University Police beef up training, introduce new technology
By: Ryan Norman Posted: 8/23/07 With the looming arrival of the fall semester at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University Police are preparing for the increased number of on-campus students. University Police are hoping to stay ahead of crime by supplementing training and implementing new technology, said Jim Davis, the education and personnel officer of the University Police. "We have been preparing this summer by training for drug and alcohol-related situations," Davis said. "We have also taken time to study more on action and reaction to hostage situations, in reaction to Virginia Tech." Davis said, along with increased training, the University Police have hired a new officer, Michael Eckel, to increase student safety. The University Police are also planning on using two new online tools to help students. By second semester, the University Police hope to have a system in place where students can register valuable items online in case of campus theft. "We are trying to go out this year and entice everyone to register bicycles and electronics with us." Davis said. "Anything valuable students want to register, we want to be able to put in a system that we can pull up if that item disappears." Capt. Carl Oestmann of University Police said the department implemented another online tool this summer called UNLAlert. UNLAlert is a program which can be downloaded to any computer and will be used to alert university students, parents and staff members in case of a campus emergency. The program can be downloaded at http://emergency.unl.edu/unlalert.shtml. "If you download the program, and have your computer on during a campus emergency, we can send out an emergency message that will automatically come up on your screen," Oestmann said. "It is another tool we can use to alert the campus community in case of an emergency." Even with the new safety measures, the beginning of the fall semester inevitably causes an increase in several problems, including traffic and theft, Oestmann said. Oestmann said drivers should "heed to the speed limits." University Police will be monitoring drivers' speeds, especially during the first few days of the school year. "The beginning of the year always signals a high volume of traffic, and I don't like to pick on the freshman, but they need to be especially careful because it's new for them," Davis said. "We will be running the radar, especially on 16th and 17th street." Oestmann also cautions students on leaving their car or dorm room unlocked while moving into University Housing. "We get a few theft reports every year right when students move in because they leave their rooms or cars unlocked while they are moving in," Oestmann said. "Give up convenience and take the extra few minutes to lock your car and room." Davis said he is looking forward to talking with students about any questions they may have for the University Police and any resident assistant who wants to invite him to speak is more than welcome to do so. "Most of the time students see us in a negative light," Davis said. "We want students to be able to talk to us and know we are here to help them." -- Original Source:Daily Nebraskan - August 23, 2007
Josh Swartzlander <jdwriter19@yahoo.com>
Church continues to carry on without pastor
By: Ryan Norman Posted: 4/25/07 Events such as the Virginia Tech shooting can be hard on some students. Besides psychological services, students seeking counseling can also find help at campus ministries. Cornerstone Church at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, however, is having more trouble providing this service. The former campus pastor of the church, Melissa Finlaw Draper, became the pastor at Northeast United Church of Christ earlier this semester. This left Cornerstone without an on-site pastor, said Lew Kaye-Skinner, an English lecturer as well as faculty adviser and chair of the ministry board for Cornerstone-United Ministries in Higher Education. "The current absence of a pastor on staff has meant that we have not been able to respond as quickly as might otherwise happen to issues such as the Virginia Tech massacre," Kaye-Skinner wrote in an e-mail interview. Kaye-Skinner said the mission of Cornerstone is to bring the message of God to campus and respond to the needs of students. Because Cornerstone currently doesn't have a pastor, volunteers have been providing these services. "Volunteers have had to fill in," Kaye-Skinner wrote. "For instance, we have had to supply pastors for the Sunday evening worship services at Cornerstone since the first of February." Worship services haven't been the problem, said Jessica Lauer, a senior philosophy and religious studies major and intern at Cornerstone Church. It's the services not on Sundays, such as prayer groups and bible studies, that have suffered. "These events are always a time of great fellowship and fun for students, and we haven't been able to do much of that," Lauer said. Kaye-Skinner said the search for a pastor is progressing but isn't moving quite as quickly as he would like. "It has been very difficult finding qualified applicants for the position," Kaye-Skinner wrote. Cornerstone has been struggling with low attendance this year, and it hasn't been easy to improve campus involvement without a pastor, Lauer said. Despite the setbacks, Lauer said she is confident the church will rebound in the upcoming years. "I am sad that I am graduating and will miss the opportunity to meet the new chaplain and see the wonderful things that are in store for Cornerstone," Lauer said. -- Original Source:Daily Nebraskan - April 25, 2007
by S L Kim | April 17, 2007 1. Race Shame As soon as I saw the shooter's name--Cho Seung-Hui--in the NYT this morning, I knew he was Korean. Crap. Ever since I got home last night after teaching, and my husband told me about the deadly shooting spree at Virginia Tech, I'd been wondering, like everyone else, about the gunman. Knowing he was a "young Asian man" made me maybe slightly more curious than I normally might have been, and finding out his name made my heart sink a little more. He's being described in the NYT as a "South Korean who was a resident alien in the United States," a 23-year-old senior English major. At first I imagined one of those Korean students who are sent to the US by themselves, as high school or college students, by families eager for them to get an American education at whatever cost. These students, with varying levels of English-speaking skills, are sent all over, to far-flung corners of the US. But it turns out that this "resident alien" came to the states with his family in 1992, when he was 7 or 8 years old. Wouldn't that make him, culturally speaking, an American? It's not so much that I'm afraid of outbreaks of violence against Koreans or Asians in general, but I worry about the generalizations and pop psychology pablum that will reinforce ugly stereotypes and perpetuate tacit forms of racism in the name of "understanding what happened." You know, looking for things in his culture or his upbringing that might have contributed, all the while the implicit message is: watch out for the quiet Asian guys, because they might just go crazy. 2. Media Rhetoric Already, the shooter is described as a "loner," already the profiles emerge about these killers on a rampage. The photos of him are now circulating, and he's described as expressionless. Apparently, he left a note with a list of grievances and he wrote disturbing stories in his creative writing class. It seems too easy to map the symptoms of pathology onto the stereotypical features of racial and ethnic identity. For a while last night, no one wanted to say whether the shooter was a student at VT, but it seemed pretty apparent to me that whoever did it was affiliated with the school in some significant way. But there's a strong impulse to distance ourselves from the killer among us, to imagine that it might have been random, unpredictable, even as we try to fit him into a knowable pattern. A student interviewed said he can't believe he used to say hi to such a "monster." Meanwhile, as we slowly learn more about the victims, the media can't help but paint the stark contrast between the happy, accomplished, and well-integrated students on one side and the angry loner who hated them on the other. I don't think I can stand to watch the TV coverage of this event. 3. Stupid Politics According to Slate and other sources, the blogs on the left and right are abuzz about what could have been different in the gun laws to have prevented or at least curtailed the violence. There are people who actually believe that the answer to preventing this kind of gun violence is for more people to be able to carry concealed weapons. Fight force with equal force, they say. If law-abiding citizens were able to arm themselves, the idea goes, they'd be able to step in and play the hero. I just don't buy it. I wouldn't want to be on a campus where I know some of those around me are packing heat. 4. Campus Life I worry about what this event will do to the climate and conditions of university life. I worry that this will be used as an excuse by the state, the right, the short-sighted, self-interested politicians to meddle in university life in the name of "security." We know how well that's going on the national level. 5. Across the Ocean I wonder how this event is being portrayed and talked about in the Korean media. Any thoughts, J Lee? -- Original Source: http://www.printculture.com/index.php?itemid=1363 Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0.
