Comments to Manna adviser offer first glimpse of Cho family reaction By Doug Eshleman Princetonian Staff Writer While family members of the Virginia Tech gunman have secluded themselves during the last three days to avoid media attention, his older sister, Sun-Kyung Cho '04, reached out to a close friend and spiritual adviser from her Princeton days yesterday, offering the first glimpse of how the shooter's closest relatives are reacting to Monday's killings. At a discussion forum organized yesterday by the Korean American Students Association (KASA) to help students cope with the shootings, Manna Christian Fellowship director Rev. David Kim told the group that Cho — a member of Manna while at the University — called and talked to him over the phone yesterday morning. Some of Cho's conversation with Kim focused on the guilt he said she's feeling in the aftermath of her brother's actions. Kim said that Cho apologized for any negative repercussions Koreans on campus may have experienced after Monday's shooting. The 23-year-old Cho Seung-Hui — who shot himself after taking the lives of 32 people Monday on the Virginia Tech campus — immigrated to the United States in 1992 from South Korea, along with Sun-Kyung and their parents. "When she called, one of the first things she did was she apologized because she felt so bad for the Koreans on campus," Kim said. Several Korean students and alumni have expressed anxiety regarding a possible nationwide backlash against their community following the Virginia shootings. Kim added that in the next few days, Cho would release a public statement on behalf of her family, since her parents do not speak English. Cho has taken a leave of absence from her job with a State Department contractor, ABC News reported yesterday, and her parents left their Centreville, Va. house Monday before media members swarmed the location. Cho could not be reached yesterday. She declined to comment when contacted on her cellphone Tuesday. In an interview after the forum, Kim said that Cho is "doing okay and [that] she appreciates the support of the Manna community that she knows." He added that he wanted to respect Cho's privacy by restricting his public comments about her, emphasizing his desire not to "compromise [his] ability to support her as a friend." Manna, a Christian undergraduate group, has historically had heavily Asian-American membership though its website emphasizes that it seeks diverse student involvement. Cho was involved with the group during her time at the University, but it remains unclear whether her affiliation with Manna reflected her family's religious beliefs or convictions she developed on her own. Cho was an economics major who interned at the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok during the summer after her junior year. She also wrote briefly for The Daily Princetonian. Kim said he had known Cho when she was an undergraduate at the University and described her as "one of the sweetest people." He also said that though her family was in great need of support, Cho told him that rumors and media reports that her parents had attempted suicide were untrue. During the discussion last night, some Korean students said they could not help feeling somehow connected to Cho Seung-Hui. "I can't help feeling a relation to him," Jin-Hee Kim '07 said. "I feel connected to him even though there is no pressure from others." She explained that, like Cho Seung-Hui, she has two foreign-born Asian parents. "We feel embarrassed because we associate him as one of our own," Jae Han '09 said. Andrew Kim '10 said he felt differently about the situation. "I think the feelings that we have are a manifestation of what the media is putting into us," he said. He added that he believes the media tends to emphasize Cho's ethnicity unnecessarily. "I feel that it is important to not become part of that." But, he emphasized, as a Korean, he does not feel threatened or uncomfortable on campus. Juyoung Chung '10 said he, too, hopes that the tragedy at Virginia Tech will not become too closely tied to the Korean ethnicity. "Even though Koreans can feel associated, I hope people recognize that this was an isolated event," he said. -- Original Source: Daily Princetonian - April 19, 2007
Would Public Safety be able to prevent a shooting?
By Owen Fletcher Princetonian Staff Writer About a week before last week's shootings at Virginia Tech, the University made the prescient purchase of a mass alert system to notify students of campus security crises. The University's system, which messages students' cell phones or other portable devices, has not yet been fully implemented, but it signals a heightened concern about campus security that existed even before the shootings. But the shootings have ignited a national debate on methods to prevent and effectively respond to crises and have led to questions about campus security procedures. Some Virginia Tech students have criticized campus safety officials for their slow response to gunman Cho Seung-Hui's murder of two students. Campus police notified students by email about two hours after the incident, but by then, Cho had begun his second round of shooting, taking 30 more lives and his own. Crises like last week's shooting are difficult to predict, Public Safety Deputy Director Charles Davall said. "You can never totally be prepared for something like this," he said. "It could happen anywhere." At a Senate hearing yesterday on campus security, Public Safety Director Steven Healy recommended that more universities adopt "mass notification systems that are capable of reaching community members." Getting students to provide their portable contact information for this system, however, could be difficult, Healy testified. "Even if you have a system that can reach a person's cell phone" or other portable device, he said, "they still have to be willing to give you those numbers." Healy, who is also president of the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators, said there is room for nationwide improvement on campus security. "[M]ost colleges and universities have plans" to respond to crises, he said, but "we're a long way from being able to say ... that all institutions know how those plans will play." Since last week's shootings, Public Safety has begun a review of campus security plans. Davall said that the department tentatively has arranged for Mercer County officials to train its officers. In the event of a crisis, Davall said, Public Safety would respond by securing the area and calling local armed police, since campus police do not carry weapons. They would then notify all University members by email. But one problem with this method is that "students have to be looking at [a computer] to get the email," he said. Healy also advocated "community policing" in his testimony. As part of Public Safety's policy, officers are required to patrol campus by foot for at least two hours a day so that students and faculty feel comfortable approaching them, officer Jim Lanzi said. The department's efforts to engage the community can make people more comfortable in reporting suspicious activity, Lanzi said, but they are also meant to educate the community since students sometimes have a "false sense of security" on campus. While these initiatives would not directly prevent an event like the Virginia Tech shooting, Lanzi said, the atmospheric difference they make could help increase the efficacy of a response. Princeton "is generally a safe area ... but [students] always need to be aware of their surroundings," Davall said. -- Original Source: Daily Princetonian - April 24, 2007
