High crime a concern for dorm residents
description: By: Ben Briscoe, Contributing Writer, bbriscoe@smu.edu Posted: 4/25/07 First-year Weston Ashley went out to benches in front of his residence hall, Mary Hay, at 2 a.m. on the night of Oct. 12, 2006 to get his last nicotine fix before heading to bed, like he had done so many times before. But this night was different. As he sat alone in the cold air listening to The Killers on his iPod, a man Ashley had never seen before walked up to the four empty benches and sat down right beside him. "At first I didn't think anything of it," Ashley said. "He just asked me if he could buy a cigarette from me, and I said no and gave him one instead." The two then chatted for about 10 minutes about the lack of diversity at SMU before Ashley caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye of something alarming. "I remember turning to him and sticking out of his big puffy jacket was a butcher knife," Ashley said. "I just pretty much froze. In my head I was like, 'Oh my God, I am gonna die.'" But Ashley's nerves calmed, and his instincts kicked in. He quickly told the man goodnight and then walked briskly, "hell almost running," to his room and called the police. About 20 minutes later police caught up with the man. He was holding another student by knifepoint outside of the Owen Fine Arts building. While the man was quickly taken to the Dallas County Jail, the memory still lingers in Ashley's mind. "Every once and a while I will think about it, and my heart will skip a couple of beats," he said. "You feel you're so safe because we live in this Highland Park bubble where everything is so nice and pretty and clean, but the truth is that we're not safer here than anywhere else. It's a hard thing to realize." That's exactly how Virginia Tech Wildlife Science major Danielle Kulas said she felt after the shootings last Monday. "I just remember thinking at first that April Fools Day had already gone by. I couldn't believe this was happening here," she said. "The part that really baffled me was …
creator: Ben Briscoe
publisher: SMU Daily Campus
date: 2007-08-24
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: "Norris, Mark William" <mnorris@mail.smu.edu>
language: eng

C.U. Officials Discuss Response to Va. Tech
description: By Ben Eisen Sun Staff Writer Apr 25 2007 "Half of college students report having felt extremely depressed," said Ray Kim, assistant dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, to a crowd of students in Goldwin Smith's Hollis E. Cornell auditorium yesterday afternoon. "60 percent of students report feeling absolutely hopeless at times. 10 percent of students reported seriously considering suicide. How many people knew it was this bad?" No one raised their hands. Kim was one of four speakers on a panel yesterday afternoon to speak about the Virginia Tech tragedy and Cornell's level of preparedness for such emergencies. Hosted by Omega Phi Beta Sorority and Lambda Phi Epsilon, the goal of the discussion was to bring the past week's events home to our campus. Other speakers included George Sutfin, head of crime prevention at Cornell Police, Chief Curtis Ostrander who has worked for CUPD since before the 1983 shooting at Cornell, and Dr. Ya-Shu Liang, who works for Counseling and Psychological Services. "Every time something happens [response and prevention] plans are reevaluated," Sutfin said. "Columbine got everyone reevaluating response," added Ostrander. "New training was developed. I was one of the first officers who received training." Sutfin told the audience that Cornell is now in the process of making a contract with a company that alerts everyone on campus of emergencies by text message. "If something happens at an elementary school, it's easy to shut down, but Cornell is a small city, and it's very hard to shut down the entire campus. Studies show that 90 percent of students have cell phones, so [the new plan will] send texts to everyone in a circumference." Though the officers were unable not comment on their current response plans to the specific type of emergency that happened at Virginia Tech, Sutfin said that CUPD senior staff sat in on meetings to discuss changes to the plans while the panel was going on. He added that a lot of prevention rests in the han…
creator: Ben Eisen
date: 2007-07-10
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Jonny Lieberman <jdl46@cornell.edu>, <lieberman.jonny@gmail.com>
language: eng

Today we are all Hokies
description: "Schools across Virginia and around the nation are supporting Virginia Tech during this difficult time. I only wish I could include them all in this illustration. My hope is that this illustration will indicate that, no matter what school we attend, today we are all Hokies." - Ben Lansing http://lansingcartoons.com/
creator: Ben Lansing
date: 2007-05-09
contributor: Sean Brooks
rights: While the images on this website cannot be reproduced without permission, permission is granted to send the above image for non-profit purposes to anyone that might be comforted by it under the condition that the image is not altered and credit is given to the artist. For other uses including media communications, please contact me at benjaminlansing@yahoo.com http://lansingcartoons.com/
language: eng

