By Luba Patlakh
Inside the Student Center Greenhouse, students and faculty members came together to mourn the deaths of 33 students at a candlelight vigil on Tuesday evening, gathering to pay respect to friends and families who endured difficult losses after the Virginia Tech massacre.
President Stuart Rabinowitz sent a personal message to all University students expressing his condolences, informing students about the candlelight vigil ceremony and a University-wide moment of silence held during common hour Wednesday in the Student Center cafe, due to inclement weather. Along with President Rabinowitz’s letter, another letter was sent to all students about what Hofstra would do in case of an emergency, informing them that the University is trying to enhance its emergency services.
“In light of the tragedy at Virginia Tech University, we will continue to look at enhanced ways to communicate quickly and efficiently with the community in the event of an emergency, including emergency text messaging and a comprehensive public address system,” Rabinowitz said.
The University says that in a state of emergency students can access several communication channels for information, including student voicemail, the University’s Web site and WRHU Hofstra radio station for updated information. The University is also depending on its residential life and student affairs staff to assist with communications to students in the residence halls. The University’s Department of Public Safety, who are highly-trained and well experienced professionals, have reviewed emergency procedures with University officials and have established protocols for their prompt response to the University’s campus.
However, not all students are optimistic about the University’s emergency plans. “In a situation like Virginia Tech you don’t have the time to make sure all students are advised and protected. Sometimes security can’t be perfect with timing and anything can happen,” said freshman biology major, Sarvi Javid. “There is not much public safety can do to prevent a situation like that, it doesn’t take much time for someone to kill or hurt someone.”
As the community responded, University students expressed their grief by gathering at the University vigil, participating in moments of silence and using Internet-based social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace to create memorials for the lives lost.
“It’s so nice to see so many Hofstra students involved in one thing, it is too bad that it takes such a tragedy to do that,” said freshman Dana Pizzi.
A female student from Virginia Tech University who requested to remain anonymous, shared in her online away message, “My heart goes out to everyone… to everyone! Techs campus will never be the same. I don’t know that I could ever go in to Norris [hall] again! Life is really short… so make the best of it!”
Here at the University, students expressed feelings of shock, confusion and sadness once news surfaced about the massacre.
“There are really no words,” said Allison Bartholomew, a sophomore business and fine arts major who attended the vigil on Tuesday night. ” I think that is the problem with everyone-just confusion everywhere, confusion of why this had to happen.”
The University’s administration said that trying to get the information out as soon as possible is key. This will be accomplished by enhancing communication services such as emergency text messaging and a comprehensive public address system. “If there was a threat of some sort then the University would be able to help but otherwise it is unfortunate, there is only so much they can do,” Javid said. “They can try and they are doing a great job of trying to enhance crisis communication.”
E-mails and text messages from the University could be lifesavers in a situation like that of Virginia Tech, but some students say they are not enough.
Anna Razhova, a senior marketing and international business major received the e-mail message from the administration, but said: “They are trying to make everyone feel safe because everyone knows that Hofstra’s attempts to make school safer have been minimal.”
Junior Kenny Perez and sophomore Gabrielle Mnkande, both said that their initial reaction after hearing what happened at Virginia Tech was to know if their friends were safe and sound. “I’m guessing that after all that happened, now safety is going to be a much larger priority on all college campuses,” said Perez.
Though the University is taking new security measures to keep the campus safe, students also want to voice concerns about potential drawbacks. “I want safety, but I do not want invasion of privacy,” said Mnkande.
Hofstra has created an Emergency Response Plan, which is a comprehensive plan for organizing, coordinating and directing available resources toward the control of an emergency. This plan is said to help protect students in various situations by distributing commands to authority in case of an emergency. Hofstra’s Crisis Management Team members meet regularly to develop, review and update plans for various crisis scenarios.
After the tragedy at Virginia Tech, the team met to review plans and information. If necessary, the University’s campus can be secured by Public Safety and local law enforcement by closing University gates and placing emergency staff at all University entrances.
Brian Andress, a senior business/computer science major at Virginia Tech University said he was skipping class when he heard the terrible news. ” It was shocking, but thankfully I don’t have class where it happened and I live off campus now,” he said. “School is shut down for now, but if I wasn’t a second semester senior I would probably be transferring.”
Andress also mentioned that all of his peers are disturbed by the shootings. “I think the school did a bad job of handling it, they had no clue what to do.”
