Should Cole Hall stay or go?
It’s weird. Today when walking to classes I had a hard time believing something so tragic ever happened here. Security has been minimized, the counselors are out of classrooms, the dogs aren’t walking around campus 
. Yes; It’s a good thing that some form of ‘normalcy’ is coming back, but the one thing that continues to puzzle me is the debate over Cole Hall.
Looking at it, you would never think something so horrific occurred inside. It looks deserted and untouched. When President Peters asked me what I thought should be done to it, I told him I simply just didn’t know. Part of me feels as if it’d be best to just tear it down. I, for one, know I could never sit in that lecture hall ever again.
One student says tearing it down or renaming it would glorify the shooter.
“Tearing it down or renaming it gives the shooter too much credit for what he’s done,” said NIU student Alex Johnson. “I think it’s better to just change the inside, because it’s a waste of money and space to tear it down.”
I’d have to disagree with this. If the shooter truly did what he did to have his name glorified and known nationally, he probably would have done a lot more damage than just shooting up one half-full lecture hall. I’m not saying that he didn’t emotionally and physically damage several lives. I just think that his motive was anything but to get his name known around the world.
In my opinion, the tear down is meant to destroy negative emotions towards the auditorium to hopefully satisfy those effected by the events in which occurred there February 14th. It’s been brought up that other schools, like V-Tech, did not tear down the location of the massacres; but we aren’t them.
I definitely don’t think it should remain untouched, but I do think something about it must be changed. Maybe renovating the place would be a good solution. After all, NIU has stated that it was due for renovation soon. Though without this situation I doubt they would have done it as soon as they profess.
“The building itself was crappy before the shootings,” said NIU student Jesse Sertle.
Either they should build new lecture halls (change the set up or something) or maybe put offices in there. The key thing is to USE the space.
“For $40 million, it’s stupid for them to tear it down,” said NIU student Mike Colwell. “I think they should change everything on the inside though.”
I don’t necessarily think it should be torn down and built somewhere else. What’s the point of that? Are they going to tear it down and build a memorial THEN spend additional millions of dollars to rebuild a whole new building for the classes (in which over 1000 students had circulated in each day)?
You can’t just make memories disappear by making the building disappear. I just think something about Cole Hall needs to be changed; I just can’t think of a “right” answer yet. Is there even one?
Tags: colehall, memorial, memorialhall, niu, niushooting, niustudents