5 20 1884 https://april16archive.org/files/original/VT 014_a779ac2b94.jpg null Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-02 Omeka Legacy File The metadata element set that, in addition to the Dublin Core element set, was included in the `files` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all Omeka files. This set may be deprecated in future versions. Capture Date 2007-05-02 14:41:33 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Michelle Parra Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Michelle Parra Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-02 Description An account of the resource &nbsp; Language A language of the resource eng Title A name given to the resource Never Forget Drillfield memorial https://april16archive.org/files/original/VT 009_95906b58c8.jpg null Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-02 Omeka Legacy File The metadata element set that, in addition to the Dublin Core element set, was included in the `files` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all Omeka files. This set may be deprecated in future versions. Capture Date 2007-05-02 14:39:27 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Michelle Parra Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Michelle Parra Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-02 Description An account of the resource &nbsp; Language A language of the resource eng Title A name given to the resource Pride Wall hokie pride wall Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Mike Fox Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Mike Fox Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-02 Description An account of the resource If you don&#39;t know what Facebook is, you&#39;ve probably heard of it, especially if you have children in high school or college. It&#39;s one of those social networking sites that parents, lawmakers and educators discuss when they&#39;re concerned about cyber bullying or child predators. But after the Virginia Tech tragedy on April 16, the site truly brought the world closer together in the most remarkable scene of solidarity and compassion I have ever seen online. Within a day of the shootings, the most common symbol on Facebook was a combination black hope ribbon and maroon "VT" logo. Most Facebook users have default profile photos of themselves posing with friends, at parties, on vacation or with their significant others; almost overnight, most were replaced with the Hokie hope ribbon. It was heartwarming to see students from across the world join together in mourning - e-mourning, you could say. Many Facebook users posted on their profiles or in common-interest group bulletin boards the Hokie hope ribbon accompanied with their school&#39;s mascot or coat of arms with the phrase "Today we are all Hokies." And we all certainly were. Facebook usually is used to keep in touch with friends, post and share photos, organize and publicize events and find other people with common interests, and all of those features were used in the days after the tragedy to report breaking news and new information, organize vigils and charities, post photo illustrations and sketches commemorating the shootings and even share poems Facebook users composed. Only a handful of users have discussed politics; it seems most e-mourners are first and foremost focused on their grief and sympathy, and how they can help. In the first frantic and confusing hours and days after the tragedy, one group was dedicated to posting updated information on the event and its aftermath, and others sprang up declaring "Nationwide Orange and Maroon Day," "April 16, 2007 - A Moment of Silence" and "Prayer Group for Va. Tech," for example. When the media reported that the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan. - a cult of hatemongers who have picketed military funerals with inflammatory banners - would show up at Tech victims&#39; funerals, a protest Facebook group emerged to organize and voice opposition. The congregation eventually did rescind their plan to protest the Tech funerals, but not before the Facebook group&#39;s membership swelled to more than 59,000. Perhaps the most touching Facebook group I&#39;ve discovered was "All Schools Unite for Virginia Tech," created by a University of Tennessee student. The goal is to tally one volunteer representative from 1,000 different schools and then engrave those names on a plaque that will be presented to Tech; I&#39;m representing my alma mater, the University of Delaware. Students from schools I&#39;ve never heard of, even schools in Canada and high schools from across America, have joined and shown their support. More than 725 colleges and high schools are represented on the list thus far. Facebook groups also have been dedicated to the victims as a place for users to share funeral and vigil information and messages about - and to - their lost friends. I didn&#39;t know any of the victims, but I did join a group dedicated to Mary Read, since she attended my high school in Annandale, Va. Mary was remembered most by friends for her friendly, heartwarming smile, and many of her friends have replaced their Facebook profile photos with photos of Mary. "Look Mary, there are so many people that love you," one person wrote on the message board, referring to Mary&#39;s profile on The New York Times Web site. "I love you and can&#39;t wait to see you again in Heaven." As Blacksburg tries to return to a sense of normalcy, so is Facebook. Many users have reverted to their former profile photos, and Tech commemoration groups are being updated less and less. But like the gravestones at Arlington or memorials in the nation&#39;s capitol, the posted messages of compassion and heartache on Facebook will always be there; the photos of America&#39;s college students at vigils and donning orange and maroon in a show of solemn solidarity and hope will always be there; the photos of empathetic banners signed by countless students in a time of mourning will always be there; and the photos of memorials, flowers and notes on Tech&#39;s Drillfield will always be there. Facebook helped to document history that week, and none of us will forget when we were all Hokies. Mike Fox is a copy editor with the Bristol (Va.) Herald Courier. Originally published on Sunday, April 29 in the Bristol Herald Courier, of Bristol, Virginia. Language A language of the resource eng Title A name given to the resource Mourning Tech on Facebook facebook memorials orange and maroon day vigils Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Judy Gillispie Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Judy Gillispie Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-03 Description An account of the resource Those were the first things that went through my mind when the local television stations began showing footage at Virginia Tech. I work with crime victims on a daily basis, but this felt different. My first thought was "How can I help?". I am certified through NOVA in crisis response so I immediately e-mailed Virginia&#39;s team leader in Richmond. We spoke that day and it was determined several victim advocates would be on stand-by in the event VT needed assistance. I then received another call Tuesday night "Can you be at Virginia Tech by noon tomorrow?" Absolutely. My co-worker and I arrived in Blacksburg around 10:00 a.m. and what we saw was overwhelming. The media and satellite trucks, the Virginia State Troopers....people