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By Salah Obeid Online Journal Contributing Writer Jun 8, 2007, 00:27 There isn't room enough on the calendar to honor every American hero, but Aug. 16, the birthday of one such hero, is a day teachers and others who cherish education should make a point of celebrating. No one knows what drove Liviu Librescu, four months short of his 77th birthday, to martyr himself to the cause of education. But that is what Librescu, a Romanian-born Holocaust survivor and mechanical engineering professor, did when he blocked a gunman from entering his Virginia Tech University classroom on April 16 -- earning him five bullets, one of them to the head -- so that most of his students could escape through the windows. Because he was slain in a public learning institution, public schools are where he should be celebrated. And because Librescu (the root of whose name, "libre," is Latin for "free") came to America searching for freedom, those who teach subjects like U.S. history and government should make honoring him a lesson on where his adopted country truly stands on freedom. By the time they enter college, many students in this country can't think critically about history and politics, having rarely been encouraged in school to think creatively outside of art and music class. Yet wolfing down hot dogs and soaking up sun on a field trip to celebrate Librescu Day could amount to more than just indigestion and sunburn, if the day were also an occasion for students to reflect on how their country, a magnet for immigrants seeking freedom, too often deprives people in other countries of the very freedoms Americans enjoy. Throughout its history, the United States has -- in places like Latin America, Haiti, the Philippines and elsewhere -- picked fights at the drop of a dime whenever dollars were to be made, a fact that is largely ignored in classrooms around the country. The result is that, as the country gets bogged down in Afghanistan and Iraq, many students don't know any better than to think thousands of their fellow citizens, most only slightly older than them, are killing and being killed in those countries in the name of spreading freedom. But freedom can mean many things. Librescu, born on Aug. 16, 1930, on the outskirts of Bucharest, was barely nine when World War II broke out and could only watch as his government, also in the name of freedom, helped the Nazis annihilate hundreds of thousands of Romania's Jewish citizens. Luckily he survived, became an accomplished scientist and, in 1986, after living several years in Israel, left for Virginia on a sabbatical and never looked back. Little did he know that years later a frustrated, mentally-ill college student would alone succeed where the focused efforts of the entire Nazi Party had failed. Still, Librescu's death will have been partly in vain if teachers ignore the dedication symbolized by a colleague's choosing to die so that his students might live to see another classroom. Ignorance that isn't necessarily willful but rather the result of intimidation. How else to explain that so many U.S. history and government teachers go out of their way to avoid discussing the context in which President Bush, in his second inaugural address, for example, used words like "freedom" and "liberty" some dozen odd times? Or in which Vice President Dick Cheney, during remarks to Westminster College in Missouri a few years ago, paraphrased Winston Churchill's assessment of the struggle against Soviet communism, in order to paint a picture of the chaos in U.S.-occupied Iraq as a contest between "those who served an aggressive, power-hungry ideology and those who believed in human liberty, freedom of conscience and the dignity of every life"? Words like "liberty" and expressions like "freedom of conscience" are easily said; the challenge is living up to the ideals they represent. But often politicians aren't so challenged to begin with, and worse, sometimes rely on such words, as George Orwell wrote, "in a consciously dishonest way." Dignity of life, after all, means little coming from someone like Cheney, whose central pursuit over the past few years has been to enrich his friends at Enron and Halliburton over the dead bodies of an estimated million or so Iraqi civilians -- people who might have lived in fear under Saddam Hussein, but who at least could've expected to live with far more certainty than can Iraqis today. Propaganda and censorship is something that, growing up in communist Romania, Librescu knew all too well. The same can be said of another Jewish hero to whom he is often compared. On Aug. 5, 1942, German soldiers stormed an orphanage for Jewish children in Warsaw, instructing the man who ran it, Janusz Korczak, that he was free to go, but that his 200 or so orphans and several staff members were slated for extermination. Unlike Librescu, Korczak couldn't save his charges from death. Instead, he followed them to the gas chamber, his final gesture to children who'd had so little and died so young. A renowned children's author and pediatrician, Korczak was also a teacher, and instructed hundreds at his Dom Sierot (Polish for "house for orphans") with little regard for convention. Those who survived the war recount being allowed to form a "kind of a republic for children, with its own small parliament, court and newspaper," according to an entry on Wikipedia.org. By contrast, a half-century later, American public schools appear intent on turning students into automatons. And even that they're getting wrong. Students in the United States, in subjects like math and science, which require learning mostly by mind-numbing rote, lag behind their counterparts in miserably poor countries like Bangladesh, Burundi, El Salvador and Nepal. Generally, though, American students also read less for pleasure, visit fewer museums and attend schools with mediocre teachers, all easily gleaned from comparing how flippant and addicted to pop culture many young Americans are next to kids in less fortunate parts of the world. Maybe that is because, as one credit card company likes to say, there are some things money can't buy. China, where teachers get paid a pittance by a government that looks with scorn at individual rights and free speech, generally has a more well-read, independent-minded, smarter population than ours. Which is what outright censorship does: breed rebellion. Censorship, though, shouldn't be allowed any wiggle room in a country billing itself as the "land of the free." Yet the United States has become fertile ground for it, an indication of which is that mainstream media, not satisfied with just obscuring the "who," "what" and "where" in its news coverage, goes to great lengths to avoid the "why" altogether. It may be just as well, then, that many kids come home from school in the afternoon only to get super glued to MTV, video games or websites like Myspace.com, since much of what's in the news would sooner confuse than educate them. Were that not sad enough, the education that does manage to seep into the minds of these would-be torchbearers of democracy is watered down to the point of irrelevancy. Not because teachers are stupid, evil or lazy but because most are simply too afraid to rock the boat. Many teachers understand they swim in murky water. Water that has swallowed teachers like Deb Mayer at Clear Creek Elementary in Monroe County, Indiana, near Bloomington (home, ironically, to liberal arts-dominated Indiana University). Mayer was fired in 2003 after she dared discuss the subject of peace movements during a general class discussion about the build-up to the war in Iraq. Similarly, a school in Wilton, Conn., recently banned a play about the conflict in that country. "In Wilton, most kids only care about Britney Spears shaving her head or Tyra Banks gaining weight," 16-year-old Devon Fontaine, a cast member, told The New York Times. "What we wanted was to show kids what was going on overseas." The school administration's reply: "You can't always get what you want." Censorship is well documented in schools throughout the country. Schools like Columbine High School in Colorado, where Alfred Wilder was fired in 1996 for showing Bernardo Bertolucci's film, "1900," which explores fascism, to a senior class studying logic and debate. That instance of censorship may even have cost 13 students and a teacher their lives. A video depicting students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold rehearsing for the massacre they'd go on to carry out at the school three years later wasn't allowed to be shown on school grounds because of the controversy surrounding the Bertolucci film. "If the video had indeed been shown," Al Hidell wrote in "The New Conspiracy Reader," "perhaps somebody would have realized the serious threat it represented, which may have prevented the tragedy from occurring." Rarely, of course, is censorship so dramatic in its outcome that it becomes a matter of life and death. But there is such a thing as a slow death. Appalled by the stifling of his film, Bertolucci wrote that it was no less than a prelude to totalitarianism when classrooms become a place "in which the voice of established authority denounced criticism or debate, and used the high school classroom to silence other voices." Voices that hold that "children are the future. Teach them well and let them lead the way." Before letting cocaine lead the way for her instead, Whitney Huston knew what she was singing about. The minute students are fit to broach subjects like history, government and political affairs is the minute they should be challenged to imagine their future roles as informed, voting citizens. Citizens like Librescu, who wore many hats but probably would have been happy to be remembered as one more in a long line of educators who eschewed empty slogans, who knew that leaving no child behind meant arming students with curiosity, compassion and courage. Courage, though, shouldn't mean that 3,500 young Americans, and counting, have to take their final breath in a country that never meant the United States any harm. Courage should mean educating the nation's youth so that they can spot a charlatan when they see one, even if he worms his way up to the presidency itself. Those who will inherit this nation need that kind of courage from those who've been here a while, so that they too can develop the courage to die if need be. But to die in the spirit of someone like Librescu, who took one bullet after another yet refused to let go, so that others might live and learn. And be free. Copyright © 1998-2007 Online Journal -- Archived courtesy of Online Journal. Original Source: http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2062.shtml
