It's so hard, now that I know.. now that I know what it means, how hard it is, how many unanswered questions there are for university administrators across the nation not even just in the matters of student development and wellness, but campus security and the safety of the community. And to watch and hear people so severely criticize the administration of Virginia Tech just boggles my mind - I'd even go as far as to say it makes me downright irate.
How dare they? I mean, honestly.
If anyone who has now seen this tradedy unfold had been asked, days ago, in what manner they would have handled such an awful situation - I would venture to say no one could have laid out the plan perfectly. Hindsight is 20/20 and most of the nation's top universities have crisis and emergency maintenance plans that are admittedly unknown by ground-level administrators. And while my sympathies are with the families and the grieving students who have lost loved ones, they are also with the people who work day in and day out to make Virginia Tech the place that it is and won't always get things right and couldn't have done so this fateful Monday morning.
I know I have said it already, but I just can not even begin to imagine if this had happened at Belmont while I was a student or now at Vanderbilt where I work and attend graduate school. I do not question the ability of Virginia Tech and higher education across the nation to rebound from such an atrocity, but this event will forever change both and no one - and I believe this fully - could have been fully prepared for everything that happened. My only conviction now, is that what Virginia Tech needs is not people to tear it down at such a critical hour but to build it up as it faces an unwelcome and hurdled future; I will do my part.
3 comments:
amen.
I agree, tearing the administration down isn't helpful.
But what is helpful... is taking an honest look at what happened, what went wrong, and how could the tragic loss of life been minimized, and hopefully prevent something like this happening again.
Right now it's hard for everyone involved to think clearly and not let their emotions overcome their hearts and minds, which is very much understandable.
However, I do think there was some major problems the administration at Virginia Tech is going to have to face with how they handled the situation. The failure to follow up with counseling and take his mental health seriously when recommended by a professor and the fact they kept school running after two people had been shot in a dorm without the shooter being accounted for...only for him to come back 2 hours later in a rampage are extremely serious breakdowns in the system. Hopefully other schools across the nation will take warning signs like this student's more seriously and re-examine their emergency procedures and make sure they are effective. I do realize hindsight is 20/20, and I don't place the blame on the administration of Virginia Tech, but I don't think it's a negative thing to examine where the holes lied in this huge issue - certainly there were more, and certainly the school didn't have control over all of them.
-Jamo
We could spend a life time pondering ways to ensure that such an event can be safe guarded against. The institution could have random checks of students and faculty. They could have stricter gun control. They could institute psychological exams to freshmen students. However, none of that will work.
Our society has grown to accept that the institution should solve the problems of those around us. People have become lazy and (at risk of sounding pessimistic) uncaring for those people who inhabit our everyday lives. It is a scary time when the Insitution teaches us how to act instead of us teaching the Institutions how to act. Like those horrible people who committed the 9/11 tragedy, like the Columbine story, like every horrific crime that occurs in the US, it comes down to the individual(s) who committed the heinous act. Instead of asking, "what could they have done, why didn't some one warn us," people should be asking, "What could I have done to prevent this?"
I'm not typing to say that the people who didn't smile or be nice to Cho’ are in any way responsible for what he did. I'm just saying that there comes a point when we need to ask ourselves why we put so much stock in institutions to provide for the safety and mental health of people instead of taking responsibility for ourselves.
The National Media has given attention to schools that teach the Bible in the class room to see if they are teaching too much religion or not enough. The report on schools that are putting students Body Mass Index on report cards and encouraging students to eat healthy. But I ask you, while the kids are dropped off at school, while you drop your kid off at Virginia Tech, how is she/he really doing? Was time made to see if they are upset? Was time made to see if the are healthy, mentally and physically? Or, are you banking on an institution that can only go so far as the budget allows.
I had a discussion with a mental health coordinator employed by a local college in Nashville. I asked her why they did not advertise their free counseling sessions to the whole campus. She said because they would be inundated with requests and their budget couldn't handle it. The moment that we put this completely upon the shoulders of our schools and churches is the moment that they begin to be watered down. Take some time with your children, take some time with those that you mentor, and take some time talking with your neighbors. Take some time…
Boy I could go on...but, without completely boring those that have come so far with me on my rant, I ask those that are still present, "What can you do for your child, friend, or neighbor to inhibit such acts from taking place?"
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