Nas
description: Nas and DJ Scratch performing at A Concert for Virginia Tech, September 6, 2007. Photo courtesy of Kevin Cupp. -- Original Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevincupp/1342165394/
creator: Kevin Cupp
date: 2007-09-17
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Kevin Cupp (k@vt.edu)
language: eng

NASA flag
description: In honor of Virginia Tech, this flag was flown aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-117 mission to the International Space Station and then sent to VT by NASA. From June 8-22, 2007 it orbited the earth for 13 days, 20 hours, 12 minutes, and 44 seconds. It made 22 earth orbits. The plaque sent with the flag says, "In memory of the courageous students and faculty who lost their lives on April 16, 2007."
creator: Kacey Beddoes
date: 2008-04-10
contributor: Kacey Beddoes
rights: Kacey Beddoes (kbeddoes@vt.edu)
language: eng

NBC Should Never Have Aired the Virginia Tech Video
description: By: Jack Myers / Jack Myers Think Tank (Blog) May 07, 2007 The more I think and talk to people about NBC's handling of Cho Seung-Hui's videos following the tragedy at Virginia Tech, the more convinced I am the decision was mishandled and wrong. Roger Delaney of Zephyr Media Group commented "I think that, even knowing that the data would make it into the public domain though other channels, NBC erred when they decided to air Cho's 'multimedia manifesto'. There is no question that he accomplished exactly what he'd hoped to - his heinous actions gave him a forum through which he could spew his venomous message to the entire nation. Did any of us need to see that? Did airing that footage do anything other than grant Cho the postmortem glory he was clearly seeking? And was there any way for NBC to air that footage without appearing to be chasing ratings? The answer to all those questions is, in my mind, unequivocally 'no'." Neale Martin of Ntlec, whose daughter is a sophomore at VT, added, "NBC should never have provided a platform for this lunatic; it will encourage every sociopath to strive toward even more carnage. Even posted on YouTube, it would not have the same impact as being put on broadcast news. My daughter is a sophomore at VT and three classmates from her Monday 8 am class were killed the next period. As a former journalist I am sickened by how low this profession has sunk." There are endless arguments about free speech, about how the videos would have found their way into the public eye and, of course, NBC's responsibility not only to the audience but to shareholders as well, for whom any ratings opportunity is more important than issues of the public good. My initial instinct was to accept that NBC aired the videos, but to criticize both NBC and other networks for the gratuitous promotions they ran and the hype leading up to the news reports. In retrospect, I believe NBC has done great harm to the NBC network news brand, to Brian Williams, and to the overa…
creator: Jack Myers
date: 2007-05-27
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5
language: eng

NBC, MySpace and V.T.
description: By Behzad Varamini Apr 25 2007 Gain Through Loss Hours after students cowered behind desks and played dead in hopes that Virginia Tech killer Cho Seung-Hui would spare their lives, minutes after the body count was made public and started to climb, it took only seconds for the gluttonous demons in dark corners of men's souls to perk up and devise a plan on how to best capitalize on a tragic story that even satisfied the devil himself. Atheists and evangelicals, gun-toters and arms opposers, and other talking heads with punches to throw delayed healing by using the backdrop of the tragic killings to guilefully push their own agendas. Amidst these vultures, perhaps the most flagrant exploiter of the catastrophe was NBC News, who decided to air self-taken photographs and a homemade video of Cho multiple times over national airwaves, just two days after the events took place and literally hours after the videos were received. In between the first and second set of murders last Monday, April 16, the killer put the finishing touches on the video and overnighted it, along with a series of photographs, to NBC News headquarters. Soon after the tapes of wrath aired, NBC President Steve Capus made a statement assuring Americans that the network struggled with the decision to release the videos. In the end, however, NBC pinned their collective conscious into submission and granted the psychotic killer a public posthumous forum, completing the final phase of Cho's demonic plan. Just a quick look at the pictures and videos makes Capus' motives clear. Stamped into the top-left corner of the video and every still of Cho is the NBC news logo — peacock and all. NBC News anchor Brian Williams admitted in a later interview that airing even part of the video would promise the killer the martyrdom he hoped to achieve. In the name of profit, NBC served as an instrumental accomplice, helping make Cho's plan come to complete fruition and allowing the friends and families of the victims the…
creator: Behzad Varamini
date: 2007-07-10
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Jonny Lieberman <jdl46@cornell.edu>, <lieberman.jonny@gmail.com>
language: eng