Grace Cathedral Memorial San Francisco Tuesday April 24 2007
description: During a service in remembrance of the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech, the Rt. Rev. Marc Handley Andrus spoke about how his time at the university. informed his understanding of God. Andrus and his wife Sheila attended graduate school at the Blacksburg, Virginia, campus. The noon service on Tuesday April 24 2007 at Grace Cathedral was attended by about 70 people, including 20 or so Virginia Tech alums.
creator: Ben Long
date: 2007-05-11
contributor: Ben Long
language: eng

Candlelight Vigil
description: This was taken from the drill field, and the building is Burress Hall. After the ceremony was over, we all stood holding our lights for nearly ten minutes of silence. Finally, someone somewhere started singing the school song, and the crowd joined in. It progressed to various football chants - that's what Hokies know to do when in a large crowd. It wasn't especially somber, but I think everyone had had enough somberness already. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwtownsend/463683715/ Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0
creator: Ben Townsend
date: 2007-05-29
contributor: Chad Newswander
rights: Ben Townsend http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwtownsend/463683715/ Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0
language: eng

Blacksburg and Biography
description: The Morning News - Personal Essays It stunned the nation that the Virginia Tech murders took place; it shocked Virginians that they occurred in Blacksburg. A former longtime resident, BENJAMIN COHEN traces his connections to the tragedy. -- I drove home from Charlottesville in confused panic after cancelling my afternoon class. Noah Adams was on NPR talking about the stark clash of nature and humans, setting and event. It was the visual, sensory contrast between Blacksburg, the bucolic valley town in southwestern Virginia, and mass murder news story. That this human tragedy could happen there, in that natural majesty. From all the 11 scattered years I lived there, before moving to the University of Virginia last year, the bucolic descriptor is one that sticks. It’s exaggerated, I know, but it works. And it’s the one the media evoked all week: Blacksburg, a quaint, off-the-beaten-track bucolic college town nestled in the mountains of southwest Virginia. Being “nestled” also seems key, the town cradled by the mountains, the students by the valley. I walked that nestled town too many times to count, and ever after have the image of my son cruising down Draper Road sidewalks wearing his red Keds and pushing his toy lawnmower. Adams apparently had written about the New River a few years ago—a river paradoxically named, since it’s in fact one of the oldest in North America, if not the world—and thus knew the area. He was speaking in the first phase of tragedy, when people confront the fact that senseless things don’t make sense. This was before the pre-spin spin phase, when people talk about what people will soon be talking about: too many guns, not enough guns, no Bibles in schools, too much God in schools, moral decay, media glorification, video games, actual worldwide wars, daily death in Iraq, numbness, surveillance cameras will save us, mental illness is awful, failure of health-care system, campus judicial systems, parents, society, it’s “society’s” fault, and howev…
creator: Benjamin Cohen
date: 2007-05-11
contributor: Brent Jesiek
language: eng

Summit reviews campus safety
description: By: Benjamin Lammers Posted: 8/7/07 More than 350 representatives from Ohio's universities met at Ohio State's Fawcett Center last week to discuss school safety and the state of security and disaster response. Following the shootings at Virginia Tech last spring, Gov. Ted Strickland created a task force to look at the disaster preparedness of Ohio's universities. The task force, composed of representatives from Ohio's schools, has been meeting regularly to review campus safety and advise the governor on campus security. The Ohio College Campus Safety and Security Summit was a result of the task force's recommendations. Security experts from a number of schools spoke at the summit, including Col. Steven Flaherty, superintendent of the Virginia State Police. Strickland said in a press release campus security in Ohio is the primary responsibility of the state's schools. He asked how the state of Ohio can assist college campuses to improve security and safety in both public and private universities. Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Eric Fingerhut said universal participation, including professors and students, is needed to maintain public safety. "We have learned that there is no simple cookie-cutter solution that fits all, and that we shouldn't expect that there are any simple, one-size-fits-all, quick fixes when it comes to this issue," he said in a press release. Ohio's colleges and universities were directed to complete the "Ohio Campus Security Checklist" for the Board of Regents by Aug. 24, which will outline actions each university needs to take during the long haul to improve security. Questions in the checklist include coordination, communication, support mobilization to disasters and protocols for identifying and addressing dangerous behavior by students, faculty and staff. Todd Stewart, director of the OSU Program for International and Homeland Security, said the purpose of the summit was not to focus only on shooting scenarios and acts of violence, but to in…
creator: Benjamin Lammers
publisher: The Lantern
date: 2007-08-14
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: GERRICK LEWIS <lewis.1030@osu.edu>
language: eng

