langa Institutia Prefectului, urmand sa fie aprobata in cateva zile. Decizia municipalitatii focsanene a fost salutata si de fostii studenti ai profesorului evreu de origine romana. Tinerii au facut o baza de date digitala cu toate materiale publicate in lume despre masacrul din 16 aprilie. Baza de date, care cuprinde peste 350 de documente, poate fi accesata pe site-ul www.april16archive.org. Profesorul Liviu Librescu a stat la Focsani pana la varsta de 14 ani. -- Sursa Originala: http://www.expres.ro/article.php?artid=308428
creator: Silvia Vrinceanu
date: 2007-06-20
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: Silvia Vrinceanu-Nichita (silvia@ziaruldevrancea.ro)
language: ron

Profesorul-erou LIVIU LIBRESCU a fost ploiestean
description: Vineri, 20 Aprilie 2007 De ieri, el este Cetatean de Onoare - post mortem, al municipiului Cea mai oribila crima savarsita vreodata intr-un campus universitar din SUA - dupa cum a fost caracterizat atacul armat de la Universitatea Virginia Tech, in urma caruia au fost asasinate 32 de persoane - a adus in prim-planul atentiei opiniei publice mondiale un erou. Numele sau - Liviu Librescu, profesorul care si-a aparat studentii, blocand cu propriul corp, usa de acces criminalului. Strapuns de gloante, ultima lui lectie urma sa fie aceea a curajului, a sacrificiului, a apararii studentilor sai cu propria-i viata. S-a spus despre profesorul erou ca este de origine romana. Cu fireasca emotie aveam sa aflam insa, ca profesorul Librescu este ploiestean. Aici s-a nascut, in 1930, aici a locuit si si-a facut studiile liceale. In memoria si pentru cinstirea jertfei sale, ieri, la Sinagoga din Ploiesti, a avut loc o manifestare omagiala. Aceasta a constat intr-o rugaciune traditionala spusa in limba ebraica si a fost oficiata de Gilu Iuftariu, vicepresedintele comunitatii evreiesti din municipiu, organizatie ce aduna in prezent, aproximativ 100 de membri. "Liviu Librescu s-a nascut la Ploiesti acum 77 de ani dintr-o familie de evrei, a facut studiile la Liceul "Sfintii Petru si Pavel" si a absolvit Institutul Politehnic din Bucuresti in 1953. Profesorul erou era considerat, in lumea academica, drept o somitate; a fost recunoscut ca fondatorul teoriei aplicatiilor in domeniul petrochimiei si, de asemenea, foarte apreciat datorita muncii sale de cercetare in domeniul aerospatial. Din nefericire, profesorul Librescu a fost ucis in incercarea sa de a-si salva studentii de ploaia de gloante", cu aceste cuvinte si-a inceput discursul vicepresedintele comunitatii evreiesti. De asemenea, acesta a mai precizat: "L-am cunoscut pe profesorul Librescu, cu multi ani in urma si chiar am mentinut legatura prin intermediul corespondentei. Intotdeauna a demonstrat un grad de cultura si de bunata…
creator: Ziarul de Prahova
date: 2007-06-20
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: Dumitru Carstea, Director al Editurii Prahova (edprahova@asesoft.ro)
language: ron

