tragedy, sorrow, and disbelief

Undoubtedly the events of April 16 at Virginia Tech will be ever present in our memories. Those of us in the higher education community, regardless of our location or position, are especially sensitive to the tragedy. While there are many questions mixed among the disbelief and grief, there is also beginnings of blame and heightened scrutiny over the decisions made by university officials. I think everyone that works at a college or university recognizes that at some point they will have to deal with the death of a student on campus as well as campus violence. As professionals we discuss strategies, critical incident management, and grief counseling that should be followed in the wake of campus incidents. But I don't believe that we are ever prepared for a tragedy such as this, even 8 years after the events of Columbine.

In the wake of this tragedy it is easy to second guess the actions of Tech officials. Certainly this should be a reminder to college and university officials around the nation and world closely examine and update their own critical incident policies. However, the critical examination of the actions of Tech's administration should be put on hold until a complete investigation can be completed. This is particularly true of criticism that is coming from so-called security experts outside the higher education community.

Colleges and universities are unique communities, apart from high schools, large scale companies and even municipalities. At Tech there are 9,000 students that live on the campus, another 15,000 students that commute in and 10,000 full and part-time employees. I am hard pressed to think of any other community of this nature. Managing such a tragedy is not simply a matter of putting out a security bulletin on email, television, and radio as many have suggested should have been done. Evacuating or locking down an 2,600 acre campus is no easy task that can be completed within a matter of minutes.

At this point we can be assured that the administration at Tech is questioning their own actions and how they could have handled the events of the day differently. But at the same time, their most pressing commitment is to tend to the needs of the survivors. Instead of filling the next few days with scrutiny and criticism, we should take the opportunity to reach out to those around us, those that may be personally touched by the tragedy, those that we see feeling troubled or depressed by the pressures of college life, and most especially our extended family at Virginia Tech.