Sympathy for the Virginia Tech Community
Apr 17, 2007 commentary
After a day to let the news sink in, the shootings on the campus of Virginia Tech University in Blacksboro, Virginia are on the minds of myself and many of my co-workers and fellow students at Washington State University. There is plenty of coverage of the tragedy online, including up-to-the-minite details available at CNN. The shootings were also on the minds of many of the science bloggers at Seed Magazine’s Scienceblogs.com, which was summarized by Dave Munger at Cognitive Daily.
From Dave Munger:
…this morning everyone rushed off to school and to work, and I started watching some of the online footage of the shootings. After a while I couldn’t think about anything else, so I began to look for distractions. As I should have known, the distractions just weren’t distracting enough, and I kept connecting everything back to the grisly deaths in Virginia.
From Janet Stemwedel at Adventures in Ethics and Science:
I’m still having trouble getting words to really wrap themselves around the immediate feeling of panic in my gut. College campuses have always felt like safe places to me, and relative to most other places you could be, I’ll bet statistically they really are pretty safe. But the Ivory Tower is still vulnerable to Very Bad Stuff.
From Jason Rosenhaus at EvolutionBlog:
I just spent the weekend at a local math conference that included quite a few faculty members and students from Tech. I made some new friends, and renewed some old aquaintances. I do not know if any of them were directly affected. It’s hard to imagine that after the high spirits and light mood of the conference, they had to go back to find this carnage. It’s sobering to be reminded that it only takes one crazy person to inflict this much damage.
In addition, earlier today outgoing Washington State University President V. Lane Rawlins offered his condolences to the Virginia Tech community:
We are all grieving over the tragic events that occurred yesterday at Virginia Tech. The senseless loss of lives is beyond comprehension. Many of us here know people who work, teach or study at Virginia Tech, so this is very much a shared tragedy. While there can be no absolute guarantees of safety in public spaces, this event should cause all of us to redouble our efforts to better understand how to prevent such acts in the future.
During the aftermath of what has happened, some people on our own WSU campuses may be anxious and concerned about safety as a result of those tragic and highly publicized actions. We are taking this time to review our own emergency response plans and to communicate key aspects of them to you.
It is important to emphasize that Washington State University has complete, up-to-date emergency preparedness and response plans for all four of our campuses and other university locations. Here are key points you all will want to know:
- WSU has an emergency response plan that immediately notifies University leaders so that critical decisions can be made. The response plan has been tested through exercises with the executive team and the Council of Deans. Today I have asked all deans and vice presidents to schedule similar emergency response exercises promptly.
- Our three regional campuses have emergency response plans relevant to their own settings, and those plans have been tested.
- WSU has a system for immediately communicating to our community including faculty, staff and students through the WSU Alert emails and the companion WSU Alert Web site at http://www.alert.wsu.edu.
- We are preparing to install a siren and loudspeaker system throughout the Pullman campus. We will propose that similar systems be installed at our campuses in Spokane, the Tri-Cities and Vancouver.
We believe that our campuses are among the safest in the nation. We also believe that we are well-prepared in case of emergencies, and we are reviewing and updating our plans on a continuous basis.
Equally important at this time is for us to be sensitive to the fears and concerns of those in our WSU community. We encourage that individuals and groups take advantage of opportunities for discussion and counseling. This is a time for all in the Cougar family to be mutually supportive. Thank you.
V. Lane Rawlins,
President
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