ND upset by NIU shooting
description: Students ask question, "Could it happen here?" John Tierney Issue date: 2/15/08 Section: News Notre Dame students expressed sadness and shock Thursday night at yesterday's shooting at Northern Illinois. The tragedy, in which at least six people, including the gunman, were killed and 17 were injured, occurred in a lecture hall less than three hours away from Notre Dame's campus. Although this generation of Notre Dame students has grown up with school shootings ranging from Columbine in 1999 to Virginia Tech last year, students haven't become immune to the tragedy of school massacres. "It was very tragic and scary. You have to wonder what's going on with those kids. It makes you wonder if something like that could happen at Notre Dame," sophomore Tim Nelson said. Many students had not heard of the shooting by Thursday evening, including a group of seniors who stood speechless after being informed of the news. Student body president Liz Brown noted that school shootings are becoming more common. "Unfortunately, this is kind of becoming an occurrence on college campuses across the nation. Hopefully, this trend will stop," she said. Brown also expressed a sense of grief at the NIU tragedy. "This is a hard thing to react to," she said. "This sort of thing has become all too common at schools in the United States." Senior Meghan Jebb, who was studying in Dublin at the time of the Virginia Tech tragedy, questioned the universality of school shootings. "I don't know if this kind of thing happens in other countries. After the Va. Tech shootings, the kids in Ireland were like, 'why do they have guns?'" she asked. Colleen Fleshman, who is from Illinois, said that her first reaction after hearing the news was to call her friends who attend NIU to make sure of their safety. She said she was relieved to find that all her friends were alright. Although the shooter's motivations are not yet known, some students have wondered about the timing of his attack. "He probably picked Valent…
creator: John Tierney
date: 2008-02-25
contributor: Kacey Beddoes
rights: Christopher Hine <chine@nd.edu>
language: eng

Never Again?
description: Lessons learned on the 8th anniversary of Columbine. -- Diane Edbril and Daniel Loeb Yet another American gun massacre, and though the scale is more horrific, it is not surprising. The Virginia Tech massacre is not unlike the Amish schoolhouse shooting in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, late last year. Both of these, while unbearably sad, are hardly unexpected in this country. Our weak gun laws make it a certainty that the United States will continue to suffer recurrences of such preventable tragedies. There is a crying need for Americans to understand - It's about the guns! Phil Goldsmith, President of CeaseFire PA, said "Since the Columbine shooting tragedy it has become even easier to obtain guns, as well as high capacity ammunition magazines. Many states, including Pennsylvania, have passed pre-emption laws that have undermined the ability of local governments to enact stricter gun laws. (Pennsylvania has preempted local regulation of firearms for over a decade.) Concealed carry laws have multiplied. In addition, for the last six years, the US Department of Justice has required the destruction of gun purchase background check records after just 24 hours, a measure that has prevented a comprehensive review of those who may have acquired guns despite falling into a prohibited category." Currently: Most of our states do not require gun owners to be licensed and for guns to be registered. Most of our states have not closed the gun show loophole, so thousands of guns are purchased without background checks. Most states impose no limits on the number of firearms one individual can acquire, making it easy for illegal gun traffickers to supply the criminal element. Many of our states do not update criminal history databases in a timely manner, making it easy for criminals to obtain firearms. Imagine how much worse this tragedy could have been if Cho Seung-hui had been in possession of a military assault weapon as is his "right" now that Congress has allowed the Assault Weap…
creator: Diane Edbril and Daniel Loeb / The Philadelphia Jewish Voice
date: 2007-07-01
contributor: Adriana Seagle
rights: Daniel Loeb (daniel.loeb@verizon.net)
language: eng

Never Forget
creator: Michelle Parra
date: 2007-05-02
contributor: Michelle Parra
language: eng

neVer forgeT
description: This was one of the stones painted on 4/16/08 as part of the "Remembering Through Art Creation" activities.
creator: Kacey Beddoes
date: 2008-05-10
contributor: Kacey Beddoes
rights: Kacey Beddoes (kbeddoes@vt.edu)
language: eng

Never Forget Stones
description: Memorial stones dry in the sun on the afternoon of April 16, 2008, A Day of Remembrance. The stones were painted at a "Remembering Through Art Creation" event in Squires Student Center. Photo by Brent Jesiek. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0
creator: Brent Jesiek
date: 2008-05-30
contributor: Kacey Beddoes
rights: Brent Jesiek (bjesiek@vt.edu)
language: eng

