The intangible bond between two broken hearts

The post title isn't an exact quote (because it would've been damn hard taking notes while trying to hold a lit candle (and, more importantly, given the windy conditions this evening, keeping it lit) from the remarks of NIU President John G. Peters at tonight's candlelight vigil at Northern Illinois University to honor the memory of the Hokies who lost their lives a year ago today. But they're a close approximation: I know he used both phrases in his speech, though I can't swear that they were that closely connected. Nevertheless, it's a good description for the relationship that will forevermore exist between our two campuses, our two communities.

We're both members of a club that nobody wants to join--and would to God that NIU and Virginia Tech were the last two ever given the opportunity to join it. We speak each other's language: a language that neither of us was looking to learn, and one that both of us would rather we hadn't had the opportunity to learn at all. But we have learned it, and having learnt it, we cannot--and should not--forget it.

The image is the design of the T-shirts that were handed out to the first 900 people who came to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Commons. I'm happy to report that there weren't any shirts left that I could see, meaning we had at least that many people at the event.

Among them, God love them both, were two Virginia Tech students. They gave up the opportunity to be with their compatriots in Blacksburg at their own vigil today so they could come and support us--even as we tried to show our support for them and their fellow Hokies. Their presence is just the latest in a long line of expressions of support that Virginia Tech and its campus community have offered to us in the wake of our own tragedy two months ago--support for which we are eternally and profoundly grateful, and which we can never truly repay. Somehow, though, I don't think my Hokie brethren and sistren will mind.

Tonight's vigil was a concrete and physical reminder of a spiritual reality that my faith tradition has taught for centuries: that we are all one body, one family--and our destiny is to help one another along the road we each must travel from cradle to grave. Yes, Virginia, you are your brother's keeper--as I am yours. Or, as Jesus told his disciples in Matthew's Gospel:

Ὅταν δὲ ἔλθῃ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐν τῇ δόξῃ αὐτοῦ καὶ πάντες οἱ ἄγγελοι μετ' αὐτοῦ, τότε καθίσει ἐπὶ θρόνου δόξης αὐτοῦ· καὶ συναχθήσονται ἔμπροσθεν αὐτοῦ πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, καὶ ἀφορίσει αὐτοὺς ἀπ' ἀλλήλων, ὥσπερ ὁ ποιμὴν ἀφορίζει τὰ πρόβατα ἀπὸ τῶν ἐρίφων, καὶ στήσει τὰ μὲν πρόβατα ἐκ δεξιῶν αὐτοῦ, τὰ δὲ ἐρίφια ἐξ εὐωνύμων. τότε ἐρεῖ ὁ βασιλεὺς τοῖς ἐκ δεξιῶν αὐτοῦ· δεῦτε οἱ εὐλογημένοι τοῦ πατρός μου, κληρονομήσατε τὴν ἡτοιμασμένην ὑμῖν βασιλείαν ἀπὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου. ἐπείνασα γὰρ καὶ ἐδώκατέ μοι φαγεῖν, ἐδίψησα καὶ ἐποτίσατέ με, ξένος ἤμην καὶ συνηγάγετέ με, γυμνὸς καὶ περιεβάλετέ με, ἠσθένησα καὶ ἐπεσκέψασθέ με, ἐν φυλακῇ ἤμην καὶ ἤλθατε πρός με. τότε ἀποκριθήσονται αὐτῷ οἱ δίκαιοι λέγοντες· κύριε, πότε σε εἴδομεν πεινῶντα καὶ ἐθρέψαμεν, ἢ διψῶντα καὶ ἐποτίσαμεν; πότε δέ σε εἴδομεν ξένον καὶ συνηγάγομεν, ἢ γυμνὸν καὶ περιεβάλομεν; πότε δέ σε εἴδομεν ἀσθενοῦντα ἢ ἐν φυλακῇ καὶ ἤλθομεν πρός σε; καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐρεῖ αὐτοῖς· ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, ἐφ' ὅσον ἐποιήσατε ἑνὶ τούτων τῶν ἐλαχίστων, ἐμοὶ ἐποιήσατε.