were everywhere in the Conference Center. A group of victim advocates set up in the Family Assistance Center, then we broke into groups of two to handle different needs. Susan and I were sent to McCoy&#39;s Funeral Home to meet with family members of the deceased and to assist them in completing forms for the Criminal Injuries Compensation Fund. It was such an emotional time for everyone involved. The overwhelming grief and sadness in their eyes was almost too much to bear and we almost felt helpless. What do you say to a parent who has lost their beautiful daughter, who had so much promise in life, in such a tragic and senseless way? We met with Austin Cloyd&#39;s parents, who were such wonderful parents. You could tell there was so much love in their family and their hearts were broken. Austin was what I would describe as the perfect daughter. She was going to make a difference in this world. She had a purpose. After meeting her parents, Susan and I both felt like we knew Austin. We attended her funeral that was sad, but also uplifting. Many, many friends and family members spoke about Austin and what a great person she was and the fun times they had with her. We came away from that funeral with mixed feelings. Sadness and happiness, in an odd way. In the 18 short years Austin was on this earth, she made a difference in so many ways. Not many people do that in a lifetime, let alone 18 years. She was such a special person and we knew that she was now an angel in Heaven, just as she was on Earth. The Cloyds were not the only family members we met with. Each reacted differently, and it was heartwrenching for everyone involved, even the employees of the funeral home. Susan and I began to worry about them. They too were overwhelmed, sad and shocked, but they had a job to do and they did it with professionalism and grace. We spent a total of about 8 days in Blacksburg after the shooting and it has changed my life forever. I did not know any of the victims personally, but I felt their pain. There is not a day that goes by that I do not think about this event and how horrible it was. However, the town of Blacksburg pulled together like a family. The Hokie spirit will live on. What Cho did will never be forgotten, but the Hokie&#39;s will prevail as they are strong. I felt blessed at having the opportunity to help in just a small way. Virginia Tech will always hold a special place in my heart. The victims remain in my thoughts and prayers. Language A language of the resource eng disbelief overwhelming grief shock https://april16archive.org/files/original/462410569_78eff3bd44_o_5befd19c62.png null Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-03 Omeka Legacy File The metadata element set that, in addition to the Dublin Core element set, was included in the `files` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all Omeka files. This set may be deprecated in future versions. Capture Date 2007-05-03 09:55:15 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jason Nolan Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jason Nolan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-03 Description An account of the resource This is one of a series of screen grabs I collected of the VT memorial on Kula Island in Secondlife.com hosted by Buridan Simon. Shakti Burks plays a memorial tune. Language A language of the resource eng Title A name given to the resource VT memorial in Second Life memorial second life https://april16archive.org/files/original/462401385_44fa616322_o_b80bc6bf16.png null Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-03 Omeka Legacy File The metadata element set that, in addition to the Dublin Core element set, was included in the `files` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all Omeka files. This set may be deprecated in future versions. Capture Date 2007-05-03 09:52:42 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jason Nolan Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jason Nolan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-03 Description An account of the resource This is one of a series of screen grabs I collected of the VT memorial on Kula Island in Secondlife.com hosted by Buridan Simon. This picture includes Hilde, CT (me) and Shakti. Language A language of the resource eng Title A name given to the resource VT memorial in Second Life memorial second life https://april16archive.org/files/original/462396982_2aa18a8afe_o_61258a232f.png null Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-03 Omeka Legacy File The metadata element set that, in addition to the Dublin Core element set, was included in the `files` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all Omeka files. This set may be deprecated in future versions. Capture Date 2007-05-03 09:50:25 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jason Nolan Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jason Nolan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-03 Description An account of the resource This is one of a series of screen grabs I collected of the VT memorial on Kula Island in Secondlife.com hosted by Buridan Simon. Language A language of the resource eng Title A name given to the resource VT memorial in Second Life memorial second life https://april16archive.org/files/original/462397356_42b7ea3d0c_o_9f63d0a0dc.png null Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-03 Omeka Legacy File The metadata element set that, in addition to the Dublin Core element set, was included in the `files` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all Omeka files. This set may be deprecated in future versions. Capture Date 2007-05-03 09:51:34 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jason Nolan Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jason Nolan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-03 Description An account of the resource This is one of a series of screen grabs I collected of the VT memorial on Kula Island in Secondlife.com hosted by Buridan Simon. Language A language of the resource eng Title A name given to the resource VT memorial in Second Life memorial second life https://april16archive.org/files/original/462396540_73136bfb5d_o_05548a8910.png null Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-03 Omeka Legacy File The metadata element set that, in addition to the Dublin Core element set, was included in the `files` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all Omeka files. This set may be deprecated in future versions. Capture Date 2007-05-03 09:49:27 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jason Nolan Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jason Nolan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-03 Description An account of the resource This is one of a series of screen grabs I collected of the VT memorial on Kula Island in Secondlife.com hosted by Buridan Simon. Language A language of the resource eng Title A name given to the resource VT memorial in Second Life memorial second life https://april16archive.org/files/original/462396130_eefc7a5b12_o_416fba07ed.png null Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-03 Omeka Legacy File The metadata element set that, in addition to the Dublin Core element set, was included in the `files` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all Omeka files. This set may be deprecated in future versions. Capture Date 2007-05-03 09:48:25 