I don’t offer Sam’s harrowing perspective, just my own. I am an NIU alum, with plans to return, eventually. I once worked at the Northern Star, I, like most NIU students, have been in and out of Cole Hall for various reasons during my tenure here. I still live in DeKalb, close to campus. But, truthfully, I felt a little bit outside of the Huskie community until this happened.
By Michael and Andy
Should we get rid of a otherwise perfectly useful building while others nearby continue to be horrifically out of date?
Now, we know that the plan is to raze Cole Hall and build a new classroom building, Memorial Hall. This raises more questions than it provides answers. Come now, “just because we’re bereaved, doesn’t mean we’re saps.”
Here are a couple of outlets and resources for students still looking for support and understanding.
Tonight there will be a memorial sponsored by the business fraternity Pi Sigma Epsilon in the form of an hour of silence from 9 p.m. until 10 p.m.
The Christian group CRU on campus has created a memorial Web site called www.niutogetherforward.com dedicated to the victims and to helping people grieve. They are bringing in a guest speaker tonight from Virginia Tech from 7:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. in the Capitol Room in Holmes Student Center. Virginia Tech ‘07 Alumni Dan Newman will be speaking about hope and healing.
There have been several tribute videos made. They vary from professional quality to amateurs expressing themselves. The NTC made a decent one.
The student body at Virginia Tech has been incredible at giving NIU support. This uTube video from Virginia tech gave me goosebumps.
Its been good to see the student journalists here at NIU stepping up.
If the turnout for tonight’s memorial is anything like last week’s moment of silence. The scene will be overwhelming and inspirational.
I posted a link to this video the other day but no one clicked it; it was kind of lost in a sea of links. So, I will just post the video. It is short and is footage of Steven Kazmierczak graduating U.S. Army Basic Combat Training. This could be where his interest in guns began. Who knows? It does provide a glimpse of him before his descent into madness as well as confirmation that he did actually receive substantial training while in the military. From YouTube user Hearseman75
Note to readers: The reason for me actively writing blogs is for people to know they aren’t alone. My way of expressing my emotions is through writing, and through this I just want people to see that maybe what they feel or question is the same thing I do as well. It’s nice to know you aren’t the only one…
I was extremely nervous going into class on Monday. I didn’t know what to expect. Would my professors know I was in that class? What were the counselors going to do? Would we return to learning? Luckily, that first class went alright. The counselor didn’t even talk too much. It even turned out that a few students had read my column about my experience that was published in the Northern Star that day. I got a lot of support from those who read it which was comforting and made class a lot easier for me to get through.
The first time I had class in a lecture hall was nerve-racking. I could not sit still the entire class. I kept staring at the doors to make sure security guards were there watching them. It felt so weird being in a new lecture hall; what made the class worse was that we were in the Carl Sandburg Auditorium which was where they took witnesses to talk to the police after the shooting. So continually though out the class I kept having flashbacks of that nightmare of Valentine’s Day, when the auditorium was filled with shook-up students.
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On Thursday Governor Blagojevich pledged to ask the state legislature for $40 million in funding to tear down Cole Hall and put up a new lecture building called Memorial Hall. The building could be done as early as December 2010 according to Melanie Magara, NIU university spokeswoman.
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NIU Needs Answers was featured in a brief segment on Fox 32 Chicago News Monday night, the website along with our own Sam Brunell were both given air time. Sam gave an account of her experience on February 14 in Cole Hall; previously she recounted it in an in depth in a post on February 23. You can see the segment in the video link at the bottom of this FOX Chicago page.
On Sunday February 24, NIU reunited 10 days after a shocking event.
It was hard to know what to expect other than raw emotion.
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NIUFilter is a regular segment on this blog that attempts to sift through the reams of information one can acquire on the web surrounding this tragedy, so click away, the links are meant to enhance your knowledge.
As I write this a small college in Virginia is under lockdown after reports of a possible gunman on campus. While I hope this incident is the result of extreme vigilance on the part of the college officials, it does illustrate the increasing regularity of incidents like these.
NIU returned to class today, February 25, 2008. This is one eyewitness’ perspective on how to cope with the return to class amidst so much raw emotion.
By Sam Brunell
A reporter’s return
As many may have noticed, there are fliers hanging everywhere on how to cope with the recent tragedy. Unfortunately, there aren’t many (luckily) who had to witness a school shooting. But troubled times and events often define our lives. We have to show strength during these moments.