2008 Woodie Awards
STANDING TOGETHER
Vigil pays respects to VT victims
Doug Graham
Issue date: 4/26/07 Section: Front Page
- Page 1 of 1
Hundreds of students walked in ghostly silence, their faces faintly lit by candles, to honor the fallen. "Although these horrible events were a half continent away, we felt Virginia Tech's sorrow on an almost personal level," said PSU President Tom Bryant after the students made their way quietly from the Oval to University Lake, where Bryant and others spoke in remembrance of the victims of Cho Seung-Hui, who claimed 32 lives in a shooting spree last Monday at the Virginia Tech campus. For Terra Higgins, a graduate student in psychology who had a friend in the same building in which Cho shot 30 people, the vigil provided some much-needed closure. "From the experience I had with the situation, you always feel some sort of deep sympathy when something like this happens," Higgins said. "I wasn't deeply involved with the situation and I wasn't there, but with all the emotions I went through (at the vigil), I have a whole new understanding of what they were going through." Higgins, along with about 400 other students, faculty and community members, gathered at 9 p.m. Monday, April 23, in the Oval, where they received candles to light and copies of the speech made by poet Nikki Giovanni after the shootings. They then marched through campus, past the library and the football stadium, onto the gazebo near the lake. "This turnout really shows what we are as a campus community at Pitt State," said Anthony Moreno, senior in communication, who helped organize the event. "It means a lot." Student Government Association, the Student Activities Council, and the Residence Hall Assembly sponsored the vigil as a joint venture, saying in a bulk e-mail that their purpose was to "honor the lives lost and affected at Virginia Tech." Representatives from various groups spoke at the vigil, starting with SGA President Ginger Niemann. "It is under unfortunate circumstances that we gather tonight, yet it is important to remember not only students, but faculty members who lost their lives in this tragedy," Niemann said. She went on to explain how the victims at Virginia Tech were not unlike people at PSU. Niemann also announced discussion groups to be held by University Counseling Services at 9 p.m. Monday in the Inaugural Room, 9 p.m. Tuesday in the Varsity Room, 9 p.m. Wednesday in the Varsity Room, and 9 p.m. Thursday in the Collegiate Room, all in the Overman Student Center. Jason Wright, RHA president, spoke after Niemann, telling the personal stories of a few of the victims, including Ryan Clark, a Virginia Tech RA who was among the first to be killed. "No one person whether that be school administrators, RAs, classroom profesors, or any single student has the power to prevent these types of rash shootings," Wright said. "In the end it is up to all of us to watch out for one another, whether we live in Blacksburg, Virginia, or Pittsburg, Kansas." Then Bryant spoke on how the "Pittsburg State family" should respond to the attacks: "We'd make a terrible mistake if we allow violence to change who we are," Bryant said. He said the incident has prompted university officials to re-evaluate the Crisis Management Plan. Finally, State Rep. Julie Menghini, D-Pittsburg, gave a short speech, saying she hopes schools can learn from the shootings how to prevent such tragedies from happening again. "May our hearts and prayers reach out to those both far and near, so that healing may begin," Menghini said. The vigil opened and closed with songs by Markel Porter, graduate student in music performance. Audra Tope, junior in psychology, helped organize the vigil as part of the SAC. Tope says she estimates that about 400 people attended, because they made up 500 candles and only around 100 were left. "That was exciting that we had such a good turnout," Tope said. "It was really good to work with two other organizations, because it hits everywhere. We kind of hit all students, I think." She continued: "You could just see how it affected everyone on campus, because there were so many different groups there. Everybody had a really good attitude. Everybody was respectful and somber." Kevin Chang, senior in English from Taiwan, says he came to pray for the victims and their families. When asked whether he feared a backlash against international students (Cho was a legal resident alien from South Korea), Chang said he wasn't too concerned. "Maybe there are some extreme people who might do something bad, but you don't know how to prevent it from happening," Chang said. "We just live our lives as usual." |
Be the first to comment on this story