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jason Nolan Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jason Nolan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-03 Description An account of the resource This is one of a series of screen grabs I collected of the VT memorial on Kula Island in Secondlife.com hosted by Buridan Simon. Language A language of the resource eng Title A name given to the resource VT memorial in Second Life memorial second life https://april16archive.org/files/original/462395728_deed0c9a6f_o_e6e60b8db3.png null Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-03 Omeka Legacy File The metadata element set that, in addition to the Dublin Core element set, was included in the `files` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all Omeka files. This set may be deprecated in future versions. Capture Date 2007-05-03 09:47:05 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jason Nolan Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jason Nolan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-03 Description An account of the resource This is one of a series of screen grabs I collected of the VT memorial on Kula Island in Secondlife.com hosted by Buridan Simon. Language A language of the resource eng Title A name given to the resource VT memorial in Second Life memorial second life https://april16archive.org/files/original/462395228_f0392008b1_o_cdd9a1380f.png null Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-03 Omeka Legacy File The metadata element set that, in addition to the Dublin Core element set, was included in the `files` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all Omeka files. This set may be deprecated in future versions. Capture Date 2007-05-03 09:45:16 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jason Nolan Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jason Nolan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-03 Description An account of the resource This is one of a series of screen grabs I collected of the VT memorial on Kula Island in Secondlife.com hosted by Buridan Simon. Language A language of the resource eng Title A name given to the resource VT memorial in Second Life memorial second life https://april16archive.org/files/original/armband_eb3f99cb44.jpg null Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-03 Omeka Legacy File The metadata element set that, in addition to the Dublin Core element set, was included in the `files` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all Omeka files. This set may be deprecated in future versions. Capture Date 2007-05-03 02:20:53 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Mike Fox Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Mike Fox Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-03 Description An account of the resource A home-made armband I made for Orange and Maroon Effect (April 20, 2007) Language A language of the resource eng Title A name given to the resource In honor of Orange and Maroon Effect armband orange and maroon effect vt https://april16archive.org/files/original/wearevt_b1eff510e2.jpg null Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-03 Omeka Legacy File The metadata element set that, in addition to the Dublin Core element set, was included in the `files` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all Omeka files. This set may be deprecated in future versions. Capture Date 2007-05-03 12:28:31 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Brent Jesiek Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Steven Thai Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-03 Description An account of the resource Panorama photo of the drillfield taken just prior to the start of the Hokies United memorial on Monday, April 23. Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Date: Wed, 02 May 2007 23:22:58 -0400 From: Steven Thai <swthai@vt.edu> To: Brent Jesiek <bjesiek@vt.edu> Subject: RE: Seeking Permission to Archive Image Dr. Jesiek, Yes of course you may archive my image to the site. It is actually four photos that are stitched together. I would like to have the photo attributed to me and I am glad I could attribute something to the archive. Thanks, Steven Thai Drillfield memorial panorama Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Brent Jesiek Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Thomas W. Bruce, W. Kent Fuchs, David J. Skorton, Carolyn "Biddy" Martin Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-03 Description An account of the resource From: Thomas W. Bruce [mailto:vpcommunications@cornell.edu] Sent: Thu 4/19/2007 3:58 PM Subject: President Skorton, Provost Martin, and Dean Fuchs in Remembrance of the Virginia Tech Tragedy Dear Friends, This afternoon witnessed a gathering of the Cornell community in Sage Chapel to honor the memories of the victims of Monday&#39;s tragedy at Virginia Tech. I would like to share with our entire Cornell family the program and the remarks of the three speakers: Dean W. Kent Fuchs of the College of Engineering, President David J. Skorton, and Provost Carolyn "Biddy" Martin. A video of the service can be seen on the web at the Cornell University home page: <http://www.cornell.edu> Tommy Bruce Vice President for University Communications THE PROGRAM A Service of Remembrance and Reflection for Victims of Virginia Technical Institute and State University Tragedy Thursday, April 19, 2007 12:30 p.m. Sage Chapel, Cornell University Ithaca, New York Prior to the service, the chimes of McGraw Tower rang thirty-three times in memory of each victim of the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech on Monday, April 16, 2007. Prelude: Master Tallis&#39;s Testament Herbery Howells (1892 - 1982) Professor Annette Richards, University Organist Welcome and Remembrance W. Kent Fuchs The Joseph Silbert Dean of Engineering Father of Eric Fuchs, Virginia Tech, Class of 2008 Music: &#39;In Paradisum&#39; from Requiem Maurice Durufle (1902 - 1986) Cornell University Glee Club and Chorus Directed by Katherine Fitzgibbon Message David J. Skorton President, Cornell University Music: Panis Angelicus Rev. Heewon Chun Chaplain, Korean Church at Cornell University Reflection Carolyn "Biddy" Martin Provost, Cornell University A Time of Silence Postlude: Fantasia in G Minor J. S. Bach (1685 -1750) Professor Annette Richards, University Organist "We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly. We are brave enough to bend to cry, and sad enough to know we must laugh again." Nikki Giovanni Virginia Tech University Distinguished Professor, Poet and Activist REMARKS BY DEAN KENT W. FUCHS Today the Cornell family joins with the Virginia Tech family in remembering the many students and faculty that unexpectedly and violently died this week. Our grief at this loss is profound because we are a part of the same family of students, faculty, and staff. Like those at VT, Monday morning we were in class, taking exams, giving lectures, and sharing with Virginia Tech students and faculty in the hard work but great joy of learning and teaching. Many in the Cornell family have very personal connections to VT. Some of you have studied, lived, and even have grown up in Blacksburg. A number of you have degrees from Virginia Tech. Others of us have colleagues, friends, sisters, brothers, daughters, and sons now at VT. My first visit to VT four years ago was with my son, Eric. He was looking for a good engineering school, but one