Police chief says campus safety to undergo change
description: By: BETH OBERLEITER Staff Writer Posted: 4/19/07 When the identity of gunman Cho Seung-Hui was released yesterday, an integral part of the Virginia Tech shootings investigation fell into place. Immediately, his image was plastered over media outlets across the country, and experts and acquaintances analyzed his psyche, looking to explain his actions. But the time gap between the two shooting incidents continues to raise questions about why students had little warning about the impending danger. Pitt Police Chief Tim Delaney said that notifying students of an emergency can become a complex situation that involves careful thought and planning. He said each situation is case-specific and should be handled within context. "You have to be flexible in your planning. Things that may apply in another campus may not apply here," he said. Delaney said Pitt students would be notified by a mass e-mail if there were an emergency involving the University. Through this, they would hope to reach students who could access their e-mail from cell phones, as well as professors and administrators who would filter the information down. Pitt sophomore Suzie Culhane didn't find out about the shootings at Virginia Tech until Monday evening and was shocked that the campus didn't shut down after the first shooting. Even though she said that she felt safe in class on Tuesday, she thought a lot about how random and senseless the act was. "You can't ever be completely safe," she said. "That's how the world is today. You just have to deal with it." Delaney said he would use the annunciator on the fire alarm system to alert students to stay in a safe and secure location if there was a violent act on campus and the suspect had not been found. "I'm constantly thinking about the worst-case scenario," Delaney said, adding that he is constantly thinking up new solutions for evolving situations. Pitt has 300 cameras functioning throughout the University as well as electronic locks on 80 percent of campu…
creator: BETH OBERLEITER
publisher: The Pitt News
date: 2007-08-19
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Annie Tubbs <annietubbs@gmail.com>
language: eng

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

What if it happened here?
description: Virginia Tech tragedy causes campus safety issues to surface at AU By Bethany Kirby Assistant State & Local Editor One question has probably crossed every college student's mind in the last three days. What if it had happened to us? It's a valid question. Virginia Tech, which lies in the heart of the college town of Blacksburg, Va., is similar to Auburn in both size and spirit. Cho Seung-Hui, who was identified as the gunman in Monday's Virginia Tech massacre, took the lives of 32 of his fellow students before taking his own. It has sent universities across the country into a heightened state of awareness about their own preparedness for extreme incidents. "Auburn University has a comprehensive emergency response plan that is practiced frequently," said Christine Eick, director of risk management and safety. "The University has really put a lot of resources into our emergency management and planning," Eick said. "It is something we take very seriously." The University has periodic drills in training for emergency situations. Eick said this develops the communication between the University and the emergency response teams such as the FBI, the Auburn Police Division, the Opelika Police Department, the Lee County Sheriff's Office and the Alabama State Troopers. Eick said the drills include practice in a variety of possible scenarios, so the teams will have a good framework for any type of emergency. "We have actually planned and drilled on persons with weapons," Eick said. Although the most recent drill was different than the situation at Virginia Tech, Eick said it was actually conducted on a larger scale. "It's pretty hard to give out reassurances at this time, because it was a horrific event," Eick said. But she emphasized that for Auburn, emergency management and response is a priority. Capt. Tom Stofer of the Auburn Police Division said there is a school crisis plan for situations like this one in Auburn. "It just basically gives us our protocol to respond to any …
creator: Bethany Kirby
publisher: Auburn Plainsman
date: 2007-09-03
contributor: Sara AA Hood
rights: David Ingram <ingradc@auburn.edu>
language: eng