Whenever the Son of Man may come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon the throne of his glory: and all the nations will be gathered together in his presence, and he shall divide them one from another just as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep upon his right hand, and the goats upon his left. Then will the Ruler say to those upon his right: "Come here, you who are blessed of my Father; inherit the realm that was prepared for you before the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; thirsty, and you gave me to drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me, naked, and you clothed me. I was ill and you looked after me, in prison, and you came to me."

Then the just will reply to him, saying: "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you?"

And the Ruler will say to them in answer, "Amen I tell you, as often as you did it for one of these the least of my brothers or my sisters, you did it for me."

--Matthew 25:31-40, my translation from the original Greek

The campus community of Virginia Tech has lived out that Gospel pericope. Tonight's vigil was one small downpayment on NIU's attempt to do so. It will not be the last, I'm sure. Nor should it be.

22:13 in NIU, Personal | Permalink

Story by Michael Spires.


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Original Source:
<a href="http://musing85.typepad.com/blog/2008/04/the-intangible.html">http://musing85.typepad.com/blog/2008/04/the-intangible.html</a>

Michael Spires

2008-04-19

Kacey Beddoes

eng

Local colleges reflect on Va. Tech shootings

By Peter Reuell/Daily News staff
The MetroWest Daily News
Posted Apr 16, 2008 @ 12:35 AM

ASHLAND —

A year after the shooting massacre that left 33 people dead at Virginia Tech, security remains a concern on local college campuses.

On campuses from Framingham to Franklin, officials said, the aftershocks of the shooting - and a more recent incident at Northern Illinois University, which left five others dead - are still being felt.

After the April 16, 2007, killings at Virginia Tech, many schools quickly re-evaluated their security plans, particularly their ability to communicate with faculty and staff in a crisis.

At many, including Framingham State College, the solution was to install a system that allows administrators to send emergency messages by phone and computer to the entire campus at the touch of a button.

"You learn from the incident, and it allows you to, perhaps, make changes in your own systems," said Framingham State spokesman Peter Chisholm.

The school later this month plans to finish installing a siren that will alert students, faculty and staff to campuswide emergencies.

"At every college or university campus in the country, I&#39;m sure, the president and public safety administrators sat down and reviewed what they had in place, and what improvements they could make," Chisholm said.

The incident that sparked those meetings happened a year ago today in Blacksburg, Va.

Just after 7 a.m., disturbed Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho killed two students in a dormitory, then went on a shooting rampage in a classroom building, eventually killing 32 people and himself.

At Massachusetts Bay Community College in Wellesley, administrators are close to installing a campuswide notification system similar to Framingham State&#39;s. They have held numerous meetings to review the school&#39;s crisis policies.

"There&#39;s a method or protocol for just about every situation that could arise on campus," said Lisa Cascio, the school&#39;s director of communications and public affairs. "When something like this happens, every campus across the country feels vulnerable."

Along with an emergency communications system, Franklin&#39;s Dean College officials rely on an emergency alarm, which alerts everyone on campus to emergencies.

"We&#39;ve trained everybody to know - students, faculty and staff - if you hear that alarm, that means check your text messages," said Pat Samson, director of public relations and communications.

"I think incidents like these, it&#39;s not that it raised the priority. I think it refocused attention," she added. "We want to make sure everything is up to date.

"I think it sharpens the focus. (Safety) is in the top three things, so it&#39;s always on the minds of the college&#39;s administrators, and the families and the students. When these events happen, things just come more sharply into focus."

(Peter Reuell can be reached at 508-626-4428 or preuell@cnc.com.)