Bev Conover, Editor and Publisher, Online Journal (editor_oj@yahoo.com or editor@onlinejournal.com)
Creado por: Salinger (a.k.a. Al Valdes) Posteado por Äl a las 2:37 AM Tarde, pero no quiero que las fatales e inocentes victimas de Virginia Tech caigan en el olvido de este mi humilde blog. Por ende, quiero escribir unas palabras en su recuerdo. Ya se que no tiene remedio, pero todos esperamos que descanseis en paz. Sabemos que no lo mereciais, ni vosotros ni las familias, ni la ciudad, ni siquiera el mundo entero. No empañaré vuestra memoria mencionando al instigador de semejante atrocidad. Total, es lo que queria, visto lo visto. Y tampoco voy a entrar en nacionalidades, razas o credos. Todos somos iguales, para bien o para mal. Alla donde esteis, 'Rest in Peace'. -- Fuente Original: Acuse de Recibo Retazos Sutiles en forma soñica, España. http://parajeremoto.blogspot.com/2007/04/rest-in-peace.html Licencia de uso: Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-SinObraDerivada 2.5 España
Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-SinObraDerivada 2.5 España
From Palestine to Virginia Tech: We are with you in this Time of Pain
Posted by Sami Awad on April 20th, 2007 Two days ago a tragic event took place in Virginia Tech in the US that shocked not only the people of the United States but people all across the globe. A violent massacre took place there that resulted in thirty two killed, individuals who presented different cultures, religions and nationalities. In a sign of solidarity the people of Palestine in general and those from the Sothern villages surrounding the Holy city of Bethlehem dedicated their weekly nonviolent activity against the building of Apartheid wall to the families of the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre. Every Friday, Palestinians, internationals, and Israeli nonviolent activists gather in the Southern villages of Bethlehem to protest against the building of the Apartheid Wall that will eventually destroy the livelihood of these villages. This Friday, the protest began with a silent procession by the group of about fifty participants. We carried banners and leaflets with the Virginia Tech logo and statements supporting them in this time of pain. Thirty two olive trees were also carried in the procession to remember each person killed in the massacre. The olive tree is a global symbol of peace and hope. Once we reached the path created by the by the bulldozers for the building of the Apartheid Wall we dug the earth and plated the thirty two olive trees in a row - instead of building an ugly wall that divides people, let us plant trees that bring people together. Several of the participants made statements condemning the violence that we all, as the human family are witnessing and condemning the building of the Apartheid wall and the killing of innocents. Over 150 Israeli soldiers came to dismantle our protest. Our commitment to nonviolence and to achieve our goal completely paralyzed their weapons and their goals and eventually our power made them withdrawal. The planting of the trees was followed by reciting the names of all those who were killed in the Virginian massacre followed by a fifteen minute period of silence before the group moved back to the villages. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said "where there is an injustice somewhere ... there is an injustice everywhere." This also means that where there is violence somewhere there is violence everywhere... We need to work for peace somewhere so that peace can also spread every where. -- Archived with permission of author. Original source: http://samiawad.wordpress.com/2007/04/20/
Every Friday, Palestinians, internationals, and Israeli nonviolent activists gather in the Southern villages of Bethlehem to protest against the building of the Apartheid Wall that will eventually destroy the livelihood of these villages. This Friday [April 20, 2007], the protest began with a silent procession by the group of about fifty participants. We carried banners and leaflets with the Virginia Tech logo and statements supporting them in this time of pain. Thirty two olive trees were also carried in the procession to remember each person killed in the massacre. The olive tree is a global symbol of peace and hope. -- Archived with permission. Original source: http://samiawad.wordpress.com/2007/04/20/
Sami Awad (Text) and Muhamad Zboun - PNN (Photo)
Every Friday, Palestinians, internationals, and Israeli nonviolent activists gather in the Southern villages of Bethlehem to protest against the building of the Apartheid Wall that will eventually destroy the livelihood of these villages. This Friday [April 20, 2007], the protest began with a silent procession by the group of about fifty participants. We carried banners and leaflets with the Virginia Tech logo and statements supporting them in this time of pain. Thirty two olive trees were also carried in the procession to remember each person killed in the massacre. The olive tree is a global symbol of peace and hope. Once we reached the path created by the by the bulldozers for the building of the Apartheid Wall we dug the earth and plated the thirty two olive trees in a row - instead of building an ugly wall that divides people, let us plant trees that bring people together. Several of the participants made statements condemning the violence that we all, as the human family are witnessing and condemning the building of the Apartheid wall and the killing of innocents. Over 150 Israeli soldiers came to dismantle our protest. Our commitment to nonviolence and to achieve our goal completely paralyzed their weapons and their goals and eventually our power made them withdrawal. -- Archived with permission. Original Source: http://samiawad.wordpress.com/2007/04/20/
Every Friday, Palestinians, internationals, and Israeli nonviolent activists gather in the Southern villages of Bethlehem to protest against the building of the Apartheid Wall that will eventually destroy the livelihood of these villages. This Friday [April 20, 2007], the protest began with a silent procession by the group of about fifty participants. We carried banners and leaflets with the Virginia Tech logo and statements supporting them in this time of pain. Thirty two olive trees were also carried in the procession to remember each person killed in the massacre. The olive tree is a global symbol of peace and hope. Once we reached the path created by the by the bulldozers for the building of the Apartheid Wall we dug the earth and plated the thirty two olive trees in a row - instead of building an ugly wall that divides people, let us plant trees that bring people together. Several of the participants made statements condemning the violence that we all, as the human family are witnessing and condemning the building of the Apartheid wall and the killing of innocents. -- Archived with permission. Original Source: http://samiawad.wordpress.com/2007/04/20/
by SamiSunshine That is a prime example of colleges not looking into the right cases and not checking up on people. Once Cho started to stalk people, he should have been expelled. They seem to spend more time fighting underage drinking than sexual assult. Relating that to the U of A, at one of the dorms my friend was staying with a girl who had moved into her room from another dorm. What my friend didn't know was that the girl was moved from the other room for taking a knife and slashing up the furniture and threatening people. Finally my friend got really scared because the girl did something similar again and instead of kicking the psycho girl out, they moved my friend in with another girl and the psycho has her own room. In this same dorm, another friend got kicked out of the dorm system because his roommates said he didn't clean and said he was smoking pot while there was no evidence of the fact. And counselors and administrators never get back to you. I had a really bad panic attack the night before an exam and I couldn't take it because of some harm I did to myself and I explained that to the dean's secretary who said that she was going to refer me to counselors who would call me in the next few day. They never called. I finally went to the counselors on my own and a lady gave me the names of therapists and said she would call in the next few days. She never called. I could have been so far on the edge that I could have harmed myself or others. I could have been another Cho. But, the university decided to not check up on me, a severely stressed out, freaked out person who was living in the dorms with many other students. I could have been a risk to others and they still did not make sure that I wasn't a threat to myself or others. I wouldn't be surprised if that had happened at Virginia Tech. Don't blame strict/lax gun laws, violence in the media, or society in general: blame the people who were supposed to be protecting, mentoring, and caring for the students. Cho Seung-Hui had been referred to counseling, he had a record as a stalker, he had a reputation as a disturbed individual: did the President have to march over to the Virgina Tech campus health and demand that they see Cho? This tragedy could happen anywhere. My heartfelt condolences to the victims, their families, and Cho's family. This should be something that should inspire universities to protect and try to heal their students, not lose them in the masses. ETA: On a more frivolous note, its appalling that someone with such bad writing could be a Senior English major. The most disturbing things about his writing is how bad it is. That says something about the writing program at Virginia Tech. And, it ain't good. -- Author's Comments This is a little rant about how many chances they had to stop Cho and how little they did and how it isn't just a problem that Virginia Tech has. Its a problem at universities all over the United States. -- Original submitted to deviantart.com on April 19, 2007: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/53594990/ Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 License.