LETTER: Shooter needed counseling
description: By:Bethany Morris Posted: 4/20/07 n In reaction to the Virginia Tech shootings, different advocacy groups are focusing on gun control and security as issues that should be addressed after this latest tragedy. While these are valid points, doesn't the problem stem from mental-heath care? It is nearly impossible to get individuals into mental-health facilities after they turn 18 unless they commit themselves or have committed some act of violence against themselves or others. If the professor who had tried to get Cho Seung-Hui help had been able to get him committed to residential treatment (treatment that he had needed for years) this tragedy might have been prevented. Unfortunately, this young man was too far gone to acknowledge his need for treatment, and his behavior went unchecked. Bethany Morris CFA '09
creator: Bethany Morris
publisher: The Daily Free Press
date: 2007-08-13
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Matt Negrin <editor@dailyfreepress.com>
language: eng

Media focus is off target
description: I'm from Virginia, and I know students at Va. Tech. I've been watching the irksome news coverage. Death is always sad, but the silver lining is that it brings people together. Solidarity is why people are so compelled to tune in, and while Facebook has been great for that, the media sucked. Facebook may be prone to rumors, but you can tell who's missing and who to be concerned about. The media, however, have been eking out widespread political implications of this tragedy, instead of bringing people together. This event does have political ramifications, but the media has missed the mark by saying things like, in a nutshell, "He was born in a different country! Let's make this about immigration, despite the fact that most of his formative experiences were here in the US because he had lived here legally since he was eight!" Or there's "How on earth could this psycho get a gun? Well, it was a completely mundane, legal purchase, and he bought it with 'chilling simplicity.' Let's interview the merchant and harp on gun control!" Even on a 24-hour network, there are no gray areas in politics, so their coverage is ill-suited even for the wider audience. Gun control and free speech may be slippery slopes, but when free speech demonstrates a violent psychosis, how about a little gun control? I hate to be blunt, but we all know the Cho type, and as individuals, we should reach out like the teacher did. As a campus policy, I'm not suggesting that loners should be branded on the forehead, but when a kid confuses fantasy and reality, expresses violent fantasies and suicidal thoughts, and finally gets sent to the counseling center while you've got him in the straightjacket, confiscate his registered guns. Bethany Quinn Senior and former Hurricane columnist -- Original Source:The Miami Hurricane - April 20, 2007
creator: Bethany Quinn
publisher: The Miami Hurricane
date: 2007-08-09
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Greg Linch <greglinch@gmail.com>
language: eng

ASU Virginia Tech Vigil
description: Arizona State University students gather for a candelight vigil to honor and remember the students affected by the Virginia Tech tragedy. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8085403@N04/481123094/ Photo courtesy of Bettina Hansen
creator: Bettina Hansen
date: 2007-06-08
contributor: Chad Newswander
rights: Permission: Bettina Hansen http://www.flickr.com/photos/8085403@N04/481123094/
language: eng

Hokie Hope Day at GEICO in Fredericksburg, VA
description: My thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of our lost Hokies. This has been a very difficult time for all of us. The memorial issue of Virginia Tech magazine was done very nicely and inspired me to share our support. I am a 1992 graduate of Virginia Tech. I work as a Training Manager at GEICO in Fredericksburg, VA. There are several GEICO offices across the country and the entire company participated in Hokie Hope day. I was proud that my school and my work came together during this most difficult time. I wanted to share a picture of my team.
creator: Beverly Straightiff
date: 2007-08-02
contributor: Beverly Straightiff
language: eng