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Original Source:
<a href="http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x489723324">http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x489723324</a>

Peter Reuell

2008-04-19

Kacey Beddoes

eng

On-campus mental illness issues unique

By Dick Durbin
RRSTAR.COM
Posted Apr 17, 2008 @ 10:59 PM

This week, our nation marked the anniversary of the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech that took 32 lives and wounded 17 other people. Just two months ago, our state was stunned to witness a similar tragic shooting at Northern Illinois University in which 5 students were killed and 17 were wounded.

I cannot imagine the magnitude of heartbreak and pain for friends and families of those killed or the trauma borne by those who survived these tragedies. As we mourn the loss of so many promising young lives, it is important also to learn from these tragedies.

So what are those lessons?

The first is to consider the tortured mind of the shooter. Mental illness is an illness, not a curse. It can and should be treated. Many who receive appropriate counseling and medication lead normal, stable and happy lives. But our laws ignore this reality. We have created legal and financial obstacles to appropriate care. This year, for the first time in a decade, the U.S. Senate has passed a bill to give mental health parity with physical health under the law. The House of Representatives also has passed legislation, and we are negotiating a compromise to fulfill the promise of health parity for millions facing mental health problems.

But the challenge of mental health on our college campuses is unique. Many mental illnesses manifest themselves in this period when young people leave the security of home and regular medical care. The responsibility for the students&#39; well-being shifts many times to colleges and universities struggling with limited resources.

The situation is growing worse. Studies show that 10 percent of college students have contemplated suicide and 45 percent have felt so depressed that it was difficult to function.

Colleges also are encountering students who 10 to 20 years ago would not have been able to attend school because of mental illness, but who can do so today because of advances in treatment of such illness.

To meet the increased need, many schools have tried to increase mental-health education and outreach efforts. But the ratio of students to counselors is growing. Currently, there is only one counselor for every 2,000 students on our college campuses.

NIU and Virginia Tech taught us that mental-health parity and better campus counseling services are not only critical in preventing these tragedies, but in dealing with the aftermath. The victims were not just those who were killed or injured in the shootings. Others have mental scars that are less obvious than bullet wounds but often slower to heal.

The emotional trauma experienced by many students, faculty and families might require years of therapy and counseling.

Finally, when the unthinkable does happen, as it did at Virginia Tech and NIU, we need to respond quickly and effectively to the immediate and long-term needs of the affected college community.

Our colleges and law-enforcement agencies have made great strides in preparing for and responding to active-shooter situations, progress reflected in the admirable response to the NIU shootings.

But we also need to view these violent tragedies on our campuses for what they are — catastrophes, like natural disasters, that require a sustained and coordinated recovery effort in the months that follow.

We have a federal agency to deal with hurricanes, earthquakes and floods. But there is no central federal resource to help guide college communities through the recovery process. In the days and weeks after the shootings in DeKalb, NIU officials found themselves being led in circles through the bureaucracies at the federal departments of Education, Justice, and Health and Human Services, not to mention numerous state agencies. These entities, all of whom were well-meaning, often didn&#39;t talk to one another, forcing school officials and victims&#39; families to navigate a red-tape maze to find answers to even their simplest questions.

Just as we expect a coordinated emergency response to a flood or tornado, we need to ensure that victims, their families and college communities are able to receive similar assistance in the wake of these personal disasters.

Reflecting on the loss of his own son, the well-known minister the Rev. William Sloan Coffin once said, "When parents die, they take with them a portion of the past. But when children die, they take away the future as well." As we mourn those lost at Virginia Tech, NIU and other schools across the country, we must learn from these incidents, work to avoid them and improve our response when they do occur.

Dick Durbin, a Democrat, is a U.S. senator from Illinois.


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Original Source:
<a href="http://www.rrstar.com/opinions/x1498098116">http://www.rrstar.com/opinions/x1498098116</a>

Dick Durbin

2008-04-19

Kacey Beddoes

eng

NIU to Va. Tech: &#39;We understand what you&#39;re going through&#39;

By Chris Green
RRSTAR.COM
Posted Apr 16, 2008 @ 11:00 PM
Last update Apr 17, 2008 @ 07:38 AM

DEKALB —

Northern Illinois University senior Sonia Salazar said Virginia Tech students put their feelings of sorrow on hold to help the students at NIU heal.