that wasn&#39;t too close to his parents at Cornell. On that first visit Eric and I were immensely impressed by the people of VT and the peaceful beauty of the campus. With Eric now studying Engineering at VT, I have come to greatly appreciate the VT family. The students and faculty care greatly for each other and have an immense loyalty to their university. I have also come to appreciate, through my son, what it means to have a Turkey as your school mascot, to have statues of a Turkey in town, and to call yourself a Hokie, which my son does with enormous pride. He loves the campus, his studies, and the people of that university. The unspeakable tragedy of this Monday morning in Norris Hall and West Ambler Johnston Hall is particularly difficult to comprehend, because of its scale, because of its stark contrast to the peaceful beauty of VT&#39;s campus, and the love and care demonstrated by VT&#39;s students and faculty. The tragedy is also an enormous contrast to the common mission that we share in the joy of learning and teaching. It will take many years before we will be able to see how the good resulting from this tragedy could possibly be greater than the pain of this week. Although I have not experienced the depth of loss now present at VT, I do pray that I will become a better person because of this week. I pray that I will value more greatly the enormous privilege of being at a university with students, staff, and colleagues. I pray that I will more dearly love the students, staff and faculty on this campus and will work more diligently to serve others. I will close by reading a few words from my colleague, the Virignia Tech Engineering Dean, Richard Benson. I have been in his office on the 3rd floor of Norris Hall, the floor above where most of the deaths occurred. I was at a meeting with Dean Benson Monday morning in another city when he received the urgent message about the first shootings. Here is a part of what Dean Benson wrote to his Engineering students and faculty: "My heart aches for the lives of the students lost. These bright young men and women were in the prime of life, planning for rich, fulfilling futures. They came to Virginia Tech to acquire an education; an education that would forever change their lives... "The murdered faculty members had devoted their lives to scholarship and education. They so beautifully embodied Virginia Tech&#39;s motto of Ut Prosim - that I may serve. "Virginia Tech is a noble place. It is a nobility born of our great Land Grant tradition, a nobility born of a place of learning. Young women and men - many of modest beginnings - come here to learn. We ask that they work hard - and they do "While our loss is huge and our grief unbearable, the nobility of this great community of scholars is undiminished. Those of us that survive, and those that will come after will continue to dedicate themselves to teaching and learning. And we will never forget the friends that we lost. As long as there is a Virginia Tech they will be remembered. They are more than friends. They are family." We are here as members of the Cornell family. But this week we are also members of the VT family. This week it is an honor and a privilege join with those at VT and to call ourselves Hokies. REMARKS BY PRESIDENT DAVID J. SKORTON We Are One We are one; one community, one people, one planet. We are here today to affirm that one-ness and to draw strength from each other, to find peace in each other, to care for each other and to share our love. We are one. We are here to bear witness to the passing of the 33 members of our family at Virginia Tech University who have met an untimely and terrible fate. We are here for all of those who are gone, for all 33. We are here for the 32 who have passed from the immediate to another place, not by their own choice. We are also here for the 1 who has also passed. We are one. We are here to join arms and hearts with the families, friends and colleagues of all of these individuals. We are here to join with our friends in the Korean and Korean- American communities for we are all one family, most especially today we share the same sorrow and the same need for comfort and reassurance. We are one. We are here to recognize that there are many issues to discuss, many plans to be made, many disagreements to be settled, causes to be sought, remedies to be conceived -- but not today, not now. Now, we are here to comfort and be comforted, to remember. We are one. We are here to seek meaning, to make sense out of the senseless, to somehow find a way to move forward. We are here to find courage, to find a way to still believe in tomorrow, a tomorrow without fear, a tomorrow that still has endless possibilities. We are here to affirm the importance of openness on our campuses, the openness that permits us to be together in this way, in this place, at this time. We are one. We are together today to look both backward and forward, to look both within and without, to look at the person next to us and at ourselves, to find our bearings, our place. We will stay together, we will go forward together, we will never forget our loss. We are one. REMARKS BY PROVOST CAROLYN "BIDDY" MARTIN On Monday morning I was in my native Virginia at my mother&#39;s home when word began to break of the shootings at Virginia Tech. On the local Roanoke news, there were anchors who were graduates of Virginia Tech, and we received the news from people who knew and loved the campus. One of the many things that struck me in the coverage that day was the dignity of the students who were approached for interviews--their humility, their respect, their unwillingness to offer superficial commentary, and their resistance to easy analysis and the assigning of blame. In their responses to questions, they made a plea, sometimes implicitly, other times directly. What did they ask of the journalists and, also, of us? That we not reduce their university or their experience of it to this horror, this unspeakable tragedy, that Virginia Tech not be defined only by that spectacular phrase that we have heard so often since Monday-"the biggest massacre in U.S. history." In their efforts to defend against this stain, the students kept open a space of thought and reflection. The media rushes, understandably, to cover the event, and the events become spectacle, compounding the effects of depersonalization as journalists and the public press for immediate and abbreviated responses and analyses. How extraordinary, under those circumstances, were the efforts of the students and alumni to express their love of Virginia Tech, of one another, to hold open the gap between their experience of the place and the violence and death that were coming to define it. They had been robbed of friends, of classmates, and of teachers; they had had the taken-for-granted safety of the dorm room and the classroom shattered. They have lost for now a sense of safety in the thrilling openness of university campus. They did not want, in addition, to be robbed of their experience of the place or their attachment to it; did not want their murdered friends, classmates and teachers to be remembered only for the horrifying way in which their lives were taken. Just as the names and stories of the victims began to give a human scale and texture to an otherwise surreally traumatic and depersonalizing event, so, too, the students&#39; reserve and their claims to the totality of their experience and attachment began to