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

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

Eroul Americii indoliate
description: 18 Aprilie 2007 Livia Cimpoeru, Eugenia Mihalcea Masacrul produs luni la Universitatea americana Virginia Tech din Blacksburg ar fi putut avea un bilant si mai tragic daca nu ar fi existat oameni ca Liviu Librescu. America retraieste in aceste zile cosmarul masacrelor lipsite de orice ratiune. Pe harta ororilor s-a adaugat luni universitatea tehnica din orasul Blacksburg, unde un tanar student a omorat 32 de persoane, inainte de a-si pune capat zilelor. Printre personajele centrale ale tragediei de la Virginia Tech se numara si un profesor de origine romana care a reusit, cu pretul vietii, sa salveze o parte dintre studenti. In dimineata fatidica, in sala 207 a cladirii Norris Hall, se desfasura un curs de germana. Cateva incaperi mai departe, profesorul Liviu Librescu, un reputat om de stiinta nascut in Romania, le preda studentilor. „Era o atmosfera cat se poate de normala", povesteste Richard Mallalieu, student al profesorului Librescu. Ultima ora a profesorului Librescu Brusc, in jurul orei 9.00, atacatorul intra in sala 207 inarmat cu doua pistoale si-l impusca pe profesorul Christopher Bishop in cap. Apoi incepe sa traga inspre cei circa 25 de studenti aflati in clasa. „Cel putin 30 de focuri", isi aminteste studentul Trey Perkins. Doar trei-patru studenti au supravietuit. Criminalul a iesit pe hol, unde a dat peste un ingrijitor care incerca sa ajute o fata ce zacea intr-o balta de sange. A tras de cinci ori asupra ingrijitorului si s-a intors spre 207, insa supravietuitorii blocasera usa. Atunci s-a indreptat spre sala 204, unde studentii urmareau o expunere de imagini a profesorului Librescu. Auzind focurile de arma din incaperea alaturata, studentii au intrat in panica. Profesorul Librescu s-a repezit la usa, incercand sa o blocheze. Curajul sau a salvat probabil mai multe vieti, caci, in timp ce el tinea usa, o parte dintre studenti au sarit pe ferestre. Vieti salvate cu pretul vietii Alec Calhoun, un alt tanar care participa la cursul de ieri al prof…
creator: Evenimentul Zilei
date: 2007-06-21
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: Calin Hera (calin.hera@evz.ro)
language: ron

S-a sacrificat pentru studentii americani!
description: 17 Aprilie 2007 Cristina Botezatu Liviu Librescu, profesor de aeronautica la Universitatea Tehnica din Virginia, a murit dupa ce l-a infruntat pe atacatorul care a produs cel mai mare masacru din istoria scolilor americane. Tragedia, produsa ieri, s-a soldat cu cel putin 33 de morti si 29 raniti. Conform ultimelor date oferite de politie, numarul victimelor se ridica la 33, inclusiv autorul atacului care s-a sinucis inainte de a fi prins de politie. Din primele date, atacatorul era un student chinez, de 24 de ani, care venise in SUA cu o bursa, in august 2006, din Shanghai. Unul dintre motivele vehiculate este prietena sa, pe care o banuia ca il insala. Cei doi s-au certat, o alta persoana intervenind pentru a stinge conflictul. Atacatorul i-a impuscat pe amandoi si a parasit caminul. La scurt timp a avut loc atacul in cladirea Noriss Hall, unde se tin cursurile Universitatii Tehnice. Politia nu a stabilit inca daca cele doua incidente au avut acelasi autor. "Avea ca 1,80 metri, infatisare asiatica, era imbracat ciudat, aproape ca un cercetas", a povestit pentru CNN Erin Sheehan studenta in primul an la inginerie mecanica. Politia federala Americana (FBI) a anuntat ca nu exista indicii care sa sugereze ca atacul ar fi un act terorist, dar ancheta nu exclude pentru moment nicio pista. Conform Star Tribune, unul din lectorii din sala de cursuri in care s-a dechis focul era roman: Liviu Librescu, profesor de aeronautica si specialist in mecanica fluidelor, numit Doctor Honoris Causa de catre Institutul Politehnic din Bucuresti in anul 2000. Romanul a murit incercand sa blocheze usa pe care a intrat agresorul, conform unor surse apropiate familiei. (Stefan Oprea) Un individ inarmat a facut cel putin 33 de morti intr-un campus universitar din Virginia, apoi a fost impuscat si el. Printre studentii si profesorii universitatii se numara si romani Un macel de proportii fara precedent s-a produs ieri la Universitatea Tehnica Virginia, din Blacksburg (estul Statelor Unite), c…
creator: Cristina Botezatu
date: 2007-06-21
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: Calin Hera (calin.hera@evz.ro)
language: ron