And on Wednesday, Salazar was joined by nearly a thousand other NIU students and staff who wanted to return the support for the students at Virginia Tech.

NIU students and University President John Peters recognized the one-year anniversary of the shooting deaths at the Virginia Tech campus with a candlelight vigil in the Martin Luther King Commons, an outdoor venue in the center of the campus near the student center. One year ago Wednesday, a gunman took the lives of 32 Virginia Tech students and faculty before taking his own. It was the largest such campus massacre in the history of the country.

Peters recalled the initial hours and days following the Feb. 14 slayings at NIU, when five students were shot and killed by Steven Kazmierczak, who also took his own life. He said the entire campus felt "isolated."

"We simply couldn&#39;t imagine that anyone else could understand what we are going through."

Then the phone calls and e-mails came in.

"We understand what you are going through. You are not alone."

Peters said a "collective hand of support" was extended from Blacksburg, Va., to DeKalb.

"They shared openly and lovingly."

The two universities are linked not only in their empathy for one another, but also by an unnerving coincidence.

Green Bay gun dealer Eric Thompson told authorities his Web site, topglock.com, sold two empty 9 mm Glock magazines and a Glock holster to Kazmierczak on Feb. 4, just 10 days before the 27-year-old opened fire in a campus classroom.

Another Web site run by Thompson&#39;s company, www.thegunstore.com, also sold a Walther .22-caliber handgun to Seung-Hui Cho, who shot down 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus before killing himself.

Peters added, "One day, two Virginia Tech students came by my office and surprised me. They gave me a hug. I needed it."

Nolan Owen, 19, a freshman on the university&#39;s football team recruited from California, said he could relate to the surprise visit from the Virginia Tech students.

"After the shootings here, I flew home. I had all my NIU gear with me, and people at the airport and on the plane hugged me. They cared."

David Duma, 22, an NIU senior, said attending Wednesday&#39;s vigil was the least he could do to pay respect not only to the students who lost their lives, but to the Virginia Tech Hokies who are forever united with the NIU Huskies.

"They came all the way from Virgina to be with us."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Staff writer Chris Green can be reached at 815-987-1241 or cgreen@rrstar.com.


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Original Source:
<a href="http://www.rrstar.com/communities/x480408142">http://www.rrstar.com/communities/x480408142</a>

Chris Green

2008-04-19

Kacey Beddoes

eng

NIU thank you

This is a thank you letter from NIU in response to a banner and photo that was sent from the VT Office of Research.

The photo, in which employees wore black and red and are surrounded by employees wearing
hokie colors, was blown up poster size and was sent along with the banner that reads "We&#39;re All Huskies Today" to the Division of
Research and Graduate Studies at NIU.


Photo by Vicky Ratcliffe.

Vicky Ratcliffe

2008-04-13

Kacey Beddoes

Victoria Ratcliffe <vfrazier@vt.edu>

eng

We&#39;re ALL Huskies

This photo was taken on February 21, 2008. The VT employees in the photo are from the Office of Research. Several employees wore black and red and are surrounded by employees wearing hokie colors. The photo was blown up poster size and was sent along with the banner that reads "We&#39;re All Huskies Today" to the Division of Research and Graduate Studies at NIU.


Photo by Vicky Ratcliffe

Kacey Beddoes

2008-04-13

Kacey Beddoes

Victoria Ratcliffe <vfrazier@vt.edu>

eng

NIU auction sign

This sign advertising a silent auction for Northern Illinois University hung on the front of Squires Student Building on April 8, 2008.