By Uwe E. Reinhardt Princetonian Columnist Students gathered in Richardson Auditorium last night for a service in memory of the victims of Monday's shooting at Virginia Tech," reported The Daily Princetonian on April 18. A day earlier, President Tilghman stated that "my reaction was horror at the loss of so many innocent young lives," a sentiment echoed by President Bush when he remarked that "those whose lives were taken did nothing to deserve their fate. They leave behind grieving families and grieving classmates and a grieving nation." Congress openly prayed for the victims and their loves ones. Flags flew at half-mast across the nation. It was good. Solidarity with stricken fellow human beings forges a group of people sharing a geography into a "community" or "nation." As Associate Dean of Religious Life Deborah Blanks put it so eloquently during the memorial: "We dare to affirm that there is strength in community." It takes nothing away from the grief we share with Virginia Tech's community to let the mind wander from that tragedy to another one, the daily toll of fellow human beings grotesquely destroyed or maimed in Iraq, among them many American men and women just as young and innocent as those killed at Virginia Tech. As Keith Olbermann of MSNBC's "Countdown," standing out from the herd politically correct journalists, asked boldly on April 17: "In just the last 10 days, 32 American troops, many the same age as the Virginia Tech students, have died. While one may take issue with the comparison, one cannot ignore the similarities ... It seems fair to ask the question, if the violent deaths in Virginia send the nation into shock and expressions of concern and anxiety, why is not the continuous flow of blood in Iraq creating a similar reaction? Why isn't our flag permanently at half staff?" Olbermann has a point. In just the two days following the shooting at Virginia Tech, close to 400 Iraqis were brutally blown to shreds and hundreds more seriously wounded, along with the usual daily toll of U.S. military personnel. Stories on their fate were pushed way down the list of reports on TV or in the daily press. Did Congress pray for them? Are these human beings part of Dean Blanks' "community"? It appears that the daily slaughter of people in Iraq has become so routine now that reports on it must compete for America's attention with updates on Wall Street, sport scores and the Anna Nicole Smith story. On our campus, the indifference may be amplified by what USG president Rob Biederman '08 called at the memorial the "Orange Bubble," namely, the fact that "every college should be a place apart," presumably from the outside world. The tragedy at Virginia Tech seems to have penetrated that Bubble only because of what Biederman called "the similarity of all students' campus experiences." Military service for one's country and the horrors of war are as far removed from the campus experience as one could imagine. To illustrate, in early October of 2005 I wrote to the then editor-in-chief of the Daily Princetonian: "I would like to make a suggestion that would add grace to the 'Prince.' Show every day, on the front page of the paper, the names of American troops who have been killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. The idea would be to remind young Princetonians, many of whom aspire to be future leaders, that there is a war going on and that they have contemporaries who are willing to stand tall for their country and to pay the ultimate price for it." In a courteous email, the editor replied that she understood and agreed with my sentiment, but that "The Daily Princetonian has a defined scope as a newspaper: We cover events and people affiliated with the University Community." She pointed out that the national newspapers are to keep us abreast of other events. Alas, who among college students these days actually reads these dailies? In fairness to the 'Prince,' not all dailies report on the blood cost of the war either. For example, I had earlier asked The Wall Street Journal, a major cheerleader for the invasion of Iraq, to honor on its front page the names of the fallen warriors. That request did not even warrant an answer, presumably because the Journal does not want to highlight that war has its costs. As a member of the University community, I can well understand the comfort the stricken Virginia Tech community may find in Princeton's and the nation's vigils for them and the sentiment that begot the vigils. But as the parent of a Marine who narrowly escaped death on the battlefield in 2005 and may yet have to serve a fourth tour of duty (because too few career-minded inhabitants of the College Bubble are willing to take over from him), I also share the loneliness that all military families feel in a nation that seems preoccupied with things other than the human toll in Iraq. Uwe E. Reinhardt is the James Madison Professor of Political Economy and a professor in the Wilson School. He can be reached at reinhard@princeton.edu. -- Original Source: Daily Princetonian - April 23, 2007
By Anonymous The shooting at Virginia Tech serves as a tragic reminder of the importance of a strong campus community, one in which people know and look out for each other. In the wake of this event, it is important that we make sure that all students feel comfortable in our campus community. This opportunity should be seized to reflect on how to foster a greater sense of community, especially in upperclass dorms. There seems to be a presumption that, once out of their residential colleges, upperclassmen are sufficiently acclimatized to college life. While colleges provide students with RCAs who organize study breaks and generally foster a sense of commnity within dorms, upperclassmen are left to their own devices. Though eating clubs provide some measure of support for upperclassmen, nothing exists to promote socialization in upperclass dorms or among the many students who do not choose to join clubs or remain in the residential colleges. Independent work, which puts increased pressure on upperclassmen and often requires them to spend significant time alone, means that community feeling outside of eating clubs often suffers. Some students go through an entire year without meeting all their neighbors. Though social dynamics among students is, in the end, the result of our own behavior, there is room for the administration to provide a helping hand. While the University provides mental health services for those in need, having intermediaries step, similar to RCAs, would greatly stimulate social interactions in upperclass dorms and encourage students with psychological issues not to isolate themselves. This could easily be achieved by expanding the mission — and budget — of dormitory assistants, whose current responsibilities are focused on questions of maintenance and living conditions. These measures are not intended to prevent tragic instances such as those at Virginia Tech. They would, however, encourage interaction in upperclass dorms and foster a greater sense of community. It would encourage people to meet and take an interest in their neighbors, reducing the risk that students who are depressed, or feel particularly lonely, slip through the cracks unnoticed. We share the pain of the Virginia Tech community and hope that from this tragedy, we can all realize the vital role of looking out for the wellbeing of our classmates. -- Original Source: Daily Princetonian - April 20, 2007
Prof. Newman: Self-image drove Va. Tech shooter
By Sam Fox Krauss Princetonian Staff Writer Students who kill their classmates are motivated by a desire to change their reputation, Wilson School professor Katherine Newman and politics professor Keith Whittington told about 50 students and community members last night at a talk on the Virginia Tech shootings. Newman discussed the social experience of school shooters and the unpredictability of such tragedies, while Whittington related the killings at Virginia Tech to gun control regulation and discussed the potential for changes to concealed weapons permits. The sociology of school shootings Major American school shootings have mostly occurred in obscure rural neighborhoods, Newman said. She likened the school massacres in small towns to the "endemic" violence in big cities. Newman went on to discuss Virginia Tech shooter Cho Seung-Hui in the context of three case studies she has done of school shootings since the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. "What all three of these boys were trying to do was changing their image in the eyes of their peers," Newman said. In rural towns, the school is an easy place to make a violent statement, Newman said. She contrasted this with the situation in cities, where young men are more likely to commit violent crimes on the street. Newman found that school gunmen in recent years have professed a desire to surpass the death toll of the Columbine shootings. The same mentality, she said, seems to be true for Cho. Newman discussed several cases of school shootings, all committed by students much younger than Cho. She said that if the children been older, their mental diseases would have been more readily apparent. "There isn't a single rampage incident that wasn't preceded by a string of signals," Newman said. But the signals that future shooters send out are often ambiguous and under the radar of adults, which is why the signs are rarely reported, she said. Classmates of the shooters often do not convey their suspicions to authority figures because they fear being labeled a "rat," Newman said. She described the sense of community in small towns that can lead to reluctance to come forward with damaging information regarding a child. In one example, a neighbor saw a child killing cats in his backyard but did not tell the child's parents. The child went on to kill several students