restore to them all that they have learned and loved at Virginia Tech. In their expressions of pride, they fight to have life and attachment prevail over the isolation, illness, and rage that appear to have been major factors in this horror. It is not difficult for Cornellians to answer the students&#39; call, to attach to Virginia Tech, out of compassion, and with a capacious understanding of what Virginia Tech is and what it represents. Like Cornell, it was founded in the 1870s as a land grant university, and it is beloved throughout the state of Virginia for its remarkable contributions for over a century and a quarter to the state, the nation, and the rest of the world. It is nestled among some of the most beautiful and gentlest mountains in the Appalachians, and even in this cold Virginia April, has already displayed wild profusions of yellow forsythia and daffodils (or jonquils, as my mother would say), pink and white dogwood, and the beginnings of that splash of color that only azaleas can produce in the turn toward Spring. It is a university with a great faculty and great students, proud, in particular, of its Agriculture and Life Sciences, its engineering, and creative writing, the liberal arts, and its outreach and extension, proud, too, of its legendary athletics teams. It is beloved, as I have said, not only by students, faculty, staff and alumni, but by the entire state of Virginia, even those who choose the University of Virginia in the great rivalry between Virginia Tech Hokies and Virginia Cavaliers that is one of Virginia&#39;s great sports. This week, everyone is a Hokie fan. Already on Monday and then on Tuesday and Wednesday, counties all over Virginia were covered with Hokie colors, Virginians having donned Virginia Tech sweatshirts and hats, some spontaneously, some at the urging of the churches that were holding vigils. At the convocation in Blacksburg on Tuesday, poet Nikki Giovanni used her poetic genius to invoke, indeed, to activate a healing sense of community and of perspective, linking the tragic deaths and injuries at Virginia Tech to other tragedies in other parts of the world, and emphasizing that none of them was deserved, also repeating, as incantation, the words: "We are Virginia Tech," the emphasis on the word "are," signaling the fact of being, of continuity, and a commitment to life and to community. "We will prevail," she said, but not by moving on, not by denying our shock or the many dimensions of grief. We will prevail, she seemed to be saying, by going straight through the effects of horror, together. Here at Cornell let us remember what unites us in our shared humanity, our shared vulnerability, our capacity, indeed, our responsibility to attach to others, especially the most isolated. Let us also risk even, and today, especially, a certain hokiness. May life and attachment prevail over isolation, social deaths, physical death, and violence, everywhere. Please join me in a moment of silence in remembrance of Monday&#39;s victims. Language A language of the resource eng Title A name given to the resource Vigil for Virginia Tech, Cornell University, April 19, 2007 - Program and Remarks cornell fuchs martin memorial skorton Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kim Norris Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kim Norris Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-03 Description An account of the resource So this is how it feels...Thoughts on April 16, 2007 Thank you for this archive. My world view changed on this day, and I appreciate having a place to store my memories. I&#39;m not writing this as one who was there first hand. I am writing as a VT alumnus (B.A. Theater Arts and M.A. English) and a resident of the community, to share with others who weren&#39;t there first hand either, to witness how much it still hurt for this to happen to Virginia Tech, to Blacksburg. That Monday morning, I was at work at my former job in Salem, VA (I work in Blacksburg now) when the plant manager, whose wife works on campus, got a call from a friend. "Wife is fine...in lock down, and can&#39;t call." The call was another friend who had heard from her sister, who works in Norris Hall. Her sister had managed to get a cellphone call out from the cleaning supply closet she and a co-worker locked themselves in after the shooting started. I logged onto the web. The news headline read "Shooting at VT. 1 dead, 1 injured." I called my husband, who works second shift, woke him up, and told him to see if he could get some current news. He said he&#39;d call right back. In the meantime... My friend and co-worker, got a call from her little sister, an EMT for Christiansburg/ Montgomery County. She was on the scene, and her casualty numbers were much higher. She&#39;d heard emergency radio reports of 30 dead or injured already...she said the first response workers were going room to room in Norris Hall, and reporting in what they found. The news on the web went up to 22 dead. My husband called with the confirmed count: 33 dead including the shooter; injury reports still coming in. Suddenly, we knew how it felt to be members of the community that is the site of the "worst mass shooting in U.S. history." I had the sensation of the ground falling out from under me. So that&#39;s how it feels... I immediately tried to call a close friend who is an English instructor at Va Tech. (This is well before Cho is identified as an English major.) I couln&#39;t get through. I sent an email, Let me hear from you soonest...". (It would be Tuesday morning before I would hear she was okay - as okay as any of us were at that point.) My husband called back to say he&#39;d gotten in touch with another friend whose wife teaches in Norris Hall. She didn&#39;t teach on Monday...thank Heaven. But how many co-workers or students did she know? I got through the work day, survived the I-81 commute home, and checked messages. There were two: my sister, also a VT graduate, and my mom. Both said the same thing. "This is awful. Call me and tell me how you are." I wept, appreciating the long distance hugs. Who was I to need a hug though? It hadn&#39;t happened to me. So I thought. Then I turned on the local TV news. Probably nothing could bring it harder home to me, just how messed up the day had been, than to see every major news channel reporting live from what I still consider my town (although I live in the next town over now). My sweet, small, safe town. I knew then that everything had changed. Blacksburg and VT had lost something that could never be regained, that sense of, "that could never happen here." We all had to grow up that day. Students, Alumni, and residents alike. Time to shed those wonderful rose-colored blinders that life in a sweet, small, safe town can afford you, and see the world, and know that there was never any protecting ourselves from this. We still aren&#39;t safe. How do you shield against madness? My phone rang all night that April 16. College friends I hadn&#39;t heard from in years called to share their horror and sadness. (The next day I got a card from my ill-tempered and often-estranged mother-in-law, "Hope your friends are all right...") My husband got home from work Monday night around 11:45 pm and handed me a small ribbon, orange and maroon layered on black. A co-worker of his had spent the day making 100 of them to hand out at work. I pinned mine to my lapel with a VT logo earring (one of a pair I bought to wear at the 