Sign says: "Silent Auction for NIU Wed, 4/9 8:30-6PM Squires 2nd Floor"

Kacey Beddoes

2008-04-08

Kacey Beddoes

Kacey Beddoes (kbeddoes@vt.edu)

eng

Valentine&#39;s Day in DeKalb: Two, Three, Many Virginia Techs?

Ben Agger and Timothy W. Luke

Last Thursday, February 14th, 2008, Steven Kazmierczak reportedly shot and killed five students, and then turned a weapon on himself at Northern Illinois University. At least sixteen students were wounded in the rapid-fire shootings in this large NIU lecture hall during class. We have few certain details about the shooter, except that he used four weapons, two of which were purchased legally within the past week—a shotgun and a 9mm Glock semi-automatic handgun. Ironically, he purchased two magazines and a holster for the Glock from the same online vendor which sold Cho, the Virginia Tech shooter, one of his guns through a dealer transfer last spring.

Apparently, he was a good student (a former sociology major at NIU) who had no police record. He was pursuing graduate studies in social work at the Urbana campus of the University of Illinois. It was also rumored that he recently had ceased taking mood-modifying medication and had broken up with a live-in girl friend. He was 27 when he died in the large NIU lecture hall. Yet, there was another side to him. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in September 2001, but soon was "administratively discharged" within six months. More recently, he took a job as an officer at the Rockville Correctional Facility in Indiana in September 2007, but he failed to complete his preliminary training after only two weeks, and then never returned to work.

The shooting in DeKalb, Illinois occurred almost exactly ten months after the shootings at Virginia Tech last April, when 33 died, including students in classrooms, some of their professors, and the gunman himself. On November 7, 2007 Pekka Eric Auvinen walked into his high school in Tuusula, Finland, and shot eight people, killing five, and then also turned the gun on himself. There are parallels between these three bloody events: The shooters were young males; they used deadly semi-automatic weapons; they burst into school classrooms to do their damage; they took their own lives. There were apparent differences, too, although as yet we know next to nothing about the &#39;real&#39; Steve Kazmierczak. Cho had already been identified in the Virginia mental health system as a troubled individual, and a potentially dangerous one at that. And Auvinen and Cho left video and written manifestos. In his testimony, Cho acknowledged the inspiration of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, who killed twelve of their high-school classmates and a teacher at Columbine in Colorado on April 20, 1999.

How are we to understand the sequencing and connections among Columbine, Virginia Tech, Tuusula, and now Northern Illinois? It is unimaginable that the Valentine Day&#39;s Massacre in DeKalb would have occurred in the way that it did without Virginia Tech having occurred, as the December shootings in Finland also demonstrated. Tech is imbedded in DeKalb as its prototype and possibility. Kazmierczak might have found other ways to kill and to die without the example of Tech (and Columbine or Tuusula before it), but he surely framed his actions last Thursday within the scenario of last April in Blacksburg, Virginia.


This is not to suggest that DeKalb is simply a copy-cat killing. What did Klebold, Harris, Cho, Auvinen, and Kazmierczak have in common that led them to enact these epic killings and suicides, on school grounds? It seems they were alone in a crowd; they were alienated, lacking social ties. Whether they were mentally ill or not is somewhat beside the point. They might have been stopped, helped, redirected—yes, even medicated. We are intensely interested in the experience of being alone in a crowd, in Cho&#39;s case as an Asian-American outsider on a big-time college/fraternity campus, which considers itself &#39;Hokie Nation,&#39; —the illusion of tight community achieved through the gridiron Gemeinschaft of the Virginia Tech campus. And in the hours after the NIU attack, the response in DeKalb, Illinois and around the nation was to appeal to the school&#39;s athletic mascot, the Husky, and tout "Huskie Spirit." Perhaps we know only this: people more on the inside do not tend to commit mass murder and then take their own lives.