at his middle school. Neighbors may also be suspicious of the motives of the people who come forward with information about their children. Newman noted that the Virginia Tech shootings were different from other school shootings because classmates and professors did come forward with information, and Cho did receive treatment. School shootings and gun control Whittington discussed the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993, which requires federally licensed handgun dealers to run background checks on customers. Cho went through a background check when he purchased a gun from a licensed dealer. Unfortunately, Cho was not in the federal background check system, though a Virginia judge had ruled him to be a danger to himself. "[Cho] should have been included in the database, and [it] should have excluded him," Whittington said. "[Gun control is] not a sufficiently high priority in the state or federal budget," Whittington said. He also noted many problems with background checks, including the high cost of constantly updating databases and difficulties in maintaining consistency across databases. "It's unlikely to thrust forward a major movement ... for rethinking gun control more broadly," Whittington said. He does not foresee a major shift in gun control, but he predicts a debate about concealed weapons permits. The argument for concealed weapons permits is that students may have been able to stop Cho during the shootings. The lecture was organized as a response to the Virginia Tech shootings by the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students and the USG. -- Original Source: Daily Princetonian - April 24, 2007
Campus comes together to mourn victims of shooting By Cornelia Hall Princetonian Staff Writer Photo by Gabriela Aoun Students gathered in Richardson Auditorium last night for a service in memory of the victims of Monday's shootings at Virginia Tech. With solemn faces, some stained with tears, they listened to musical performances, prayers and speeches. Associate Dean of Religion Life Deborah Blanks took the podium first, addressing the assembled students with deliberate, heartfelt remarks. She emphasized the renewed interconnectedness of the student body, calling the Princeton community "united in heart, spirit and solidarity." "We dare to affirm that there is strength in community," she said. In addition to the sense of unity on Princeton's campus, Blanks spoke of its tie to all academic institutions. "When tragedy touches one life, its universal reach reminds us of the fragility and the vulnerability of all life," she noted. She closed her remarks with a prayer. USG president Rob Biederman '08 also stressed the transcendence of the college experience, bringing the events at Virginia Tech closer to the Princeton campus. He spoke solemnly as the audience kept their gazes fixed on the podium. "Every college campus should be a place apart; I imagine Princeton and Virginia Tech are no different in this regard," he told the gathering. "Here at Princeton, some casually refer to this as the Orange Bubble. At Virginia Tech yesterday, the bubble was ruptured, and we felt the shocks of that rupture here." Monday's gunshots reverberated across the country, with President Bush seeking to console an appalled America and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) offering a moment of silence on the House floor. "Those whose lives were taken did nothing to deserve their fate," Bush said at a memorial held at the Virginia Tech campus yesterday. "They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now they're gone, and they leave behind grieving families and grieving classmates and a grieving nation." One reason why Princeton felt the repercussions of the tragedy, Biederman said, is the similarity of all students' campus experiences. "As college students, we can feel for their tragedy because we too know the sense of safety and security they felt that morning. We must give our thoughts and prayers to them because we are the same." For some, the tragedy hit especially close to home. Misan Ikomi '08, from Leesburg, Va., said about a third of her high school class attends Virginia Tech. After Monday's violence, she contacted a close friend to check in on her and was assured of her safety. "She said it's been pure chaos, like being in a movie and not really understanding what's happened," Ikomi said. Jeff Hall '08 has a brother who attends Virginia Tech. Hall reflected on the conversation he had after calling to make sure his brother was okay. "He didn't really talk about it too much," Hall said. "He was in a building nearby when it happened, and he saw people running out the door when it happened. I didn't really get much of a reaction from him." "Even for those of us without friends or relatives in Blacksburg," Biederman said, "it's nearly impossible to feel unaffected by what has transpired," he said. Students clapped sporadically during the service, seemingly unsure of the appropriate response to the speeches. Applause was subdued and brief. The speakers also offered a sense of optimism, encouraging students to look toward the future in evaluating how they go about their daily lives. President Tilghman was traveling and could not attend the service, but Vice President for Campus Life Janet Dickerson, Provost Christopher Eisgruber '83 and several officials from Public Safety were in attendance. At an Episcopalian memorial service in the University Chapel earlier yesterday afternoon, Princeton community members remembered the victims of Monday's attacks while searching for higher meaning through religion. "I would hope that this would be an opportunity to develop habits of prayer and ongoing awareness of the transient nature of life and what that means for us in terms of our relationships, with one another and with God," Rev. Stephen White, an Episcopal chaplain, said after the service. Eisgruber offered similar advice at the memorial. "Take the time to honor and value your own life and the lives of the people around you," he said. Biederman suggested the University community address the issue of personal safety not with increased security but with increased trust. "We should work daily to deepen and strengthen the bonds that make the college experience so special," Biederman told the gathering. "We need to look out for each other." -- Original Source: Daily Princetonian - April 18, 2007
After VaTech, violent creative writing raises concerns on campuses
By: Sean Moroney Posted: 5/17/07 Other than being two of the most-read playwrights in history, Sophocles and Shakespeare share another common thread-a knack for writing gruesome but also unforgettable scenes. Likewise, Cho Seung-Hui, the Virginia Tech shooter who was a senior majoring in English, graphically described murder and violence in two plays he wrote for a class in the fall of his senior year. One difference between the well-known playwrights and Cho, however, was that their words stayed on the stage and Cho's played out in real life. Since the Virginia Tech massacre April 16, critics have questioned whether university administrators and professors could have taken further steps to prevent the shooting. Specifically, they have focused on Cho's two plays-"Mr. Brownstone" and "Richard McBeef," in which a 13-year-old threatens to kill his stepfather. "There is that understood latitude in creative writing," Duke English Professor Deborah Pope wrote in an e-mail. "There has to be that room to reach deeply. Not least of all because some of the greatest writers we know have written about quite disturbing events and characters. Many of the Greek plays and Shakespeare, as just two examples, are full of gore." In the English department at Duke, students can take a number of courses that either integrate creative writing into the curriculum or focus solely on it. Pope, who teaches creative writing, said she is not aware of an official policy on regulating a student's creative writing. "I don't know how there could be," Pope said. "It must rest with a teacher's individual judgment." Creative writing in college is a delicate issue because professors oftentimes encourage students to express themselves freely in their writing but at the same time must recognize when highly imaginative writing signals problems in the personal lives of the student. "I read both of [Cho's] short plays. I was pretty horrified and disgusted because I hate violence," said senior and English major Stephen Lee. "I haven't written anything equally violent or disturbing." Lee said he sometimes feels self-conscious about sharing his writing that is particularly grotesque due to fear of how other students might react. He added, however, that his creative writing professors have never