In Response

Jamo wrote a very thoughtful response to my blog yesterday and you should read it, because it shows a healthy, critical view of the event, leaving room for the inherent flaws of systems run by people.

I want make sure, however, that it is understood why I feel so strongly about not taking the lambasting and the outright ruthlessness of certain critics too far. Yes, let's please find the holes but don't push Virginia Tech into them. These flaws that have been found are not just in Virginia Tech's system and that is why I am such a proponent of people and universities across the nation taking the planks out of their eyes, if you know what I mean. The simple fact that an event like this sent some of the nation's most prestigious and grounded schools scrambling to either produce or reveal emergency crisis plans as well as begin the long road to recovering from a blow like this, not just to Virginia Tech but to college campuses and collegial trust and security, says a lot, I believe.

It could have happened anywhere, at anytime, and my suspicion is that X University would have had holes - maybe not just the same, but very similar - that exist becuase we all largely operate on a similar playing field, keeping up on trends in admission and safety and programming based on what the "big guys" or somebody else we "compete" with is doing. I cannot watch Virginia Tech take all the blame for this, realizing, even though I am so new to the field, that no one has it right - we were just fortunate (and plainly so) to watch such a monumental event in history take place at a different university that challenges the very way we do our work and keep students safe.

It could have been us, and I know it's not in my job description to negate the feel of safety and security on the campus (but to uphold it), but I must say, we would not have been prepared. It is just unfortunate, now, that thirty-three lives were lost and many injured to wake-up sleepy-eyed administrators and even the most alert of us all to a total nightmare that one should have ever had to prepare for.

Such a Critical Hour

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.