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5
VirginiaTech: 32 muertos, 4.3 millones de cómplices y 6.000 millones de víctimas
Creado por Santiago Bustelo April 17th, 2007 La masacre estudiantil en Virginia Tech ocurrida ayer (lunes 16 de abril de 2007) ha vuelto a instalar la discusión de algunos de los valores de la sociedad norteamericana y del resto del mundo... de una manera tan estéril como en ocasiones anteriores. Los cómplices, o el lado correcto de la mira En el tema de la regulación de armas, las opiniones en Norteamérica son opuestas. Básicamente, porque dependen de qué lado de la mira esté -o crea estar- quien opina. La Asociación del Rifle Americano (NRA) cuenta con 4.3 millones de miembros, lo que la convierte en la ONG más grande del mundo. En esta ocasión, al igual que en todos los casos anteriores, sus miembros y autoridades están preparados a expresar sus condolencias... y a dejar claro que no creen que la facilidad con la que se pueden conseguir en EE.UU. armas diseñadas para matar a una gran cantidad de gente en poco tiempo y con un mínimo esfuerzo, tenga algo que ver con que alguien haya decidido -nuevamente- ponerlo en práctica. Claro que no sólo en EE.UU. ocurren masacres de este tipo. En el resto del mundo, cada tanto algún Don Nadie se siente inspirado por quienes pasaron a la historia atentando gratuitamente contra la vida de los demás. Que las armas no estén al alcance de cualquiera, impide a la mayoría pasar a la acción. En el caso de la masacre estudiantil de Carmen de Patagones, Argentina, el perpetrador era el hijo de un policía: le bastó con abrir un cajón para pasar a los hechos. Los miembros de la NRA creen que portar armas garantiza su seguridad personal. O sea, que tener un arma les asegura mágicamente estar del lado correcto de la mira, y que otros no los consideren como un blanco posible. Mientras que la realidad es que en el momento en que alguien nos está apuntando, tener un arma (descargada y prolijamente guardada en un lugar seguro para evitar que nuestros hijos se vuelen la cabeza por accidente), difícilmente haga una diferencia. Sería preferible que otro no nos esté apuntando en primer lugar. En la mentalidad de la NRA, la portación de armas es más que un derecho. Tratándose de la "segunda enmienda", se lo compara en importancia a la primera (la que garantiza la libertad de expresión). Veamos qué dice la famosa Segunda Enmienda: A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. En castellano: Siendo necesaria una milicia bien regulada para la seguridad de un Estado Libre, no debe ser vulnerado el derecho del Pueblo de poseer y portar armas. Esto es, el derecho a portar armas tiene para la Segunda Enmienda el propósito de garantizar la seguridad nacional. La seguridad personal no está contemplada como finalidad. Sin embargo, teniendo el ejército más poderoso del planeta, la posibilidad de que EE.UU. sea víctima de una invasión extranjera es prácticamente nula. Más bien, su ejército tiene la costumbre de invadir "preventivamente" todos los países que puedan suponer una amenaza política o económica. El mantenimiento de la Pax Americana debe poco a los más de cuatro millones de miembros de la NRA, a quienes no vemos formando filas quilométricas para partir a Medio Oriente. En lugar de ello, el grueso de las tropas se compone de clases bajas e hijos de inmigrantes. Para ellos, alistarse y arriesgar la vida, es la única manera de obtener una educación y una posición social. Las víctimas, o la cabeza de turco del loco del gatillo ¿Por qué alguien puede alimentar deseos de matar a diestra y siniestra y, peor aún, llegar a hacerlo? Calificar a los perpetradores de estos actos como locos y desquiciados, es la mejor manera de no responder a esa pregunta. Están locos, punto, fin de la discusión. Una veta de "respuestas" aún "mejores" que enuncian algunos norteamericanos, busca culpar al ateísmo (la separación de la Iglesia y el Estado en la educación) o a una "posesión demoníaca", que para esta gente viene a ser más o menos lo mismo. El perpetrador abandonó a Dios, fuente de toda razón y justicia, así que todos sus actos estaban desprovistos de ambas. Y ahora arde en el infierno, fin del problema. De estas maneras, se evita tocar el problema de fondo: cómo una sociedad que valora a sus individuos sólo en base a lo que pueden tener o producir para que tengan los demás, termina alienándolos y convirtiéndolos en Nada, al punto en que pierden el amor a sí mismos y por extensión, al resto de la especie humana. Los alienados y desesperados de clase baja merecen todos los días las páginas de policiales, por su capacidad de asesinar a otro para sacarle dos pesos. El hecho de que en ello no valoren su propia vida (a diferencia de la mayoría de la humanidad, que vive con menos de US$ 1 por día y enfrenta dignamente la pobreza sin matar ni exponerse a morir), queda oculto bajo el motivo de una satisfacción material. Que es la más valorada por la mecánica capitalista: como el capital genera capital, se erige como un fin en sí mismo y como fin último. El Hombre queda desplazado de este círculo, cumpliendo meramente el rol de fuerza laboral necesaria para que la rueda siga girando. El caso de quienes empuñan un arma contra sus compañeros de clase, en cambio, no admite una desesperada necesidad material como explicación. Pero nadie parece dispuesto a analizar qué tienen en común los ricos y los pobres que salen a matar o morir (o ambas cosas). Conclusión Quienes dedican su vida a cualquier rama de la ciencia -tanto exactas como humanísticas-, saben que no existen casos inexplicables. En todo caso, hay casos que los puntos de vista y teorías actuales no contemplan. Y que requieren ampliarlos o reformularlos. Ante las masacres estudiantiles, podemos atrevernos a analizar los valores que nuestra sociedad considera normales y enfrentar las causas de nuestra propia alienación (y las del resto de la humanidad)... o concluir rápidamente que "hay gente muy loca", cambiar de canal y seguir en nuestra cómoda ignorancia. -- Fuente Original: santiago bustelo - detras de las pantallas blog. http://www.bustelo.com.ar/index.php/es/2007/04/17/virginia_tech_shootings_aftermath/ Licencia de uso: Creative Commons Atribución-NoComercial 2.5 Argentina.