censored a student's work just because it was violent or disturbing. "At Duke, I have read some disturbing stories written by fellow students, but I've never felt remotely endangered because the author has always been able to explain and defend his or her creative choices," Lee wrote in an e-mail. A senior in Cho's playwrighting class, Steven Davis, told The New York Times that after reading Cho's play "Richard McBeef" one night, he turned to his roommate and said, "This is the kind of guy who is going to walk into a classroom and start shooting people." After noticing a pattern of odd behavior from Cho-which included taking pictures of women with his cell phone camera in a poetry class in his junior year and a taciturn personality, Lucinda Roy, chair of the English department and co-director of the creative writing program at Virginia Tech, began to tutor Cho privately. Roy and other professors took further steps to ensure that counseling was sought for Cho, who was ordered to attend a psychiatric facility in late 2005. But their actions were not enough to prevent the shooting. "Fortunately, I have never had to deal with writing that struck me as truly psychotic or sadistic," Pope said. "When I heard that the Virginia Tech's writing teacher, of all people, had raised red flags, my first reaction was, 'My god, it must have been something really, really, unsettling-it must have just been completely over the edge.'" English major Melanie Garcia, Trinity '07, said the way she approaches writing is to write about things that mean a lot to her. "By writing things down that are personal, I make them permanent-they become something outside of me," she said. "If it were a painful memory, it would not be as painful." -- Original Source: Duke Chronicle - May 17, 2007
Shooting points to need for less restrictive gun laws
By: Danny Mistarz Posted: 4/24/07 After the tragic events that took place at Virginia Tech April 16, the anti-Second Amendment crowd has once again reared its ugly head. The usual claims of guns causing violence and the necessity to ban personal ownership have come out. But what if one person, a student, a professor, the RA in the dorm, had been carrying a gun? Would dozens of lives have been spared? The state of Virginia's legislature had a bill proposed last year, HB 1572, proposing that handguns be permitted on college campuses for those persons with proper permits and certification. The bill was shot down in subcommittee, never making it to the house floor. At the time, it was celebrated by a VT spokesman as a stride toward continued public safety. Was the wrong decision was made? Guns are used 2.5 million times in self-defense annually, saving approximately 2,575 lives for each life lost annually according to the Second Amendment Foundation; could HB 1572 gave saved thirty-one lives on the morning of April 16, or even just one? Let's assume that guns were permitted on campus at Virginia Tech, and that one student or one professor in the engineering building was carrying that day. This coward would never have been able to level a gun on hundreds of his classmates had he known there was the possibility of having to defend himself. What if a student on the hall of the dormitory had a gun, just in the room for protection? Certainly the first two gunshots, would have been heard and within a minute of the start of a rampage, 31 lives could have been saved. All it would take is one person, carrying one gun. No gun law could stop people who want to get guns from getting them any better than our current drug laws work. Perhaps the gun laws that need arguing against are the gun laws that limit us, not the laws that protect us. Danny Mistarz Pratt '09 -- Original Source: Duke Chronicle - April 24, 2007
By: Zak Kazzaz Posted: 4/23/07 Early Friday morning, Duke University Police Department received an anonymous bomb threat for Bell Tower Dormitory and another building, which does not exist. The threat-received through a telecommunications device for the deaf-was not found credible by the police, but they investigated the dorm to ensure there was no hazard, said Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs. Bell Tower residents were not evacuated and received an e-mail about the threat several hours later. The incident added Duke to a list of schools and universities across the country that have received security threats since the Virginia Tech shootings a week ago. Although some universities have chosen to evacuate buildings and cancel classes in response to the threats, others have opted to continue normal activities. "Threats are made over the course of the year, and [the police] exercise a judgment," Moneta said. "They have expertise in determining that something's credible or not." He added that DUPD is currently investigating who called in the threat. Some Bell Tower residents said they were wary of how the situation was handled. Freshman Jordan Rice said he saw a police officer searching the dormitory Friday. "We asked him if he needed any help, and he said no," Rice said. "He looked to be in no hurry." Rice added that he was unsure whether or not evacuation would have been necessary. "They deemed it was not credible," he said. "I trust that, but then again, you really don't want to make the same mistake the Virginia Tech administrators made in not closing down classes or, in this case, evacuating a dorm." Joe Gonzalez, associate dean for residential life, wrote in the e-mail sent to the residents that there was no reason for students to feel unsafe. "We do not believe Bell Tower residents have any cause for concern at this time, but we wanted to make you aware of it and encourage extra vigilance on your part," he said. In addition to Gonzalez's e-mail, Moneta sent out a message Friday to the entire undergraduate body, referencing the threat and encouraging students to remain safe and cautious. "Institutions across the nation and world, including Duke, begin hearing murmurs of violent acts to follow at home on one's own campus," Moneta wrote in the e-mail. "While institutions must take such threats seriously and do their best to explore their veracity, this grim reality underscores our need to be extra vigilant in all that we do." Freshman Jon Silverman, a Bell Tower resident, said he preferred to remain unaware of threats unless the University chooses to take action. "I just don't really want to know that they're not going to do something," Silverman said. "It's perceived risk versus actual risk." He added that, in this turbulent time, bomb threats have the potential to shut down universities and that Duke should only inform students of threats if they are concrete. "If they do start responding to every single bomb threat, we won't have finals or classes," Silverman said. "If they just stop responding and don't let all these copycats take it seriously, then hopefully it'll die off." -- Original Source: Duke Chronicle - April 23, 2007
By: Eugene Wang Posted: 4/20/07 Executive Vice President Tallman Trask spoke about Duke's emergency response system and Jo Rae Wright, dean of the Graduate School, reported on the future of the school at the Academic Council's meeting Thursday. Paul Haagen, chair of the council and professor of law, said he asked Trask to speak about Duke's preparation for "extraordinary safety-related events," in light of the massacre at Virginia Tech Monday. Duke has the plans, equipment and notification systems in place to respond to emergencies, Trask said. He added, however, that a response system alone may not have been able to prevent the tragedy. "In the current circumstances, I can assure you we have taken all prudent preparatory steps to deal with the circumstances," Trask said. He added it is impossible for the University to notify everyone instantly in the case of an emergency. "We don't know of any communication systems that can get a message to 27,000 people in three minutes," Trask said. He also noted that although the electronic door locks can be instantly disabled, there is no way of instantaneously restricting entry to Duke's campus. "We don't even control access to our campus... there are almost 20 different roads anyone could ride down to get into Duke," Trask said. Some members asked why no mass message was sent to the students and their parents after the massacre at Virginia Tech. "We deliberately decided not to send a message to all parents... because none of us really know what to say, none of us know the facts," Trask said. Council members also discussed if Counseling and Psychological Services has the capacity and strategies to deal with students' mental health issues. "We need to be clearer in instructions about what faculty can and cannot do," Trask said. The council also listened to a presentation by Wright on the "strategic plan" for the Graduate School and the state of the school's finances. She said her goals for the future are like a "three-legged stool"-to recruit, retain and train the "best and most successful students." She said the school must improve its financial support packages, including health insurance, stipends and summer research awards, if it hopes to attract talented graduate students. "Having outstanding graduate students is critical to getting outstanding faculty," Wright said. "If we aren't willing to make that commitment as an institution, then we're in the wrong business." She said her priorities for the Graduate School next year include recruiting underrepresented minorities, planning the Graduate Student Center and evaluating teaching assistant training programs. Wright added, however, that the funds to implement these priorities are still uncertain. -- Original Source: Duke Chronicle - April 20, 2007