2000 Sugar Bowl in New Orleans). For a few moments I had the only ribbon like it... Nikki Giovanni got it right at the convocation. We will prevail. Whether the media moves on or not. That Wednsday, a Virginia-based newspaper reporter called our house, and my husband answered. Our last name is Norris. Were we any relation to the namesake of Norris Hall, and if so how did we feel about this tragedy happening in that particular building? (We aren&#39;t related.) Here on May 3, the funerals are over, the tears are still flowing, but now the media is backing off, at least on a national level. The scab isn&#39;t being ripped off as frequently, and maybe some true healing can begin. But there&#39;s no going back to who we were. Only moving forward. Let&#39;s go Hokies! Language A language of the resource eng Title A name given to the resource So This is How it Feels... account reflection story Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jane Lehr Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jane Lehr Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-04 Description An account of the resource On 4/16/07 12:21 PM, "jlehr@vt.edu" <jlehr@vt.edu> wrote: Subject Line: DO NOT COME TO CAMPUS All, please do not attempt to drop off the paper that is due today. I will send an update. BE SAFE. I AM SO SORRY. Please be safe. I hope that you are all okay. Jane Lehr -- Dr. Jane L. Lehr Department of Science & Technology in Society Virginia Tech, Mail Code 0247 Blacksburg, VA 24061 IM/IChat: janengcult On 4/16/07 7:57 PM, "jlehr@vt.edu" <jlehr@vt.edu> wrote: Subject Line: today&#39;s events Students, I am very worried about you all. If you have a moment, and if I have not already spoken with you by IM/phone/email, I would very much appreciate it if you would send me an email letting me know that you are alright. I very much hope that you all are. I wish there were something I could do. And if you wish to talk, etc., if I can be of any assistance, feel free to call at the number below. JL ----- Blackboard Announcement [Posted by Jane Lehr at 1:55 pm] Mon, Apr 16, 2007 -- Papers, etc. Students, your primary responsibility today is to yourselves, your friends, and your family. Please do not come to campus to drop off your papers. You can turn in hard copies on Thursday in class (assuming classes are not canceled). I understand if you are unable to turn in electronic copies by 5 pm. Please just do so as soon as possible. I have spoken with a number of you by IM. I sincerely hope that all of my students are safe, as are your friends. My thoughts are with you. If for any reason you need to speak with me, you can call me at 540-320-5137. You can also reach me by IM/I-chat at janengcult. I also understand that may need to reschedule your online chat. -- Dr. Jane L. Lehr Department of Science & Technology in Society Virginia Tech, Mail Code 0247 Blacksburg, VA 24061 IM/IChat: janengcult On 4/19/07 4:48 PM, "jlehr@vt.edu" <jlehr@vt.edu> wrote: Subject Line: Thu, Apr 19, 2007 -- Procedure for the Completion of the Spring 2007 Academic Semester Dear Students, I can only begin to convey my sorrow and grief regarding the events of last Monday. Like many of you, I have struggled to find words -- and found it a nearly impossible task. My attention is now focused on developing a plan of action for the rest of the semester. You will find a copy of university procedures for the completion of the Spring 2007 academic semester below. I will be posting an updated schedule and list of assignments shortly, for students who wish to complete all or a portion of the Humanities, Technology and the Life Sciences class. Our challenge, as a class, is to determine how, if at all, perspectives and tools we have explored and/or were scheduled to explore in this course can assist us in beginning to imagine the post-April 16th world. We are also encouraged by many to return to &#39;everyday life&#39; and &#39;everyday tasks&#39; -- even though there is nothing &#39;everyday&#39; about the situation in which we find ourselves. Building off of Dr. McNamee&#39;s statement below, I want to emphasize that I recognize that different students will have different needs and desires -- as well as differing abilities to return to campus or to our class. I am committed to a policy and practice of flexibility. I am committed to supporting you in any way in which I am able. I am committed to you and this university. We all are -- amidst all the diversity of this campus and within our course -- Virginia Tech. If you did not attend the convocation, and have not done so already, I strongly encourage you to read the transcript of Nikki Giovanni&#39;s convocation address: http://www.vt.edu/tragedy/giovanni_transcript.php Finally, Governor Kaine has declared Friday, April 20, 2007 a statewide day of mourning for the victims of Monday&#39;s tragedy. In many communities, this will include prayer services beginning at noon. In many cases, these prayer services will be predominantly or fully-oriented within the Christian faith. I recognize that there are some students who either are not involved in a faith community or who do not identify as Christian. I recognize that these students may feel particularly challenged in locating resources or support options. Thus, again, I wish to state that my door is open to all, whether or not you continue in the course; that my door is open to students of all faiths, practices, and philosophies; and that I will work with you to assist you in locating the resources you need, no matter what these are. With much sorrow ... -- Dr. Jane L. Lehr Department of Science & Technology in Society Virginia Tech, Mail Code 0247 Blacksburg, VA 24061 IM/IChat: janengcult On 4/21/07 3:55 PM, "jlehr@vt.edu" <jlehr@vt.edu> wrote: Subject line: Important Update: Humanities, Technology & the Life Sciences Dear Students, In the past day or so, I have begun to reflect on how privileged I am, in a way, that I, as the instructor of 2 Spring 07 classes, have been forced to turn my attention away to logistical considerations. I realize that, to date, I have responded to this tragedy primarily as an &#39;educator at Virginia Tech&#39; -- seeking to track down all of &#39;my&#39; students, feeling immense relief each time I hear from one of you, crying when I read your IM away messages (my poor student from Engineering Cultures who was lab partners with Henry Lee ...), even starting a website for other educators entitled &#39;Teaching After April 16th&#39;. While not yet announced, the wiki section of this site will be located at: http://www.cddc.vt.edu/after.april.16/wiki/ This has protected me, I think, from being overwhelmed by my response to these events as a former student -- as someone who spent 8 years here earning two degrees; as someone who surprised herself while living in London by answering that she was "from Virginia, from Blacksburg, from Virginia Tech" ... As someone who was thrilled when the men&#39;s basketball team was invited to play in the NCAA tournament this year ... How surprising to me, a northeast girl who grew up mainly in PA who eschewed Penn State as an undergraduate college because it was "too big," because it was "too football," because it was "too ..." to find that I, in fact, love this university. That said, I am writing with an update on our course. * We will meet on T Apr 24 at our regular time. I encourage all of you, whether or not you believe you will complete any more assignments, to come