Creative Commons Atribución-NoComercial 2.5 Argentina
Pychoanalysis won't fully explain VT killer
Published: Friday, April 27, 2007 Opinion articles By: Carol Duh My parents immigrated into this country in 1982. My parents told me a Taiwanese parable while I attended the same schools as Mike Pohle, one of the 32 victims of last week's massacre. In the story, a teacher took his class on a field trip to the mountains of Taiwan. On the way home, they encountered a swarm of killer bees. The teacher removed his clothing to attract the bees away from the children to his flesh. I heard the echoes of this parable while reading about Liviu Librescu, the professor who blocked the classroom door with his body while the gunman demanded entry. While he did this, students escaped through the windows. No doubt that being stung by bullets was agonizing. There was little dignity in these painful deaths, only in their sacrifice. And what of the bee? The bee who stings out of cowardice dies soon after, so we cannot ask. Panicked, we call in the world-class bee experts to explain the situation. This response, though gratifying, is in vain. Like Wall Street analysts who offer their best predictions after the fact, the analysis will not provide us with the protection we need. The bee and Seung Cho perceived threats that were not real; their behavior escapes appreciation. Let's try anyway. His parents were South Korean immigrants who sent a daughter to Princeton and a son to Virginia Tech — a feat worthy to boast of across many oceans. College is the frame upon which immigrants hang their hopes, but sometimes it comes at a price. The drive that steers us toward hard work is often frustrated by the apparent frivolity that pervades American campus culture. Fraternity keggers, society taps — these seem to be the cornerstones of the American college student's anxiety. To the ethic of a different culture, they are laughable. Seung Cho's complaints, through lunacy, tap the drumbeat of this disappointment. Seung Cho's two defining characteristics continue to be his mental health and his immigration status. Experts dissect the belongings strewn about his dorm room, scrambling for a diagnosis. Depression. Paranoia. Obviously. It is insulting to the millions of positive mental illness survivors to dwell on this. On the other hand, we could further probe the reality of cultural disparity and the specific causes he cited for his intense dissatisfaction with his experience in the United States. Yet to draw conclusions about immigration from his story is an enormous disservice to the core of the nation's foundation and strength. Both of the gunman's prominent characteristics lead to a dead end. I know a man who spent 17 years in prison. He told me that the scariest inmates are the ones who are there for life. The lifers languish in hopelessness, and claim this as license to be brutal and sadistic toward everyone else. Another man I know was born deaf and contracted AIDS in his late teens. A few years ago, Michigan tried to prosecute him for sexual predation when he, with a willful heart, transmitted the virus to 13 different people within the span of six weeks. He remains unrepentant. Why do people sink into despair? The painful simplicity of the answer escapes psychoanalysis: laziness. Seung Cho chose bitterness as his permanent sanctuary, allowing himself to drown. Yes, he was unwanted and weak, and he elicits a kind of sympathy. Perhaps the shore seemed distant and we all know that without constant encouragement, the race is long. But we do it. We brush ourselves off after devastating exams, awkward dates, even outright evidence of human unkindness. As every first-generation student will tell you, we are too lucky to be given so much. As Seung Cho embraced his victimhood, we should embrace this explanation and free ourselves from this futile search into his psyche. How should we, the children in the parable, react to this event? When confronted with people who churn bitterness into poison, the natural reaction is fear. We buy bigger guns, go to college closer to home and dead-bolt our doors. Such malevolence seems intolerable to tempt with risk. Fear is the pulse of Seung Cho's madness, and this is the lesson he expected to teach. Yet Seung forgot his role in the parable — the bee was never a teacher. We see the families of Virginia Tech. Grief is agony, but it will not kill us. Seung Cho underestimated the goodness his psychosis would beget. Enduring traits of the human spirit enable the sacrifice of the Taiwanese schoolteacher and the Virginia Tech professor to transcend cultural borders to show that no matter where you are, the broken heart continues to beat. This country may not always safeguard us, but retreat will not protect us. The teacher's pain was apparent, his message clearer still. Seek comfort not in bitterness, but in courage and hope. We are always safe in their arms. Carol Duh is a senior in Trumbull College. -- Original Source: Yale Daily News - April 27th, 2007
Editor-in-Chief, Yale Daily News - Sarah Mishkin <sarah.mishkin@gmail.com>
Published: Friday, April 27, 2007 Maggie Reid Staff Reporter In her sophomore year at Yale, Naasiha Siddiqui '07 found herself facing more problems than just the sophomore slump. Siddiqui was severely depressed, and when she checked into the Mental Hygiene Department at University Health Services, she was forced to leave school on medical withdrawal. Ever since, she has struggled to balance manic depression with a college career — taking three forced withdrawals and one voluntary leave of absence, and applying for readmission five times. "I was really frustrated," she said, referring to her first forced withdrawal in the fall of 2001. "Their attitude was, 'She's unstable, we don't want her at school right now.' In one respect, it seemed like discrimination because I was doing all I could to try to stay in school. But on the other hand, the administration should have some say over when students aren't fit to go to school." Mental illness has long been a hot-button issue on college campuses, but in the wake of this month's shootings at Virginia Tech, even greater scrutiny has been placed on university support systems for students with psychological illnesses. At Yale, the Mental Hygiene Department specializes in counseling and crisis intervention for suicide and depression cases. But in seeking to protect the psychological health of its students, Yale's mental health services must walk the fine line between enabling students to receive treatment while remaining in school and protecting the student's health and safety — or the health and safety of others — by sending seriously depressed students off campus. For the most part, universities across the country find themselves in a sticky situation with regard to mentally ill students. Universities may be found liable if they fail to detect and respond to cases that result in suicide or murder. But privacy and anti-discrimination laws limit the amount of information about students' mental health to which administrators have access, and the laws may prevent administrators from forcing students to take involuntary medical leaves. In general, the laws forbid universities from disclosing information about a student's health records to parents or administrators, including residential college deans and masters, without the student's consent. The exception comes when health officials believe that the health and safety of the student or of others are at risk. But Yale administrators said the definition of such an emergency is often blurry. Because of the subjectivity of such cases, the decision whether or not to force a student to withdraw is made on a case-by-case basis, YUHS Chief Psychiatrist Lorraine Siggins said. "Most students who take a medical withdrawal ask for it themselves," Siggins said. "However, occasionally a student who had attempted suicide and is considered to be a danger to self and others is asked to take time away from school for treatment and to get their mental health issues stabilized." According to University policy, if a student is forced to withdraw for mental health reasons, he or she may not reapply until two semesters have passed, including the one during which he or she left. With such serious consequences, administrators said, withdrawal cannot be forced simply based on strange behavior or a possible diagnosis of mental illness, Siggins said. Yale officials said the forced withdrawal policy serves the best interests of vulnerable and potentially reckless students. When students are severely mentally unstable, Siggins said, they can lack the presence of mind to voluntarily seek the medical help and time away from campus that they need to resolve health issues. But Siggins said students are expected, as dictated by University regulations, to return to school as soon as doctors confirm that they have recovered. The YUHS Mental Hygiene Department seeks to address mental health problems before they reach the point of necessitating a forced withdrawal. It offers mental health and counseling services to all enrolled students throughout the year, Siggins said, and because mental health issues can be dangerous and pressing, the department makes a concerted effort to be easily accessible, providing an on-duty psychiatrist 24 hours a day. "In the course of an academic year, we see between 16 percent and 20 percent of the student body," Siggins said. "For students who have continuing mental health problems, we can provide treatment throughout the year." But although officials say Yale's mental health counseling program focuses on reaching students before they reach a crisis point, Yalies who have gone through counseling at the Mental Hygiene Department said that Yale could do a better job of removing barriers to getting help. Susan* voluntarily entered the counseling program at YUHS during the first semester of her sophomore year. Although she told them she needed immediate attention for urgent anxiety and depression, she had to wait over a week before she was allowed to see a therapist, instead meeting first with a clinical social worker. "Unless you are suicidal, they make it very difficult to see someone," Susan said. "This is particularly scary when it comes to mental hygiene problems." Susan said the narrow-minded focus on suicide detection to the exclusion of other problems deterred her from using campus psychiatrists and led her to consult a therapist in a different state whom she can only visit once a month. But she added that though it can be difficult to get an initial appointment, once a student has made an first visit to the YUHS clinic, it becomes easy to get further appointments with a therapist. Siddiqui said the prospect of being forced to withdraw can also prevent students from going to seek help. "Mental hygiene can be very alienating," Siddiqui said. "Since I had my experience, a