By: Anthony Galanos Posted: 4/20/07 The media coverage of the tragedy at Virginia Tech is rewarding insanity and complicating grief. But there are 32 families, and an entire university who are grieving. Not sad, not upset, not disgruntled... but GRIEVING. And how we treat them in this critical period will determine how they cope now and what the legacy of this past week will be for them. Almost as sad as the loss of life is that this American culture acts like it knows not what grieving is. You want to see grieving, find any child 10 years of age or younger and watch them after their dog or cat dies. It is not a profound concept; it does not require a degree in philosophy or theological training. It is a natural process, common to all humanity. Why we ignore it or complicate it, I do not know, but to accent anything at this raw moment but the grief of the people involved is to confuse them-no, is to use them and to make their journey more complicated and more traumatic than it already is. If my 18-year-old daughter were shot and killed in her dorm, and the only way it was described by her college president was as a "domestic situation" because they thought she had dated the shooter, I would be outraged. I would wonder why this man or woman was on TV and not acknowledging my loss. I would wonder why a famous news anchor is blaming him for police matters (my assumption is that most college presidents know little, if anything, about police work) when I just lost my daughter. And, if the task of losing my child were not difficult enough, then I would have to cope with the media, stating without any evidence whatsoever, that perhaps my daughter's life "could have been spared". Now, and forever, that "what if" question would dominate me. It was not random or the product of psychosis. It was someone's fault, or so say the pundits. What would have been a normal grieving process, is now complicated. I was not afraid to grieve, but my grieving may have no end point. As a clinician, let me pronounce, just like the talking heads on TV, that you have no right to comment on my loss. Indeed, unless you have every fact available, know without doubt how and why it happened or I abdicate it to you... you have no right to judge or comment on my loss. That right does not belong to Matt Lauer or NBC or my priest. It belongs to me and my family. She was ours, not yours. Neither your camera, your microphone or your best intentions allow you to take this moment from us. We teach doctors in training how to deliver "bad news." We have learned that such moments belong to patients and families, not to us. And that our simple presence there, however silent, is more powerful than our explanations of physiology or what went wrong. Cannot we just say "let us let the grieving begin" and we can sort out the details when all of the data are in... and the facts are known? Can we not just let the students at Virginia Tech and the families, just tell us about the people they lost. Who were they? What were they like? How do you want us to remember them? This would be the line of questioning that would let any healing have any chance of taking hold. Can we not simply acknowledge that this moment is theirs, not ours or that of the media? Who was not touched by the dad being interviewed who said at the end of the segment that his daughter's body had not yet been released to him or his family, and that they wanted to see her. The interviewer asked him what he would do if he could see his daughter, almost puzzled by why this guy was asking to "see my daughter." He responded, "so that I can kiss her face." Is that not grieving? Is that not how this man will cope and heal over time? Do we not instinctively know what he is saying? Of course we do, and parents all over America hugged and kissed their children this week. How many phone calls did Duke students receive from parents this week? For some reason, we often wait to express our feelings for one another at the end, on the "death bed," but this man's open grief spurred us to action in the moment. Indeed, "why wait?" This should not just be the purview of doctors, chaplains and counselors. This belongs to all of us, all of humankind. Put grief on the front page, and let the culture of blame do its bidding on the back pages, whether it is Virginia Tech or Iraq. Wherever there is loss of life, particularly of the magnitude of this past Monday or every Monday in Iraq, let us learn how to grieve and how to allow the families involved to grieve. Do not ask me who is to blame, or whether my child could have been spared. Ask me who my child was and then just sit there and be quiet. I will share with you that I need to kiss my child one more time. I will grieve. Do not let the media, however well intentioned, teach you how not to grieve. You already know how. Anthony Galanos, Trinity '75, works at Duke University Medical Center in the Department of Medicine and the Palliative Care Service. -- Original Source: Duke Chronicle - April 20, 2007
By: Anna Lieth Posted: 4/20/07 Days after the Virginia Tech shooter was identified as a Korean-American male by national media outlets, members of Duke's Asian Students Association gathered Thursday night to discuss the possible backlashes the Asian-American community may endure as a result of the gunman's actions. During the discussion, which was sponsored by Counseling and Psychological Services and ASA, students addressed concerns about how aspects of Asian-American culture may intensify frustrations and pressures with which many students struggle on a daily basis. Senior Kevin Fang, outgoing president of ASA, said the event was intended to give students on campus "an opportunity to process all that is going on." "A lot of Korean students at Virginia Tech have gone home," he said. "Although they know that the shooting had nothing to do with race, they feel that there might be some repercussions." The six students present also discussed the national media's coverage of the incident, questioning their decision to identify the race of Cho Seung-Hui, the shooter, and debating the relevance of this information in attempting to understand the motive for his actions. They discussed whether or not the shooter's actions could be explained through his cultural and social identity, and talked about how situations like the one Cho faced can be prevented. Some students shared experiences about other Asian-American students they knew who experienced pressures and feelings of cultural disconnect which led them to lives of isolation and depression. Gary Glass, senior coordinator for outreach and developmental programming for CAPS, said his objective in helping to organize the discussion was to "provide an arena for things to get voiced that aren't often voiced-at least not in any formal capacity." He added that he saw a variety of reactions expressed during the discussion. "If there are voices that if they were more heard would further enrich the campus, then let's create a space where they can be heard," Glass said. He said CAPS is devoted to supporting discourse with all different types of groups on campus, and that the Virginia Tech shooting presented a need for such discourse. The students, however, pointed to the social stigma many students associate with counseling that may discourage students in need from seeking help. The discussion was not limited to East-Asian students and included South-Asian students as well. Junior Shawn Kwatra, a South-Asian student and incoming co-president of external affairs for Duke Diya, said he felt the topic of the discussion was important not only for East Asians but for all Asians and for international students in general. Feelings of alienation are not only unique to Asian-American students alone but also affect foreign students of all backgrounds, Kwatra said. "There is a cultural difference, and that cultural difference is something that doesn't have to be East Asian," he said. Kwatra added that he felt the forum was a first step on the way to finding solutions that could prevent students from taking a similar path to the one Cho took. "I think the biggest thing we need to do is raise awareness," Kwatra said. He added that it is important for peers to be able to recognize when others are suffering or isolated. -- Original Source: Duke Chronicle - April 20, 2007