Virginia dean Benson '73 recalls tragedy
description: Alumnus defends administrators' actions but says he understands complaints By Cornelia Hall Princetonian Staff Writer Richard Benson '73, dean of the Virginia Tech College of Engineering, has spent the last three days struggling to maintain composure while confronting his own grief over the deaths of his colleagues and students. In his first media interview since Monday's shooting, Benson relived his emotions in the aftermath of the incident, praising the nation's sympathy and the cohesiveness of Virginia Tech's campus while reflecting on ways to move forward. Benson was at a conference in Puerto Rico when the tragic violence unfolded Monday morning. The gunman, Virginia Tech senior Cho Seung-Hui, shot two people in a dormitory before moving, around two hours later, to Norris Hall, a central building in the School of Engineering and home to Benson's office. Cho shot and killed 30 people in Norris Hall before taking his own life. Benson, who majored in mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton, was attending an Engineering Deans Institute meeting over the weekend. He first heard about the shooting when he checked his email during a coffee break and read that there was a gunman loose on campus. It was only when he switched on the television at his hotel that he saw that the shooting had moved to Norris. It was then that the reality of the situation hit home for Benson. "That's my building ... I walk through those doors every day," he said of Norris Hall. "It was just terrible to see that and not to be there." Upon hearing the news, Benson first tried to call his staff members in Norris Hall. "I was unable to get anybody, anybody," he said. He immediately booked a flight home and waited through flight delays and a layover to arrive in Blacksburg after midnight. "I would've gotten in a car and driven home," he said. His distance from his campus when the violence unfolded made the tragedy even more devastating, Benson said. "Being away heightened my emotional rea…
creator: Cornelia Hall
date: 2007-06-22
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Kavita Saini <ksaini@Princeton.EDU>
language: eng

Korean students afraid of backlash on campus
description: By Ilya Blanter Princetonian Senior Writer After the gunman in Monday's Virginia Tech massacre was identified as being of Korean origin by several news networks, members of Princeton's Korean community voiced apprehension over potential national reactions to the news. But students and alumni had mixed opinions about on-campus repercussions. "My parents ... are fairly concerned about other people trying to revenge their family's death or relative's death on Korean families," Jae Hammet '09, whose parents live in Virginia, said. Hammet added that he is not worried about his classmates associating him with the Virginia Tech killer, however. "I think that Princeton students will understand that one person is not representative of the Korean community," he said, "and I think that most people here see that student as an outlier and not as a [typical] Korean person." The 23-year-old Cho Seung-Hui — who shot himself after taking the lives of 32 people — immigrated to the United States in 1992 from a Seoul suburb, along with his parents and older sister. News outlets have reported that he dealt with personal mental issues, including depression, a penchant for isolating himself from peers and a fascination with gore that manifested itself in two bizarrely violent screenplays he wrote, which have since been posted online. In contrast to Cho's struggles, his sister Sun-Kyung Cho '04 graduated from the University with a degree in economics. She now works for the State Department. Princeton has a strong relationship with South Korea, with a consistently large contingent of students from the country matriculating at the University each year: The Princeton Facebook lists 20 students from Seoul alone. University trustee Y.S. Chi '83 is of Korean descent, and Un-Chan Chung GS '78 — a former president of Seoul National University — is widely thought to be considering a run for the country's presidency. Despite these connections, John Lee '06, president of the Korean American S…
creator: Ilya Blanter
publisher: Daily Princetonian
date: 2007-06-22
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Kavita Saini <ksaini@Princeton.EDU>
language: eng

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

Finding meaning in tragedy
description: By Brandon McGinley Princetonian Columnist As the epigraph for "The Brothers Karamazov," Fyodor Dostoevsky presented John 12:24: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." At first glance, the verse is difficult to decipher due to the vexing translation. The novel that follows, however, allows for a better understanding of this significant statement, which is particularly powerful in this time of national mourning. Faced with such senseless suffering, it is natural to recoil from any faith in divine harmony, for no amount of retribution, whether in this life or the next, can return the smiling faces of the lost to their friends and family. It is precisely at this moment, though, when that faith is being fired in the crucible of anger, grief and doubt, when it proves to be most comforting and, perhaps, most true. One of the most profound truths presented by Dostoevsky in his last novel is often simply accepted in contemporary society, without exploring its ramifications: We are all connected. It is a statement short on words but long on meaning. In "The Brothers Karamazov," the reader is blessed with the omniscience to understand that the entire cast of characters is hurtling toward tragedy, while each individual within the plot, particularly the three brothers, do not conceive the ultimate consequences of their actions or inactions. Though we strive, and rightfully so, for that connectedness in our lives — through friendships, community service, religious services, etc. — it is too often convenient to think of oneself as insulated from the rest of the community. At times of moral crisis, it is so much easier to disregard, either through true ignorance or active self-delusion, the propagation of ramifications throughout this tightly woven human network. When one decides to have sex without protection, proceed with an abortion procedure or take the life (or a…
creator: Brandon McGinley
date: 2007-06-22
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Kavita Saini <ksaini@Princeton.EDU>
language: eng