Virginia Tech
description: Thursday, April 19, 2007 I first saw Blacksburg, and what was then V.P.I., almost fifty years ago, the summer of 1960. A member of my high school's chapter of the Future Farmers of America, I was attending the FFA's Virginia state convention - a wide-eyed rising 9th grader. About 5 foot six, I weighed little more than a large sack of chicken feed. I was a member of our school's second-string crop judging team; we did surprisingly well. Blacksburg was the "sleepy little college town" in the mountains then, home to a small agricultural and mechanical/military school and little else. You could count the traffic lights and have fingers left over. V.P.I. was essentially all-male and all-white; being a member of the corps of cadets was the norm. Foreign students and women on campus were not. The student body generally came from rural and small-town Virginia, where it was highly regarded. A turkey was the school mascot. It was so not UVA, William and Mary, or Hollins. It was not even V.M.I. Things change and stuff happens. By the time I graduated from high school V.P.I. was beginning its remarkable transformation into a major university. My lackluster high school record and vague aspirations did not make me highly sought after college material. But V.P.I. took a chance and accepted me. They had probably seen worse. After purgatory at their Danville Branch I finally arrived in Blacksburg in the fall of 1966. Evidence of the major commitment to transform Tech was everywhere: new buildings, overflowing dorms, expanding academic programs, a much larger and more diverse student body (though still not enough girls), and a major emphasis on athletics, mainly football. We even managed a traffic jam on some Saturday afternoons in the fall. Off-campus housing grew, a fine off-campus book store opened, along with a decent restaurant or two. Long hair and an underground newspaper appeared. The 60's arrived at Tech and Blacksburg sometime in the 70's, but it arrived. I should have been…
creator: Bibb Edwards
date: 2007-06-17
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0
language: eng

Back of Norris
description: After I got the email about the first shooting, I came to campus to get in to the radio station. I was walking by the power plant and saw 15-20 ambulances behind McBryde/Norris. I had no idea about the second shooting at this point, but the timing indicates that this was taken right as people were being taken out of the building.
creator: Billy Glynn
date: 2007-04-30
contributor: Billy Glynn
language: eng

Press Conference
description: Being in student media, three representatives went to the first press conference to find out what was going on. At this point we thought it was still only one shooting. Larry Hinkler saying that there were over 20 fatalities was by and large the worst moment of my life.
creator: Billy Glynn
date: 2007-04-30
contributor: Billy Glynn
language: eng

Parking Lot
description: This is the back of the academic buildings after the press conference. I counted well over 20 ambulances on the walk back to the radio station.
creator: Billy Glynn
date: 2007-04-30
contributor: Billy Glynn
language: eng

Reflections on Virginia Tech
description: By Billy McMorris Apr 17 2007 John Manetta Once Told Me In early modern Europe the infant mortality rate was astronomical. Crude medical practices led to a high casualty rate for mother and child alike. In many cases, new mothers would be forced to rely on lying-in-maids to handle maternal responsibilities, while they recovered from the exhausting and traumatic experience of child birth. Lying-in-maids were generally post-menopausal widows, who were unable to mother children themselves. If new- born children were to become sick or die, grieving mothers, in some cases already afflicted with post partum depression, would look for some sort of explanation for why their child did not survive infancy. In some cases, the dazed and depressed mother would come to a genius conclusion: the lying-in-maid was a witch. Accusations were launched against close family friends and next door neighbors ... even the child's grandmother could find herself burned at the stake if she did not make sure that baby survived until the mother could fulfill her maternal role. These infertile women could not use their feminine power to care for the infant, and instead chose to use sorcery to bring about harm. Apparently all one needs is a scapegoat to survive the grieving process. America, however, is no different than these mourning mothers. Any major tragedy is immediately followed with a blame game of epic proportions. Calls for inquiries, hearings, firings and resignations are launched before words of condolence are even expressed. When we as a culture engage in this sort of "dialogue," we take the event away from those who are affected by it, and try to center it around our own vanity. It is perhaps the most despicable thing about our culture; it's even more revolting than a cult following of Paris Hilton. But still, everyone is chiming in on Virginia Tech. The student activists are complaining that, "if it wasn't for Charlton Heston or the 'gun nuts,' this would have never happened." Can't …
creator: Billy McMorris
publisher: Cornell Daily Sun
date: 2007-07-02
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Jonny Lieberman <jdl46@cornell.edu>, <lieberman.jonny@gmail.com>
language: eng

When massacres are normal: guns and Virginia Tech
creator: Binoy Kampmark
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: You are contributing your stories and/or files to The April 16 Archive, which is developing a permanent digital record of the events surrounding the tragedy on the Virginia Tech campus on April 16, 2007. Your participation in this project will allow future researchers, and people such as yourself, to gain a greater understanding of these events and the responses to them.
language: eng