to class. * Many of you have already submitted Analysis #2 in Blackboard, and I have received a number of hard copies in my mailbox. If you have not done so already, please, if you are able, bring a hard copy to class when you return. If you have not yet completed Analysis #2, it would be fantastic if I could receive these by F Apr 27th -- however, I am also flexible on this, so please get in touch to discuss. * If you decide to not complete any additional assignments, for most of you your grade will be based on: 1) Blackboard Homepage 1 point 2) Class Lead 5 points 3) Analysis #1 (5-7 pages) 5 points 4) Analysis #2 (5-7 pages) 10 points 5) Online Discussion 1 (IM) (2) 4 points 6) Blog: Reading/Class Discussion Responses 15 points 7) Blog: Film Diary 7.5 points 8) Blog: Participation Journal 5 points 9) Blog: Responses to Cohort Members 7.5 points 10) In-Class Participation 10 points That means that, for most of you, 70 points are currently possible. Some of you may have already posted responses in your blog about one or more cultural event(s). Each cultural event is worth an additional 2.5 possible points. Some of you have not yet done a class lead. If you were scheduled to do a class lead after April 15, your total possible points, to date, are 65. * Remaining Assignments: As you know, you have the option of choosing to complete any or all remaining assignments. These include: 1) Class evaluations: 1.5 points 2) IM Chat 2: 3.5 points 3) Feminist/Anti-Racist Sci-Fi Project: 10 points 4) Analysis #3: 10 points 5) Blog: Cultural Events: 5 points Any additional blog postings will only boost your grade. I encourage you, if you wish, to transform your blog into a site of reflection regarding recent events. They are your blogs -- you own them. Do with then what you will. * Sci-Fi Presentations: On Tuesday, you will have the opportunity to talk with your cohort, if you have not done so already, about whether or not you wish to complete this assignment either as a cohort or individually. So far, I have come up with a number of different completion scenarios. These include: 1) You can choose to present in class on either Th Apr 26 or T May 1; 2) You can choose to present to me (and any other members of our class who want to come) on Reading Day (Th May 3) -- off-campus location TBA; 3) You can create a webpage or powerpoint presentation by Fri May 4, that I will make available/link to on our Blackboard site for other people to look at. * 2nd IM Chat -- again, on Tuesday you can discuss with your cohort. * Current grades: I need to go through all of your blogs as soon as possible to determine your current blog grades. If you have been completing all your required postings and responding to your cohort members, your blog grade will be in the B+ to A+ range. I will do this as soon as possible. I also expect that grades on Analysis #2 will be no lower than a B/B- (based on past work) and that a large number of you will receive As, as was the case with Analysis #1. * Updated reading schedule: Please see Blackboard. If you are scheduled to do a class lead, please let me know as soon as possible if you plan to do so. (If you have not yet done a class lead and are not scheduled, yet want to do one, please let me know, too.) Students, you each are so precious -- I can only begin to imagine the pain and grieving of those who have lost someone close. I am so sorry. I very much hope to see each of you again in class. If you cannot come to class, please remember that you are still welcome to come speak with me. I am so sorry. -- Dr. Jane L. Lehr Department of Science & Technology in Society Virginia Tech, Mail Code 0247 Blacksburg, VA 24061 IM/IChat: janengcult Language A language of the resource eng Title A name given to the resource Emails to VT STS 2154 students dated Mon Apr 16 to Sat Apr 21, 2007 class course email faculty messages students teacher https://april16archive.org/files/original/list-of-students-large_e1db3cb352.jpg null Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-04 Omeka Legacy File The metadata element set that, in addition to the Dublin Core element set, was included in the `files` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all Omeka files. This set may be deprecated in future versions. Capture Date 2007-05-04 12:31:00 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jane Lehr Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jane Lehr Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-04 Description An account of the resource On Monday, April 16, 2007, I was in New Orleans at the annual conference of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST). This is a list of students I was able to contact between 10:08 am (when I received an email from a student indicating that he could not attend my regularly scheduled 10:10 lecture as Blacksburg Transit was not running, and then turned on CNN) and 1:30 pm. Most students were contacted through AOL Instant Messenger/I-Chat. Language A language of the resource eng Title A name given to the resource Students contacted Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Brent Jesiek Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gary Downey Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-04 Description An account of the resource Friends, Since a number of you asked to receive further installments, I decided to send this out to everyone who wrote to offer support. I have greatly appreciated it, profoundly so. Yesterday I used the basketball court for stress relief and to connect with another group of friends. One friend, a productive scholar, said he had just arrived at the point of beginning to plan what he might try to accomplish next week. That pretty much described my head as well. I may add entries in coming weeks as thoughts and feelings spiral, but I don&#39;t know. For now I&#39;m done. I look forward to following up individually with each of you. Warmly, Gary Friends, I&#39;m getting too many messages to respond individually. I&#39;m grateful for your concern. Below is a series of messages I&#39;ve been sending out to those who have contacted me. Monday afternoon I and my family are ok. I was in my office 3 buildings away when the mass shootings took place, about 9:45. I didn&#39;t hear the shots. I learned of the lockdown from a loudspeaker announcing an emergency. The 2nd floor of Norris Hall is home to the engineering science and mechanics dept, as well as the dean&#39;s office for the college of engineering. I have many friends in both. I don&#39;t believe anyone in STS teaches in that building. No names have been released. I&#39;m holding my breath. This is beyond comprehension. Love, gary [Note: much later I was reminded that I have taught in Norris Hall many times, in the big lecture hall, on the other end of the building from the shootings. I know the building well.] Tuesday AM: One of the professors killed was my friend, G.V. Loganathan, an Indian man from civil engineering. Last year he won the University&#39;s top award for teaching. His students had written passionately about the lengths he had gone to help them, both in the classroom and beyond. He was in his classroom. I also knew the German instructor, Jamie Bishop, a delightful, unassuming young man. He also taught courses in web design. I was enrolled in one last year as part of what is called here the Faculty Development Institute. Dr. Librescu held the door shut in his classroom to give his students time to jump out