By: Sarah Ball By now, there isn't a soul in the United States who hasn't seen the greasy, glinting forehead of Cho Seung-Hui, the gunman responsible for what broadcast news and the blogosphere are terming "the Virginia Tech Massacre." His grease and his glint are everywhere, above every fold, at the top of every segment of every news program on every channel. Every anchor and every rural Virginia stringer for every paper have started every story this week with that grease, and that man. Then, invariably, they turn it over to us-to the cell phone cameramen, the bloggers, the Facebook status changers. The era of the citizen journalist, age 19, has arrived. This week, in this new era, I watched major news programs become veritable footage Crazy Quilts, with those same borrowed phone shots and MySpace stills casually inter-cut with traditional anchor shots. In establishing a timeline on that fateful Monday, journalists did not simply seek help from the intrepid reporters at Tech's paper, The Collegiate Times. They posted interview requests to message boards, requested footage to be e-mailed or uploaded to websites, scoured community sites like Facebook and MySpace for leads. Fox News, which has outdone itself with glossy infotainment segments and dirge-like piano soundtracks, ran an entirely viewer-constructed package called "You Report" on the day of the shooting. You Report was comprised of cell videos of police cars and evacuating students, as well as transcribed posts from sites like Fark.com and MySpace. When not plumbing the citizen journalist pool for pre-made reporting, Fox itself reported on other ways students were using Internet tech-kids notifying their families of their safety via Facebook, for example, when cell phone lines were clogged. In the absence of order, the cyber chaos both reported the news and was the news. All this is perhaps unremarkable, given the prevalence of digital communication in collegiate life, and the ways in which crisis tends to unify a body of people in whatever community, digital or physical, they may lie. Yet the transition from man-on-the-street interviewing and reporting in times of crisis to this mish-mashing of homemade footage nuggets can't pass without examination. It's not only a pretty new phenomenon for major network news stations to capitalize on these particular grassroots sources (Facebook? Really?), but it also actually alters the genre of what we're seeing. Ostensibly, we're watching news. But since when did news have weepy soundtracks, or gunman-style storyboard art, or dozens of non-journalist reporters? Is not a Fark post or personal blog entry the kissing cousin of a televised diary-room confession, that familiar feature of reality television that red flags what we're watching as staged and fictional? Even secondary or tertiary differences, like the nauseating bobbing of handheld-cell phone footage, shows viewers a pure and unfiltered strain of raw emotion-a guttural-ness that we perhaps more closely associated with documentary film than with the six o'clock news. Hearing the personal thoughts of students is tremendously moving to me, and has no doubt left my fellow denizens of the beautiful Old Dominion close to breakdown as we wait to hear about friends and family. Yet each time I hear or read those unadulterated thoughts, or see that dizzying cell shot, I am not left with the impression that what I am consuming is news. I am still not sure what I can safely believe. Documentarian takes on soft news, in both conception and delivery phases, may peter out as a trend. We may lose our taste for the sensationalized, the citizen journalist and the unapologetic commodification of fact. At the bottom of a pack of Sour Patch Kids, your tongue eventually goes numb. But we could also adapt. We could learn to better process what hard news means for average citizens, as we see more confessionals, read more superlative language, hear more weepy piano. Emotive, homemade news could be the final frontier in mobilizing apathetic Americans. Or. Jack Shafer, editor-at-large of Slate.com, wrote Tuesday in defense of journalists that there is "no tougher assignment in journalism than knocking on the door of a mother who has lost her young daughter to a killer and asking, 'How do you feel?'" Earnestness and an unshakeable "self-disgust" help reporters to cope and to get the mother on the record in these situations, he continues. Besides, if networks hadn't gone to the wall on this one, chasing Facebook for sob stories, viewers would have been outraged. I'm not sure that I agree. Shafer says we're narrowly avoiding outrageous sensationalism overall, but I'm not sure that it wouldn't take much more than a boost in market competition among media outlets to finally reduce feature journalism to pulp. And if that happens-if rules bend to accommodate the effectively affecting, and if the untrained citizen reporter takes over-what mourning family would dignify that imposing knock with an open door and a somber quote? I know that I would not. Sarah Ball is a Trinity junior and former editorial page editor of The Chronicle. She is a native of Virginia. Her column runs every Thursday. -- Original Source: Duke Chronicle - April 19, 2007
Security, Duke response raise some concerns
By: Zak Kazzaz Posted: 4/18/07 Two days after the Monday massacre at Virginia Tech, students nationwide remained on edge Tuesday as more details of the tragedy emerged and additional security threats occurred on several other college campuses. A bomb threat at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville Monday, just hours after the Virginia Tech shootings, caused university officials to evacuate two buildings there. Another threat received Tuesday at St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas, prompted the university to evacuate buildings and dormitories and cancel the entire day's classes. Although many Duke students said they are not worried about a similar catastrophe in Durham, several said that there are safety concerns for which the University cannot account. "What terrifies me, and what I'm sure terrifies most people, is that it was random," freshman Kate Van Buskirk said. "He just went in and started killing people." Some parents of Duke students also said they have been gripped by fear and anxiety regarding the issue. "I don't know what can happen or what can be done," said Ruth Azimi, parent of a Duke freshman and a Virginia resident. "On campus, everybody can get in, nobody asks for IDs, and now that's kind of scary." John Burness, senior vice president for government affairs and public relations, said Duke is currently evaluating all of its security and response practices. He added that the University is considering a system that can send out a mass text message to all students in case of an emergency. "Let's remind people what's going on, and dust [the emergency systems] off, and make sure they still work," Burness said. Junior Paul Slattery, the incoming president of Duke Student Government, said that text messages, however, might not fully address the issue. "What if a student doesn't have service or doesn't have their cell phone?" Slattery said. The shooter's student status at Virginia Tech makes such an incident very hard to predict since universities place trust in their students, Burness said. "Universities tend to be open places," he said. "With the tragedy at Virginia Tech, it wasn't an individual from the outside, it was somebody from the inside. I think our folks have planned for the best they can, but you can never plan for everything." Students said the main concern raised by recent events is the communication between the administration and Duke community. Several students also said they had been unhappy with Duke's lack of an immediate response to the situation. President Richard Brodhead released a response to The Chronicle Monday night but chose not to send an e-mail to the entire community, Burness said. Nearby ACC colleges, such as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Wake Forest University, placed their administrators' responses to the shooting on the homepages of their websites. Although Brodhead's response was posted on Duke's website, it was not displayed on the homepage. Burness said the statement was released late in the day Monday because the information about Tuesday's vigil service had not yet been finalized. He added that the administration thought The Chronicle was the best outlet through which to reach students about the day's tragedy. "I would have liked an e-mail to be sent out, given that we're in such close proximity and there's a lot of overlap of friends," Van Buskirk said. "People just had access to the news, and personally I had so much conflicting information." Some parents also said an e-mail should have been sent to both students and parents. "Right now, I think unity is very important," Azimi said. "We have to realize that being together in this moment means a lot to everyone. An expression extending that through to the parents would have been very nice." Brodhead's statement said the Office of Student Affairs would contact students with connections to Virginia Tech. Burness added that Resident Assistants would contribute to this process, ensuring that students are aware of the counseling services available to them. The majority of students interviewed by The Chronicle, however, said neither group had contacted them. -- Original Source: Duke Chronicle - April 18, 2007