lot of my friends have been afraid to go to mental hygiene because they don't want to get kicked out of school. It's not a very welcoming place." Some students said the mental health department is too quick to act in cases of suspected depression. One student who had been referred to a YUHS psychiatrist said that fear of liability in the event of a suicide or murder makes Yale administrators move too swiftly to hospitalize or force the withdrawal of a student. During a psychiatry session, Ryan,* a junior at Yale who has withdrawn because of his bipolar disorder, said the therapist kept asking him if he ever had suicidal thoughts, and specifically if he was drawn to sharp objects or tempted to hurt himself. Ryan said that though he ultimately was given a choice whether to withdraw, officials pressured him to do so. While the attention to suicide might be helpful in preventing crisis situations, Ryan said, the manner in which it was addressed was unhelpful. "I might have been suicidal, but I wasn't looking to withdraw," Ryan said. Ryan said that he has seen private psychiatrists who never mentioned hospitalization, but that college doctors are more ready to hospitalize their patients because of the fear of liability in the case of a suicide. Outside the examining rooms of health services departments, universities often find it difficult to determine when psychiatric help is warranted, since it is difficult to know when a student's erratic behavior stems from mental illness rather than the vagaries of ordinary college life. Though Yale prides itself on providing many levels of supervision, from peers and professors to the residential college system, some students worry that this method of observation and personal counseling is not necessarily effective. "I talked to my master and dean about my problems, but they didn't even notice anything was wrong before I brought it up," Susan said. In the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre, deans and freshman counselors have discussed the protocols already in place to deal with students who may seem to have psychological problems. Freshman counselors in Branford and Silliman said they discussed mental health risks at their weekly meetings with their deans last Monday. But their rules about watchfulness or guidance did not change in the aftermath of the shootings, counselors said. "We talked about the incident, but we did not get any official instructions," freshman counselor Amy Broadbent '07 said. Although there is no specific protocol for the freshmen counselors to follow if they become aware of a possible mental health issue, they said they are trained to talk to students who come to them with problems and to take them to see professionals at YUHS. Counselors said they deal with mental health issues on a case-by-case basis, and have confronted problems ranging from severe depression to slight anxiety over classes or relationships. "We have liaisons in the mental health department if we have any questions or to help us navigate the bureaucracy," said Howard Locker '07, a freshman counselor in Silliman. "The dean did not specifically tell us to be more on the lookout [after Virginia Tech], it's something I think most counselors are innately attuned to do in the wake of such a tragedy." Siggins said that although 90 percent of the students who come in for therapy do so on their own, the rest usually come to the clinic at the suggestion of their deans, coaches or friends. But she said there is no difference in the amount of attention paid to students based on how they were referred. "We always take student peer concerns very seriously," Siggins said. "We treat each student on an individual basis." *The names of some students have been changed to protect their medical information. -- Original Source: Yale Daily News - April 27, 2007
Editor-in-chief, Yale Daily News - Sarah Mishkin <sarah.mishkin@gmail.com>
Published: Friday, April 20, 2007 Courtney Long Staff Reporter and Copy Editor In the wake of Monday's massacre at Virginia Tech in which a student killed 32 people, Dean of Student Affairs Betty Trachtenberg has limited the use of stage weapons in theatrical productions. Students involved in this weekend's production of "Red Noses" said they first learned of the new rules on Thursday morning, the same day the show was slated to open. They were subsequently forced to alter many of the scenes by swapping more realistic-looking stage swords for wooden ones, a change that many students said was neither a necessary nor a useful response to the tragedy at Virginia Tech. According to students involved in the production, Trachtenberg has banned the use of some stage weapons in all of the University's theatrical productions. While shows will be permitted to use obviously fake plastic weapons, students said, those that hoped to stage more realistic scenes of stage violence have had to make changes to their props. Trachtenberg could not be reached for comment Thursday night. "Red Noses" director Sarah Holdren '08 said she first heard about the changes in a phone call from a friend as she arrived at the Off-Broadway Theater on Thursday morning. At the theater, technical director Jim Brewczynski told her about the new regulations. The pair then met with Trachtenberg, who initially wanted no stage weapons to be used in the show, Holdren said, though she later agreed to permit the use of obviously fake weapons. In a speech made before last night's opening show of "Red Noses," Holdren said that Trachtenberg's decision to force the production to use wooden swords instead of metal swords will do little to stem violence in the world. "Calling for an end to violence onstage does not solve the world's suffering: It merely sweeps it under the rug, turning theater — in the words of this very play — into 'creamy bon-bons' instead of 'solid fare' for a thinking, feeling audience," she said. "Here at Yale, sensitivity and political correctness have become censorship in this time of vital need for serious artistic expression." Holdren said she is primarily worried about the University's decision to place limitations on art, rather than the specific inconvenience to her production. "I completely understand that the University needs to respond to the tragedy, but I think it is wrong to conflate sensitivity and censorship," she said in an interview. "It is wrong to assume that any theater that deals with tragic matter is sort of on the side of those things or out to get people; they're not — they're out to help people through things like this. I want my show and all shows to be uplifting to people. That's why I'm upset about this — it's not because my props were taken — it's about imposing petty restrictions on art as the right way to solve the problems in the world." Brandon Berger '10, who plays a swordsman in the show, said the switch to an obviously fake wooden sword has changed the nature of his part from an "evil, errant knight to a petulant child." "They're trying to make an appropriate gesture, but they did it in an inappropriate way — they've neutered the play," he said. "The violence is important to what it actually means. What these types of actions do is very central — it is not gratuitous." Susie Kemple '08, an actress in the show, said Trachtenberg's way of dealing with the Virginia Tech massacre was not beneficial to the students' own mourning process. "It is problematic because all of us were incredibly shocked by the events at Virginia Tech," Kemple said. "We turn to extracurriculars in our grief [and] the Yale administration makes the healing more difficult. None of the shows are about massive gun violence — this show is about showing and explaining the human experience." Berger also said he finds the ruling inconsistent because forms of stage violence that do not involve weapons — such as hangings — are still permitted. "Red Noses" will end its run Saturday night. -- Original Source: Yale Daily News - April 20, 2007
Published: Monday, April 23, 2007 Cullen Macbeth Staff Reporter Members of Yale's undergraduate theater community reacted with anger over the weekend to Dean of Student Affairs Betty Trachtenberg's decision to bar performance groups — at least temporarily — from using life-like weapons in their productions. The new rule is meant to protect audience members who may have connections to last week's deadly gun massacre at Virginia Tech University or who may react adversely to violence on stage because of personal experiences, Trachtenberg said. But many students said the new restrictions represent inappropriate censorship of student artwork and that Trachtenberg should not have implemented them without soliciting student input beforehand. The new restrictions were put in place to protect people in the Yale and New Haven communities who live or have friends who live in Virginia, or who have seen people die by gun violence, Trachtenberg said. She said the outcry from students upset with her decision has been exaggerated. "I think people should start thinking about other people rather than trying to feel sorry for themselves and thinking that the administration is trying to thwart their creativity," Trachtenberg said. "They're not using their own intelligence. ... We have to think of the people who might be affected by seeing real-life weapons." The new restrictions do not ban all types of stage weapons, Trachtenberg said. She said she did not prevent an instructor in theater studies who talked to her on Friday from using a dulled knife to cut a cabbage head in a production, for example. This weekend's productions of "Red Noses" and "Orpheus in the Underworld" were affected by the rule change. "Red Noses" had to substitute wooden swords for more realistic-looking ones after learning of the rule from Trachtenberg on Thursday. The University overstepped its bounds by prohibiting the ways in which students can express themselves on stage, said Dara Lind '09, who has managed and produced several campus performances. "Personally, I am very strongly anti-censorship as far as the arts are concerned," she said. "I don't understand what gives the college the right to try to circumscribe artistic expression like that." Lind is a staff columnist for the News. Students should be left to decide for themselves what is appropriate to include in their productions and should be able to use theater to realistically portray a range of topics, including those relating to gun violence, Yale Drama Coalition Vice President Mike Leibenluft '10 said. While he was in high school, Leibenluft said, he worked on a show about the Columbine High School shootings that documented witnesses' reactions to the violence. "I think the fact that it assumes that we first of all can't deal with these issues in a dramatic setting and also we can't take responsibility for the theater that is produced and the reaction it has from Yale students is pretty