of the window. The loss is devastating. Tuesday PM: At the convocation today, a father nearly collapsed and the proceeding stopped while he received care and was helped out of the Coliseum along with his family. Nikki Giovanni, the poet, concluded the event with a wonderfully stirring call for persistence and community--but to me it&#39;s not time yet. All those families. Wednesday AM: I awoke thinking about how what happened here on Monday happens every day in Iraq. The sensationalism in U.S. news coverage is becoming the story. This country seems to know what it is only when it has an enemy. Virginia Tech has lost its innocence. It&#39;s now the object of a broader search for self-definition. Today the word Columbine means one thing. Is that what&#39;s happening to Virginia Tech? Wednesday PM: I&#39;m watching two things, both in others and in myself. On the one hand, a genuine sense of questioning about the decision not to announce that a gunman was at large. I&#39;m glad President Steger asked the governor to appoint a commission to investigate what took place. That strikes me as the right course of action. On the other hand, a sense of being attacked by the deluge of coverage and an urge to join together to fight it off. The intrusion makes it difficult to conceptualize a new sense of community, let alone build it. Thursday AM: My resistance to intrusion has grown. The relentless demands for clarity in the national media have become overwhelming to me. A nation uncertain about its identity lusts for the clarity of evil, identified and exorcised. Those who were complicit must be punished. But for the nation to gain its clarity and regain its self-assurance, we have to be torn apart. I&#39;m watching decent people being challenged to admit fundamental failure, so others elsewhere can relax and resume. For me, the only way out is to accept the ambiguity. I&#39;m just not sure how. Note: Yesterday I deleted an expression of anguish from Monday about the 2 hour delay. At the time, the anguish was my own. But by Wednesday, it had been appropriated by the machinery of external demands for clarity. I had lost possession of it. It no longer said what I meant. It took me till today to understand that. I sent a letter to the Roanoke Times affirming that Virginia Tech is part Korean. Many people feel similarly. Race may not become an issue. Thursday PM: I didn&#39;t want to go to a Department gathering at noon. I thought we might have difficulty coming together. We didn&#39;t. It was a meaningful experience. We helped one another. They are my people. We&#39;re going to gather again on Saturday. I was wrong when I said STS teaches no classes in Norris. One of my graduate students, an international student, teaches a Friday discussion section of Engineering Cultures in 206. That was G.V.&#39;s room. Friday PM: Yesterday I gave a long interview to the Toronto Star. He wanted to discuss the increase in mass shootings. I said it was about increased audience. In part because of the expansion of communications technologies. But mainly because of the dependence of national renewal on finding an enemy we can all share. Doesn&#39;t happen in Canada. I think Montreal was different. They were all women. Today I am at UVA with my son, Michael, hosted by Admissions. Having two kids go here split my identity between my institution and its rival. Today is different. Orange and maroon everywhere. A memorial site where many students are writing letters to Tech students. All stop at noon as the Chapel bell slowly tolls 33 times. I read that many of the candles at Tuesday&#39;s vigil came from UVA. Every time I see the Hoos for Hokies sign, I cry. And I&#39;ve never considered myself a Hokie. I&#39;ve learned this week that I am indeed Virginia Tech. Higher education can no longer be called sanctuary. Virginia Tech is of the world. Our theory must catch up. Saturday One of my daughters, Megan, has flown in. Telephone, email, and obsessive reading had not been enough. She needed to be here. The father of the Blacksburg girl who died wrote an open letter to the community inviting us to cherish the memories we&#39;re creating with our loved ones, for one day that&#39;s all we might have. I bought a Virginia Tech tshirt for the first time. Marta and I hosted a gathering for STS families. Megan, Leah, and Michael did all the work while Marta and I attended the memorial service for G.V. His graduate students called him Gobichettypalayam Vasudevan, his name. We shared the food all had brought. The youngest kids chased our cats. We talked. We laughed. We discussed what to do in class the first day back. Sunday Last night I was told that after killing G.V. and the woman sitting closest to the door, the shooter ordered the civil engineering grad students to put their heads down on their desks. He then put three bullets into each head. In the French class, the shooter left and came back. The wounded teacher tried to hold the door shut with a table, unsuccessfully. I signed the petition supporting Charles Steger and Wendell Flinchum. Tomorrow is the oral defense of a Ph.D. qualifying exam. I&#39;m on the committee. Thursday My biggest difficulty has been accepting the ambiguity. My career is about pursuing ambiguity, confronting ambiguity, wrestling with ambiguity, interpreting ambiguity, constructing narratives about ambiguity. But always ambiguity as object, external challenge, something to figure out. The deep, abiding acceptance of ambiguity is another thing altogether. I&#39;m not so good at that. It came to a head for me yesterday at the crowded memorial gathering for the two faculty and fifteen students in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. Fifteen kids extending themselves past their boundaries, learning another language, led forward by teachers with relentless, sometimes infuriating, enthusiasm. Yet the acceptance of ambiguity just may be serving as the vehicle of new community around here. I&#39;ve always defined community as sharedness that is the product of work, sharedness that assumes initial difference. This week the regular boundaries among us have blurred, if only temporarily, and everyone everywhere seems to be reveling in the joys of simple encounters, recognizing and acknowledging their privilege. A staff member brings her toddler and her dog to the office, to the celebration of all. A dean and a provost feel liberated to openly express and share emotion. The horror is starting to become a thing. It&#39;s not going away, nor will it be explained. Sharedness seems to lie in our diverse struggles to accept. Friday I played basketball today. Lost all three games. It was wonderful. Language A language of the resource eng Title A name given to the resource some thoughts (April 16-27, 2007) account faculty journal reflection story Document A resource containing textual data. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jason Pettrey Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jason Pettrey Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-05 Description An account of the resource My wife and I went up to VT for a 4 day weekend, and to the German Club 115th anniversary. We toured campus and sat on the steps of Burruss Hall Saturday afternoon. We left Sunday afternoon, only to return to Houston - to find news of a much different place than we left. Absolutely awful. Language A language of the resource eng Title A name given to the resource No words to describe...