It cannot escape notice that the killers at Columbine, Blacksburg, Tuusula and DeKalb were men. Women usually do not embark on shooting/suicide escapades, even though not even a week before on February 8, 2008 at Louisiana Technical College a female student shot two classmates and then herself in a classroom. Four of the five killed at DeKalb were women students, and many of those killed in Tuusula and Blacksburg also were female. This is a potent admixture: social isolation, male gun culture, fantasies of revenge.

Were the killers evil madmen predestined to wreck havoc? Were they beyond social influence and redirection? They committed mad acts, to be sure. But there is a thin boundary between those who keep their demons within, and at bay, and those who erupt. The answer to these acts of deliberate madness lies not in armoring our campuses but in acknowledging people&#39;s interior turmoil and trying to help, where possible. This is difficult amid a sea of faces in large college lecture halls. But can we afford to reduce such acts merely to irreversible psychopathology? Columbine and Virginia Tech have now become a set piece—a media spectacle--with a certain inexorable momentum.



Ben Agger is professor of sociology and humanities at University of Texas, Arlington. Timothy W. Luke is professor of political science at Virginia Tech. They co-authored a book There is a Gunman on Campus: Tragedy and Terror at Virginia Tech forthcoming in April 2008.

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Original Source: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Blog
<a href="http://rowmanblog.typepad.com/rowman/2008/02/valentines-day.html">http://rowmanblog.typepad.com/rowman/2008/02/valentines-day.html</a>

Ben Agger and Timothy W. Luke

2008-03-24

Kacey Beddoes

Tim Luke (twluke@vt.edu)
Ben Agger (agger@uta.edu)

eng

Hokies United - Hokies for Huskies

Promotional flyer for "Hokies for Huskies" candlelight vigil at Virginia Tech, organized by Hokies United.

Original Source: <a href="http://www.hokiesunited.org.vt.edu/Vigil.jpg">http://www.hokiesunited.org.vt.edu/Vigil.jpg</a>

Brent Jesiek

2008-03-01

Brent Jesiek

eng

NIU has several examples to follow for Cole’s future

Photo:
Photo by ALAN LEON | RRSTAR.COM
Six huskies and flowers are set up as a memorial in front of Cole Hall on Feb. 22, 2008, on the campus of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.

Story:
Geri Nikolai, Isaac Guerrero and Sadie Gurman
GateHouse News Service
Mon Feb 25, 2008, 02:36 PM EST

As officials at Northern Illinois University prepare for the return of 25,000 students this week, they have announced only one decision about the scene of the shootings.

The building where a gunman killed five students and then himself on Feb. 14, Cole Hall, will remain closed this semester. Space has been found in other campus buildings to move all classes from the two large lecture halls in Cole.

What happens afterward is the subject of speculation. Some students say they could never go back into the building and could not concentrate on academics if they did. Some suggest Cole be turned into a memorial. Others say that despite the tragedy,
NIU cannot afford to raze a classroom building in an era of declining state support.

Officials say they haven&#39;t discussed the future of Cole. Cherilyn Murer, who chairs the
NIU board of trustees, said she doesn&#39;t know what will be done after this semester.

Murer said the options include resuming classes, transforming it for some other use or closing it permanently. But it&#39;s too early to say, Murer said.

"It&#39;s only been a week," she said. "Right now, the emotions are so raw that it would be premature to make a decision about what we&#39;ll do with that building."

Another trustee, Barbara Giorgi Vella of Rockford, expects there won&#39;t be serious discussion of what to do with Cole until summer. At that point, she said, financial constraints have to be taken into consideration, along with the feelings of students and staff.

Busy building
Cole Hall, where nearly every undergraduate has at least one class, is one of the largest classroom buildings on campus, with two auditoriums seating what students estimate to be 250 people each.

The idea of closing the building permanently is circulating on campus but doesn&#39;t seem practical to Justin Weaver of Beloit, an NIU sophomore.

"Given that NIU already has issues in terms of space, even though it seems appropriate to close it forever given the tragic events that happened there, it still seems foolish," Weaver said.