shocking," he said. "I was incredibly surprised by it. I think it's totally inappropriate." Leibenluft said Trachtenberg should have consulted with students before implementing the new regulation. But Yale Dramatic Association President Emmett Zackheim '08 said he is not concerned by the ban because he thinks the normal rules governing the use of weapons in theatrical productions will be reinstated before long. "I don't think it's a disaster for everyone involved in theater," he said. "It essentially doesn't concern me. I probably wouldn't have done the same thing necessarily, but I'm not really concerned by it." Trachtenberg has not yet decided whether the new restrictions will be in place permanently and will review the decision as "things settle down," she said. She said she consulted with representatives from the Theater Studies Program and did not make a "unilateral decision" about the rule. Lind and several other students formed a "FEAR NO ART" Facebook group over the weekend to protest Trachtenberg's decision and discussed ways to try to get the rule reversed. The groups have not yet decided on a definite plan, she said, but they may stage a rally on Beinecke Plaza or attempt to set up a meeting with Trachtenberg to discuss the rule. "As far as collaboration is concerned, it will probably just be easiest to take public action," Lind said. "The best way to prove that art gives much more to the student body than it takes away is to have public art and demonstrate to people what the benefit is of having unrestricted artistic expression." The continuation of the new restrictions could hamper the theater community's willingness and ability to put on a wide variety of shows, YDC founder Eyad Houssami '07 said. He said he would have "strong reservations" about agreeing to produce a show that requires stage weapons — such as the one he put on for his senior project, which required a shotgun — if the ban on realistic props remains in place. "When you're using realistic props, it doesn't make sense to substitute them with children's toys, because you are making a mockery of the play and of the character," Houssami said. "I feel like by banning weapons from the stage at Yale, we are kind of silencing a potentially fruitful debate on violence and the nature of violence in America today." The University had rules in place before last week that limited the kinds of weapons students could use in productions, Trachtenberg said, but she does not know the exact provisions. -- Original Source: Yale Daily News - April 23, 2007
Published: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 Tyler Hill Staff Reporter After a weekend of national media coverage and student outcry, administrators decided Monday to rescind the ban on stage weapons that was enacted in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre. Last week, Dean of Student Affairs Betty Trachtenberg told several students that realistic-looking stage weapons would no longer be permitted in Yale theatrical productions. Amid concerns that the restriction was inhibiting free speech, a group of administrators decided Monday to overturn the policy, Yale spokeswoman Helaine Klasky said. In the future, Yale will require that audiences be warned before performances that include scenes with fake weapons, she said. Trachtenberg had originally intended to ban all stage weapons, but was persuaded that obviously fake weapons should be permitted, Sarah Holdren '08 told the News last Thursday. Holdren directed this weekend's production of "Red Noses," which was forced to use wooden swords instead of more realistic props. The restriction also affected the opera "Orpheus in the Underworld," which used balloon swords in place of its real-looking stage weapons. News of the University's reversal was only released when a reporter from the Associated Press called Klasky on Monday evening to ask about the original restriction. Students have not yet been officially informed of the change in policy, Klasky said. Administrators, including Yale President Richard Levin, weighed in on the decision to overturn the ban after it became apparent that it concerned issues of free speech, Levin said. Although the administration will not censor future shows, he said, the Dean of Student Affairs still has the authority to regulate student productions. "The fundamental consideration was trading off artistic freedom of expression against concern about the potential emotional precariousness of audiences during the week of a mass murder," he said. "There was a different approach which hadn't been considered at the time, and the approach would be not to censor the show but warn the audience." But Holdren said she asked Trachtenberg on Thursday to consider allowing the use of realistic-looking weapons if the staff included a warning before each show. At the time, Trachtenberg found that alternative unacceptable, Holdren said. She said that although the change comes too late to affect her show, which ended its run on Saturday, she is glad the administration has considered the issue more carefully. "Obviously professional theater companies do shows with weapons all of the time and it's up to the audience's discretion whether or not to watch," she said. Trachtenberg declined to comment Tuesday night about the reversal of her decision, but over the weekend she told the News that student criticism of the stage weapons ban had been exaggerated. "I think people should start thinking about other people rather than trying to feel sorry for themselves and thinking that the administration is trying to thwart their creativity," Trachtenberg said. "They're not using their own intelligence. ... We have to think of the people who might be affected by seeing real-life weapons." Dustin Cho '08, chair of the Yale chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said "knee jerk" reactions are common after national tragedies, but that such limitations on free speech inhibit any meaningful dialogue. Generally Yale is very good at protecting free speech, he said. "It's quite a stretch to say that substituting realistic-looking prop swords with wooden ones showed more sensitivity to the shooting victims," he said. "This was a grave mistake, but I'm glad they took care of it immediately." Trachtenberg, who has served as Dean of Student Affairs for 20 years, announced in November that she is stepping down at the end of the academic year. -- Original Source: Yale Daily News - April 25, 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
'We Are One': C.U. Community Reflects on Va. Tech Tragedy
By Lisa Grossman Sun Staff Writer Apr 20 2007 Students, faculty, staff and members of the Ithaca community gathered in Sage Chapel yesterday afternoon to remember and reflect on the recent tragedy at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Despite the fact that the service was held at 12:30 p.m., when many students and faculty are in class, the chapel was packed to capacity, with people pressed against the walls and in doorways. The assembly fell silent as Prof. Annette Richards, music, opened the service with a melancholy and discordant organ solo. The mood remained hushed and somber as W. Kent Fuchs, the Joseph Silbert Dean of Engineering and father of Eric Fuchs, a junior at Virginia Tech, began the speaking portion of the service. Fuchs focused on the connections that Cornell shares with Virginia Tech as a major university, saying that Cornell and Virginia Tech are "part of the same family of students and faculty and staff." Words of hope.Words of hope."The tragedy is particularly difficult to comprehend because ... of the contrast to the love and care demonstrated by the students and faculty at that university. The tragedy is also an enormous contrast to the common mission that we have and that we share in: the joy of learning and study," he said. Fuchs spoke with emotion and even a little humor, saying that "from Eric, I've come to appreciate what it means to have a turkey for your mascot, and to call yourself a 'Hokie,' which my son does with enormous pride." President David J. Skorton echoed Fuchs' emphasis on family and unity, repeating, in tones that might be used to recite a poem, "We are one." "We are one — one community, one people, one planet. We are here today to affirm that oneness," he said. "We share the same sorrow and the same need for comfort and reassurance ... We will stay together, we will go forward together, we will never forget our loss. We are one." Provost Biddy Martin was in Virginia, her native state, visiting her mother on Monday morning. She said she was struck by the "dignity of the students who were approached for interviews by the press - their humility, their respect, their unwillingness to offer superficial commentary, their resistance to easy analysis or the assigning of blame. In response to the questions they were asked, they made a plea ... that we not reduce their experience or their university to this horror, this unspeakable tragedy." "In response to their plea, it is not hard, I think, for Cornellians to answer, to identify with Virginia Tech," she said. The service was punctuated by musical performances, including the Cornell University Chorus and Glee Club and a vocal solo by Rev. Heewon Chun, chaplain of the Korean Church at Cornell. Chun said he found the service "very comforting. It will give Cornellians energy to cope with what has happened, and will also give hope for the future ... one for backwards, one for forwards." He also said that the Korean community deeply aches for this tragedy, and noted that some members of the Korean community are concerned about the possibility of race-related backlash. Thomas Riehl '09 said he felt "wary of how much race seems to be playing into it. Why was it even pertinent to have [a Korean religious leader] sing? Why is this even part of the issue? It just seems so wrong and out of it to bring up the kid's race." Sarah Dunlap '06 was also concerned with the potential effect the incident and the media's treatment of it could have on the community of international students. She noted that "on CNN, the commentators kept referring to the shooter as an 'alien' because he was a foreign student. I was disgusted—that's demoralizing. It's offensive to the entire body of foreign students, and on the individual level, that kind of exclusion and alienation is the kind of thing that leads to the desperate misery and rage that makes some people lash out in horrible ways." Dunlap found comfort in the service itself, however, saying that she "liked the focus on community. The response of the Cornell community is different from the response of the national community. It's not sensationalist; it's more nuanced. I think that's because even if we don't have a personal connection to Virginia Tech, we still identify strongly with them because we belong to the same university culture." Some people have questioned