2 days later, campus still rattled by tragedy By: Kristen Davis Posted: 4/18/07 More than a hundred students, faculty and administrators bowed their heads in silence at 2 p.m. Tuesday, as the Duke Chapel bell tolled 33 times-once for each casualty of the Virginia Tech shootings. The interfaith vigil-which was organized by Craig Kocher, assistant dean of the Chapel and director of religious life-was held at the same time as a memorial service in Blacksburg, Va., to display solidarity between Virginia Tech and Duke. In his reflection, Dean of the Chapel Samuel Wells spoke about the "fragile beauty" of human life and prayed for all those affected by the tragedy. A Buddhist chant of compassion was offered, and Carlisle Harvard, director of the International House, urged students to be sympathetic to Korean students' possible anxiety over the ethnicity of the shooter, who was identified Tuesday. Many Duke students-including some of the more than 500 undergraduates and graduates who call Virginia home-said that in the past two days they have felt the effects of the tragedy in a variety of ways. "Being at Duke, we usually don't have time to deal with personal issues, so it was good to have time to release and vent and have a moment of silence," said Tiffany Scott, a senior from Virginia who added that she was relieved to learn that none of her friends at Virginia Tech had been hurt. Alan Combs, a third-year Divinity School student who is also from Virginia, said his brother-in-law, a freshman at Virginia Tech, used his cell phone to take one of the pictures that appeared on CNN.com. Combs' brother-in-law was not injured in the shootings, but at least one of his friends was killed. Combs, along with several other students, said the events encouraged deeper self-reflection. "[The massacre] reminds everyone of the contingency of our lives, which is not necessarily something to be fearful of, but more of a reminder that I don't control my own life," Combs said. Many students also said that although they have made an effort to keep updated with news of the incident, they do not approve of the media's coverage of it. "I tried to avoid watching the television because instead of acknowledging the tragedy, they spend time specifying motives and who's to blame," Combs said. Students have used Internet technology, however, to broadcast their support for their fellow college students at Virginia Tech. The Facebook group "We Love You, Virginia Tech (Dukies in Support of Techies on a terrible day)" had 144 members as of Tuesday night, and many students have changed their Facebook profile pictures to a black ribbon with the maroon Virginia Tech insignia. "A lot of schools are creating their own logos [with their mascots] for support," junior Nick Pardo said. "'Today we are all Hokies.'" -- Original Source: Duke Chronicle - April 18, 2007
Virginia Tech, our thoughts are with you
Editorial Posted: 4/17/07 Horrified silence saturated campuses across the country yesterday, as the death toll at Virginia Tech climbed to at least 32 fellow students. The deadliest mass shooting in United States history can be described only as a true tragedy. To begin, as members of the Duke community we express our sincerest condolences to families and friends of the deceased and wounded and to the entire Virginia Tech campus. Our hearts go out to all of those in the Virginia Tech community and all of the students here at Duke who have been touched by this shocking disaster in one way or another. A tragedy like this makes us pause to reflect upon our own mortality. Days like yesterday-filled with images of bloodied young bodies, terrified faces and drawn guns-bring violence and death close to home. As young men and women now in college, we can only hope (although likely and sadly in vain) to never see a day like this past Monday again. And during such times, there is a very human urge to point fingers-to place blame on administrators for not responding effectively or efficiently. But scenarios like those that played out yesterday are extremely hard to prepare for. Hindsight is 20/20, and we cannot judge the Virginia Tech administrators with the knowledge we now have. We trust they had students' best interests in mind and do so still as they seek to recover from the shock and horror of a day nobody can ever really anticipate. Monday's tragedy does, however, provide an opportunity for Duke's administrators to examine their own emergency response procedures. We depend on Duke administrators to keep us informed when urgent situations arise. Although mass e-mail lists serve great informative purposes, a faster mass communication system must be devised to alert students in times of emergency. Because many students come from differing parts of the country, Duke must also devise a plan to inform families quickly or to make themselves available for inquiries in situations of mass chaos. As members of a media publication, in the face of this tragedy we were dismayed to find that some media outlets displayed an almost-salacious interest in this story. The Washington Post ran an article titled "Virginia Tech's Reputation Had Recently Been Soaring," which inappropriately dehumanized the catastrophe as something that could have an effect on image and ranking rather than something that did have a profound effect on human lives. Similarly, a reporter at a press conference asked what sort of effect this event will have on the school's admissions. Such questions were both inappropriate and unanswerable. Subjects like Virginia Tech's reputation can be addressed during another, more appropriate period. Although yesterday's tragedy is in no way comparable to the Duke lacrosse case, the response of some reporters to the Virginia Tech shooting is yet another example of a fact we as Duke students know all too well-how shallow the media can be. The media must remember there is a human element to every event, particularly this tragic event, and they should not rush superficial sensationalism nor dehumanize questions of status. Even though the media has immense power in portraying events and situations, we must remember that a period of coverage does not characterize or define a school in its entirety. No matter how the media portrays a singular event, our schools are not defined by one moment. They are defined by their people, their resolve and their ability to overcome. Virginia Tech, Duke's thoughts are with you. -- Original Source: Duke Chronicle - April 17, 2007