"When I looked at the schedule for reassigning classes, it was staggering how many classes are held in Cole Hall," Weaver said. "You can&#39;t duplicate that space."

There are labs in the Cole Hall basement and one, for journalism students, is the best-equipped on campus for that kind of work, Weaver said.

As for changing the atmosphere inside the building, Weaver also takes a practical approach.

"The only thing that can change Cole Hall is time," he said. "As people at NIU graduate, new people will come in. They will know what happened but they weren&#39;t there and they won&#39;t feel the gravity quite as much."

McHenry senior Colin Leicht suggested transforming the front of the building, perhaps using the large walls erected this week for students to express their sorrow.

"Don&#39;t tear it down," said Leicht. "It&#39;s still a good building. NIU has had problems getting money from the state to rebuild other buildings. I don&#39;t think we&#39;re in a position to tear down a building."

Rockford junior Krista Robinson said one professor asked her and other students what they thought about NIU erecting an environmental feature, perhaps a windmill, as a memorial.

Robinson wasn&#39;t impressed.

"I think a windmill is a good idea, but not as a memorial. I can imagine parents wondering what kind of memorial that is. It&#39;s not really relevant."

Cole Hall was constructed in 1968. The general-education building contains 18,000 square feet of space.

Columbine&#39;s library
Other institutions have faced the question NIU now confronts.

At Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., where two students killed 12 others and one teacher in April 1999, the library where most of the killing took place no longer exists.

Frank DeAngelis, principal then and now, said the old library would have been forever associated with the April 20 massacre. Students, parents and community members agreed they could no longer enter the room without reliving the pain, he said.

Thought was given to demolishing the entire school but that would have been a mistake, DeAngelis said.

"If we tore the building down, Harris and Klebold would have won," he said.

The solution was to tear out the library, which was above the cafeteria/commons area, and open the commons into a two-story space. A new library was constructed nearby and connected to the school by a hallway.

The problem, said DeAngelis, is that spectators still come to the school, sometimes in tour buses, distracting the students.

Constructing a memorial on campus is a problem because it becomes an attraction, bringing in people not connected to the school, DeAngelis said. That&#39;s why a separate memorial was built at a nearby park, far enough from the school so students don&#39;t see people coming and going.

The new library cost $3.5 million. DeAngelis said a community fund drive, coupled with donations from building contractors, quickly raised the money.

Virginia Tech ponders changes
Officials at Virginia Tech are still using buildings that were the scene of the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and wounded many more before committing suicide at the Blacksburg, Va., campus April 15, 2007.

Cho shot his first victims in a dorm room in West Ambler Johnston Hall. Two hours later, he opened fire in Norris Hall, which contains the school&#39;s Engineering Science and Mechanics program among others.

Norris Hall would have cost $30 million to replace, according to university estimates. Instead, officials reopened Norris two months after the shootings and a task force was formed to entertain ideas for its future.

In December, Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger announced the school would spend $1 million remodeling about 4,300 square feet of the second floor of the building, which will be home to the new Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention.

The dorm room where the initial shootings took place is still closed, but it&#39;s not practical to close the entire 800-room residence hall, said University Relations
Director Mark Owczarski. Approximately 10,000 of the school&#39;s 26,000 students live on campus at Virginia Tech. The school has 14 residence buildings and another under construction.

"On-campus housing is a premium here," Owczarski said. "Honestly, students enjoy living in West Ambler Johnston Hall as they do in all of our residence buildings."

Memories will remain
Changing a building does only so much to relieve the hurt, said Columbine&#39;s DeAngelis, adding that he still has flashbacks.

DeAngelis said he has spoken with NIU leaders. Given his experience, DeAngelis feels compelled to reach out to schools where shootings have taken place.

"People still ask me, &#39;what was the one day when everything got back to normal?&#39;" he said. "It&#39;s never going to come."

NIU students seem to understand.