why the service was held in the middle of the afternoon, when a large portion of students was in class. Ken Clarke, director of Cornell United Religious Work, said that the time was chosen in order to "catch the greatest cross-section of the Cornell community." He acknowledged that there was no optimal time to hold the service, and while some students had to miss it due to class obligations, much of the staff and faculty would have missed an evening service because of obligations at home. Clarke also noted that holding the service at 12:30 meant that it would be flanked by the chimes. The bells of McGraw tower rang 33 times before the service, once for each of the victims, and the daily afternoon chimes concert began just as people began filing out of Sage Chapel. You can view a recording of the service at www.cornell.edu. Comments: Outraged With all due respect, you write that the "bells of McGraw tower rang 33 times before the service, once for each of the victims..." This is a complete moral outrage -- since when is a cold blooded killer a victim? This is akin to reading the 9/11 hijackers' names along with the true 9/11 victims. By Alex Hyman (not verified) at April 20, 2007 - 2:10am ---- Appalled Not only did the bells ring 33 times, but President Skorton was sure to include the killer with the victims. Such a disgrace. What the crap was he thinking? By Tammi (not verified) at April 20, 2007 - 11:20am ---- A little compassion The gunman may not have been a victim of a violent murder, but he was certainly a victim. He was a victim of mental illness, of being trapped in his own psyche where every interaction with the world felt like an attack. He's still another person who could have had a future and didn't. He had a family, too--how must they be feeling now? Including him and remembering him respectfully now is not only appropriate, it's too little too late. Maybe if he had felt less isolated before, we wouldn't need to be discussing it. His situation was tragic, too. By Hannah (not verified) at April 21, 2007 - 4:50pm ---- This moral equivalence is totally disgraceful "The bells of McGraw tower rang 33 times before the service, once for each of the victims" Cho was not a victim; he was a perpetrator who chose to kill 32 students. Forgiveness is good but why are we paying him respect and honor? We don't honor, hold services or ring bells for just anyone who commits suicide. The only reason Cho is included is because he massacred 32 defenseless students in cold blood. I agree with Alex Hymen above that this is totally inappropriate and outrageous. By Coyote (not verified) at April 22, 2007 - 10:04am ---- Hannah, we must reexamine a society that makes everyone out to be a victim. Find me a person who was not made fun of in high school. The fact is everyone was made fun of and 99% don't go out and kill people. While we can feel bad for Cho's family, as we currently know of nothing that they did wrong, he is certainly not a victim and certainly should not be memorialized. And as for your comment about him being a victim of mental illness -- I would agree with you, but that's where him being a victim ends. Since when do we ring bells for victims of mental illness? The fact is he -- like all freely thinking people -- made a choice, but made the wrong choice. By Alex Hyman (not verified) at April 22, 2007 - 6:12pm ---- Disgusting Skorton is an educated, articulate, man. He must have realized what his words meant. For him to say that Cornell is "one" with a murderer is beyond the pale. By G. Man (not verified) at April 23, 2007 - 8:55am ---- People obviously handle grief in different ways I don't think memorializing the shooter was the "right" thing to do, and I personally would not do it myself, but I think some people feel the need to memorialize Cho to help them deal with their grief. Although Cho was the perpetrator in this horrible tragedy, he was also a victim of a horrible mental health system in this country. If he had gotten the help he so desperately needed, then possibly this whole thing could have been avoided. Also think how his family must feel. They are obviously victims also, because they have to live with this horrible tragedy for the rest of their lives, as well as the families of the victims of Cho's madness. By Anne (not verified) at April 28, 2007 - 12:02pm -- Original Source: Cornell Daily Sun - April 20, 2007
Jonny Lieberman <jdl46@cornell.edu>, <lieberman.jonny@gmail.com>
Shooting sparks national debate By: Eric Johnson, Senior Writer Posted: 5/24/07 Congress is wading into the turbulent debate about campus safety in the aftermath of last month's shootings at Virginia Tech and is considering possible changes to federal laws governing student privacy. A bill to loosen disclosure restrictions for campuses dealing with at-risk students is already attracting attention in the House, and similar measures are being drafted in the Senate. Meanwhile, the UNC-system will consider during the next few months whether to back any move to alter long-standing federal policy about the disclosure of student health records. "In Washington, there's a lot of attention on this issue," said Kimrey Rhinehardt, UNC-system vice president for federal relations. "I think that certainly now, more than ever, the university is going to be a part of that discussion." The April 16 shooting of 32 students at Virginia Tech by a classmate with a documented history of mental instability has prompted colleges across the country to reevaluate their security procedures. It has also drawn national attention to the vague guidelines that govern when and how campuses can respond to threatening or self-destructive behavior by a student. Federal law prohibits universities from contacting a student's parents unless the student presents an imminent danger to himself or others, a standard that is open to wide interpretation. In recent years, campuses have been sued for taking preemptive measures against troubled students in some instances and for failing to take preemptive action in others. As a result, most campus administrators have welcomed the opportunity to review the existing statutes. "I think there's enough confusion now that most institutions would tell you that it could hardly get any worse," said Becky Timmons, assistant vice president for government relations at the American Council on Education. "Institutions may assume that scrutinizing this legislation would lend some greater clarity to the issue," she said. "There are some very legitimate reasons for the laws we have the on books, but they do create grey areas for campuses." The UNC-system has created a task force that will explore those grey areas, along with a whole host of other safety issues. The group will represent a variety of constituencies, from chancellors and legal counsel to students and staff members. Only after the task force has weighed in with recommendations - scheduled for sometime in September - will the system consider lobbying for any changes to federal law. "Because the issues of privacy and disclosure are so delicate, it's going to take a lot of people thinking about this to come with the right balance," Rhinehardt said. In announcing the safety task force earlier this month, university officials stressed the need to avoid any hasty reactions. Noting that UNC campuses are statistically far safer than North Carolina as a whole, System President Erskine Bowles said the task force would proceed cautiously with any recommendations. "We have to really make sure we think through these issues and don't just react," Bowles said. "We have to do things that make good common sense." It is unclear whether the task force will finish its work in time for UNC to weigh in effectively at the federal level. It will depend on how quickly Congress moves to revisit the privacy and disclosure issues. The state of Virginia has formed its own high-profile commission to study the shooting at Virginia Tech, and Timmons said that might prompt federal lawmakers to take a more deliberative approach. "I think there is a little bit of a sense of proceeding slowly out of a sense of respect for the Virginia Tech situation," she said. -- Original Source: The Daily Tar Heel - May 24, 2007
The shootings at Virginia Tech on Monday hit too close to home for some students and faculty at both Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools high schools. Many said they worried that several recent graduates of East Chapel Hill and Chapel Hill high schools who now attend Virginia Tech could have been victims, but no alumni are among those reported dead. "There's great sympathy among our students and concern for graduates from our schools who may have been attending Virginia Tech and to get in contact with the person and make sure they're safe," said Stephanie Knott, assistant to the superintendent for community relations for the district. Linda Klemmer, counseling department chairwoman at Chapel Hill High, said students and faculty expressed anxiety about alumni. "There was some concern for students that had siblings and friends at Virginia Tech," she said. "I got a sense of sadness and shock," she added, as she described the students' moods in wake of the incident. Her department is open to students who want to talk to someone about the shootings, she said. Owen McDonnell, a freshman at Virginia Tech and graduate of Chapel Hill High, was one of the people those at home worried about. "A lot of people were saying they tried to call me and couldn't," he said. McDonnell traveled back to Chapel Hill late Tuesday to be with family after Monday's tragedy struck his campus, but he said he's eager to get back to the daily grind of classes. "I think it's important to get back to normal after having a week to grieve," he said. But students at one of the district's high schools already have experienced gun violence on campus. Last April, William Barrett Foster, then a student at East Chapel Hill High, took social studies teacher Lisa Kukla and student Chelsea Slegal hostage after school. Kukla and Slegal eventually were able to talk to Foster, and they convinced him to shoot out a window instead of killing them. Knott said last year's incident helped calm students' and faculty's fears about the possibility that something such as the Virginia Tech incident could happen locally. The hostage incident forced district officials to prepare campuses for anything. "For the most part we made some revisions to security following the hostage situation at East Chapel Hill High School last year," Knott said. "You'll find in the superintendent's recommended budget about a $206 ,000 request to fund some new safety projects." Knott said she plans to ask principals to encourage students to wear maroon and orange - Virginia Tech colors - Friday for Orange & Maroon Effect Day to commemorate victims of the tragedy. -- Original Source: Daily Tar Heel - April 19, 2007