200 miles away, Duke students hold vigil, admins offer support By: Anna Lieth Posted: 4/17/07 After violent shootings shook students and administrators on Virginia Tech's campus Monday, members of the Duke community gathered last night to mourn and come to terms with the tragic events of the day. Just 200 miles southeast of Virginia Tech's home in Blacksburg, Va., Duke students said the news sent a shock wave through the campus. For some, the shock was followed by fear for friends and loved ones in Virginia, but for others fear was displaced by disbelief and worry that a similar event could take place at the campus they call home. And for one group of students, the natural response to the news was to pray. About 30 students gathered on the steps of the Duke Chapel for an emotional vigil and prayer session for the victims of the shooting, their respective families and the gunman Monday night. "[The vigil is] not just to console people, but also to know that there is a community that is here to support people and that as a community we need to act together," said sophomore Ashley Dunfee, who attended the event. "We have a root that we act from and that ultimately should be the source of what we do and where we're going." President Richard Brodhead, in a statement released to The Chronicle, recognized the magnitude of the events at Virginia Tech and emphasized efforts the University is making to reach out to members of both the Virginia Tech and Duke communities who were affected by the tragedy. "This is the deadliest campus shooting in United States history and a profoundly sad day for everyone directly affected-and the nation as a whole," Brodhead said. "On behalf of the entire Duke community, I express my condolences to those who are grieving at Virginia Tech. They are enduring a time of unspeakable loss this evening." John Burness, senior vice president for government affairs and public relations, said Brodhead also reached out following news of the event to Charles Steger, Virginia Tech's president, to offer his sympathies. Brodhead said the University is working to provide support for students on Duke's campus who have been personally affected. "Student Affairs is in the process of trying to identify every Duke student with Virginia Tech connections and to make personal contact and to offer counseling," he said. "Our Religious Life staff is also available for counseling and the Duke Chapel will be open as always for those who wish to seek a quiet place to reflect." The Duke Chapel and the Duke Religious Life staff have organized an interfaith prayer vigil to be held on the Chapel steps at 2 p.m. today. "This vigil is a small gesture at being in solidarity with those in Blacksburg," Craig Kocher, assistant dean of the Chapel and director of religious life, wrote in an e-mail to the student body last night. Kocher said the vigil will include a time of silence followed by prayer and a bell toll for each person who died yesterday and will conclude with an open session for students to speak about the experience. Virginia Tech will be hosting a similar event on its campus simultaneously, Kocher said. -- Original Source: Duke Chronicle - April 17, 2007
Duke's response to VaTech tragedy lacking
Editorial Posted: 4/19/07 When news of the Virginia Tech massacre broke Monday, to say that students across the country were on edge is an understatement. The horror and randomness of the event forced students to take a step back and examine their own campuses and ask, "Are we safe?" And members of the Duke community began to question what the safety and notification protocol would be if something of this magnitude occurred here. Many wondered what, if any, steps Duke was taking to tighten security Monday. Those with friends and family at Virginia Tech asked what resources were available for them here on campus. But answers to these queries were virtually impossible to discern. President Richard Brodhead released a statement to The Chronicle late Monday night, which was also published on the Duke News website. In the statement, Brodhead expressed his condolences to the Virginia Tech community and announced an interfaith vigil that would be held Tuesday at the Duke Chapel. But nowhere in the statement was there mention of Duke's own security status. Moreover, while Brodhead said Student Affairs was trying to contact "every student with Virginia Tech connections," there is no way they could identify every student with a "connection." As such, those students with friends or acquaintances at Virginia Tech who the administration did not know about-as well as those simply overwhelmed by the tragedy-were told only that Religious Life staff and the Chapel were available for support. There was no mention of other, non-religious resources, such as augmented, emergency Counseling and Psychological Services, that could benefit all concerned students regardless of religious orientation. Most troubling, however, was the fact that Brodhead's statement was not sent to the Duke community. It was published in The Chronicle, but no one could read it until Tuesday morning, nearly 24 hours after the massacre occurred. And while technically online, the statement was buried on the Duke News site, which is not a major source of information for most students. Many schools posted statements on their main websites. Still others, like The George Washington University, sent mass e-mails to students and their families discussing safety protocol. The Duke administration erred in its response. On a day when colleges and universities across the country stood still, shocked by how suddenly and violently an academic haven much like their own had been violated, Duke was silent. On a day when students and parents, faculty and staff wanted reassurance of their own safety and an assertion that the University stood in support of its ACC counterpart, Duke was largely absent. This is not to say there was no campus response. Religious organizations did an excellent job coordinating Tuesday's interfaith vigil and several religious groups sent out e-mails to their members offering support. Such organizations, however, only touch a certain percentage of students; the Duke community as a whole was still left mostly in the dark about the University's security and support responses. As Duke students, we wanted a prompter, more informative, more widely disseminated statement from the administration. In such situations, when our community is questioning its own well-being and mourning the damage done to another school's sense of security and self, we want to hear Duke's leadership loud and clear. We urge the administration to consider new and better ways to inform the community if it is threatened. And we appreciate Tuesday's interfaith vigil and its visible community power. But we still missed and were puzzled by the lack of a simple, widely available statement of assurance and support. While we hope that such a statement will not be needed in the future, if it is needed, we look to the administration to stand as a stronger pillar of information, of comfort, and of guidance. -- Original Source: Duke Chronicle - April 19, 2007
By: Shamus Williams (April 16) Well, I'm back safe and sound in my off-campus apartment. It has been a very scary and hectic past couple of hours to say the least. We were released at noon, but it was not an assisted evacuation as we were hearing that it would be. I was a little apprehensive that we were not assisted in leaving the campus, and I was constantly looking over my shoulder. I have never seen so many police officers in my life. There were police cars, ambulances, SWAT vehicles and other emergency vehicles lining every street possible that I could see. There were students running to their cars and it seemed every person was on their cell phone trying to call friends and family. It is definitely a scary time on campus. I am usually not one to worry about these things, but this has surpassed anything that the mind can even fathom. This is probably the most scared I have ever been in my life. The police made things seem somewhat safe, but I'm not sure all the police in the world could have made things seem perfectly safe. -- Original Source: Big Lick U - April 16, 2007
Chris Winston <Chris.Winston@biglicku.com>
By: Shamus Williams (April 16 -- 11:55 a.m.) I am on campus as we speak and am under lockdown in Shanks Hall, which is located on the opposite side of campus from the shootings. But it is still too close for comfort. I was in class, working on a paper, when I got an e-mail saying that a shooting had occurred on campus. It was about 20 to 25 minutes later when we received word that the gunman was loose and we were on lockdown. It is a pretty scary thing, because of the recent bomb threats and the whole William Morva thing that happened earlier in the year. The students in my class have been pretty calm. Everybody is trying to reach friends and family and let them know that we are OK and that nothing has happened on this side of campus. We have all been sending instant messages trying to find information, and there are plenty of rumors swirling. We are all trying to figure out what is real and what is not. There are plenty of different emotions flying around the room. Some people are trying to make jokes to lighten the mood. Others are trying to scour the Web for information (I would fall into that category). Somehow, others are still trying to get their paper done. I'm definitely not trying to do anything associated with schoolwork with this thing going down. I really think that it will be a long time before we are let off campus, and the longer they keep us in here, the more worried we are all becoming. -- Original Source: Big Lick U - April 16, 2007