Going to class in Cole would never be the same, said Leicht.

"The first day, I would be a little anxious, knowing this is where it happened," he said about having class there. "After that, as long as that door stays locked, it would be just another classroom. It could have happened in any classroom. But I think that door (where the gunman entered) should be locked."

"It would be difficult" to go back into Cole, said Weaver. But if it&#39;s reopened at some point, "it would be something I and everyone else would have to do.

"I&#39;ll tell you this, though. I have had a lot of classes at Cole and I always sat in the first two or three rows. I will never do that again, not ever."

Robinson thinks Cole ought to become part of campus learning again, at some point.
"I wouldn&#39;t close it down indefinitely but definitely for the rest of the semester. Maybe open it back up next year," she said.

"But let Cole Hall be for right now," she said. "Let there be a little bit of rest in Cole Hall."



Geri Nikolai can be reached at 815-987-1337 or gnikolai@rrstar.com.
Isaac Guerrero can be reached at 815-987-1371 or iguerrero@rrstar.com.
Sadie Gurman can be reached at 815-987-1389 or sgurman@rrstar.com.

What others have done

Here is what other institutions have done after being the scene of multiple deaths from violence:

Columbine High School: Two student gunmen, who committed suicide, killed 12 students and a teacher in the April 1999 shooting at Columbine in Littleton, Colo.
The library, where most of the shootings took place, was torn out and the cafeteria below it remodeled into a two-story room. A local artist painted a skyline mural with the branches of Aspen trees and 13 clouds — one for each of the victims. A library was built nearby.

Virginia Tech: Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people before committing suicide at the Blacksburg, Va., campus April 15, 2007. It is the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.

Virginia Tech is still using buildings where the shootings occurred. Norris Hall was reopened in June 2007. The school will spend $1 million remodeling the second floor of the building, which will be home to the newly created Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention. The dorm room where a student was killed is closed, but the rest of the 800-room residence hall is still open.

University of Texas: On Aug. 1, 1966, a sniper barricaded himself on the observation deck of the tower on campus and began a shooting spree that killed 14 people and ended when police killed him. It was the worst school shooting until Virginia Tech in 2007.

The observation deck was closed until 1968, then opened and closed again in 1975 because of a series of suicide jumps. In 1999, security and safety measures were installed and the deck was reopened.

Crandon, Wis.: Six young adults were killed by a 20-year-old off-duty sheriff&#39;s deputy Oct. 7 as they relaxed in a home.

Plans are to tear the building down and create a memorial garden, but first the mortgage must be paid. A fund drive was started but contributions dwindled when the homeowner, the father of one of the victims, announced plans to sue the county over the shooting.

Nickel Mines, Pa.: A gunman burst into an Amish schoolhouse and killed five young girls Oct. 2, 2006, then killed himself. The building was demolished 10 days later and the site is used to graze cattle.

About NIU

Enrollment: 25,200

Budget: $104 million

Founded: 1899 as satellite of Illinois State Normal School

Renamed: NIU in 1957

City: DeKalb

Main campus: 755 acres

Regional sites: Hoffman Estates, Naperville and Rockford

Programs of study: Seven degree-granting colleges; 55 undergraduate majors; 75 graduate programs, including 10 Ph.D. programs, doctoral degrees in education and juris doctorate

Students: 91 percent from Illinois; 46 percent men, 54 percent women; 26 percent ethnic minorities; 862 international students from 88 nations

Faculty: 1,279

Class size: Average is 28 students (18 in senior-level classes)

Oldest building: Altgeld Hall, opened in 1899

Newest building: Yordon Center, opened in 2007


Licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported</a>

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Original Source:
<a href="http://www.gatehousenewsservice.com/regional_news/x257795083">http://www.gatehousenewsservice.com/regional_news/x257795083</a>

Geri Nikolai, Isaac Guerrero and Sadie Gurman

2008-02-26

Kacey Beddoes

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported

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