The Feb. 14 shooting at Northern Illinois University, which evoked memories of last April’s Virginia Tech shootings for some, inspired University students and administration to show their support in the aftermath.
On Thursday afternoon on the NIU campus, former student Steven Kazmierczak shot and killed five students, injured 16 others, and committed suicide in a lecture hall during a class.
On behalf of the student body, the ASUO will send a letter of condolence to NIU this week. ASUO also set up a banner outside the EMU office where passersby wrote their own condolences and messages of support. The banner will be available for students to sign until Monday, and will be sent with the letter on Tuesday.
“Our thoughts are with all the students of NIU,” ASUO President Emily McLain wrote on the banner. “You have an amazing campus community and you all have the support of UO students any time.”
McLain said she and other ASUO representatives once met several NIU students at an Oregon Student Association conference. Because she feels a close connection to NIU, she said she would provide funds and resources to any students who wish to hold a vigil or other event in reaction to the shooting.
The ASUO’s message stressed that interschool support in difficult times was important.
“It could have happened at any university,” said ASUO University Liaison Alison Fox in a Thursday press release. “We’re all students and we need to support each other.”
The University’s emergency plan, which involves collaborations with the city and county, was drawn up three years ago. Over the summer, emergency planners began fine-tuning the plan for specific crises such as pandemics, natural disasters and violent threats.
“Events like this really stress the importance of having emergency plans for these situations,” said University spokeswoman Julie Brown.
Andre Le Duc, the University’s emergency manager, said the NIU shootings didn’t change the plan in any way. “All it does is reaffirm that we have the right priority,” he said.
Le Duc and his colleagues are currently working with the city on a text message version of a reverse 9-1-1, which would send out text message warnings to the entire student body in the event of an emergency.
“Our goal is to get it out as soon as possible with as much media as possible,” Le Duc said. “I think the shootings have invested our student researchers on that even more.”
Dozens of students who also saw the importance of support wrote encouraging messages on the banner.
“Stay strong,” wrote ASUO Senator and ethnic studies major Nate Gulley. “We got your back.”
The NIU shooting was the fourth to occur on a U.S. campus in the last year; the most severe occurred in April when a student killed 32 people on Virginia Tech’s campus before killing himself.
In the weeks following the shootings in Virginia, the University received two bomb threats, both of which proved false, and caught two students with knives and a handgun in the Living Learning Center residence hall, leaving students even more on edge.
“The University of Oregon takes safety issues very seriously and we have an emergency operations plan in place to help provide security for students, staff, faculty and visitors,” said University President Dave Frohnmayer in a statement Thursday.
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UO shows support in aftermath of shooting
Daily Emerald
February 17, 2008
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