News Coverage of the VA tech Shooting
description: Sunday, April 22, 2007 Topics like these are always hard to approach. For some, the event holds particular weight, either because of their relationship with the victims, with the assailant, with the location where it takes place, or because of the events relationship with another similar incident. The coverage of these events is usually the same. To provide the viewer with context- there is footage of the location from every possible angle, there are reporter stand-ups near the location providing a feeling of being well informed by the people "on the scene", there is video from security cams or other sources that allow an inside view of the event or of the lead up to it, and there is commentary, lots of commentary. In these ways, as is the case with much of news today, the coverage of such events can be compared to the coverage of a sporting event: Heavy on filler, and light on actual content. As of today, it's been almost a week since the incident, and coverage of the shooting takes up a giant share of the programming schedules of networks. With less that four or five (if that) big stories running at the same time, it is in the forefront of the news audiences mind. Like most tragedies, answers are what are sought after most, that and blame. And this is what takes up most of the coverage. There are investigations into the profile of the assailant, interviews by "experts" in the field, with witnesses, with family, with victims of other similar tragedies, with law enforcement, with neighbors, ad nauseam. We watch all of this and assume that somehow there can be meaning found once all the pieces are known. That if enough time is spent on it, answers will be found, that proper blame will be placed, justice will be served. This is a false hope. Tragedies like these happen all the time. Not all of them are covered. Not all of them are given the weight that The Virginia Tech Shooting has been given. This is not to belittle the severity of the situation, nor is it to underm…
creator: Nicholas Whitaker
date: 2007-05-23
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License
language: eng

News ghouls hit all the wrong notes
description: By Valerie Syverson, Co-Editor Thursday, April 19, 2007 As anyone used to following national news knows, there's nothing quite so tailor-made for TV news as a school massacre like last Monday's. All other news is immediately superseded for footage of the scene of the tragedy, speeches from every dignitary that can show up, and, when there's no new footage, endless rounds of analysis from every pundit who isn't already booked somewhere else. Naturally, opportunities abound for sensationalistic coverage, and to use words like "tragic", "senseless", "horrific" -- all of which, though of course applicable, have been diluted through decades of overuse and sadly no longer register as earnest sentiment. And, of course, there's the framing and the political football, and then the criticism of opponents for using a mass homicide as a football. Sound familiar? It should -- to anyone else who wasn't living under a rock during the 2001 Littleton shootings. So the editors of the Tech will, for this writing, refrain from adding one more to the long roster of responses expressing the obviously appropriate sentiments -- sympathy, concern, and grief. If you don't know the sort of thing I mean, you can read Dr. Chameau's article three columns to the right; his statement alone renders it superfluous to say anything of the sort in this space. Instead, the concern that motivates me is over the way the news media has covered the event and its repercussions. Although the majority of responses have, of course, been those of decent human beings, there is a certain subset of the responses that are rather horrifying. The first that comes to mind is the slew of columnists who have ghoulishly seized upon the opportunity to lambaste their favourite targets, be that violent video games for giving people ideas, atheists for not praying at memorial ceremonies, or foreign nationals for (apparently) existing at all. But, of course, these random hearse-chasing political creeps are just columnists, not…
creator: Valerie Syverson
date: 2007-06-14
contributor: Sara Hood
rights: Permissions: Marissa Cevallos <tech@caltech.edu> editor-in-chief, The California Daily
language: eng

News Worthiness
description: Thursday, April 19, 2007 Since releasing the excerpts from the package sent by Virginia Tech killer Cho Seung-Hui, NBC News has received more than just a little criticism. Indeed, this story is so big that every little nuance... anything remotely connected to the story is being put under a microscope and reported on ad nauseam. Ironically enough, the decision to air the material delivered to NBC News has become itself a news story. If not for the "gift" left by Cho, the media would be filling all of that airtime and every available inch with anything and everything it could discover about this "seriously disturbed individual." Cho saved the media a huge amount of legwork and opened insights about what drove him. Did he get what he wanted? Some are saying that by airing this "manifesto," Cho has ultimately won. But think about how ridiculous that sounds. Cho is dead - and he's not getting any better. Last I checked, to get any enjoyment or satisfaction from an act, one must be alive to experience it. Furthermore, even if Cho could somehow relish his media spotlight from the grave, he would soon realize that no one agrees that he was any kind of victim. He would be crestfallen in the discovery that he is being regarded - at best - as "a seriously disturbed young man." Mostly he's being viewed as some kind of homicidal whacko. For those with a religious leaning, I'm guessing that Cho's last act earned him a one-way ticket straight to Hell. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Yet he is somehow enjoying the last laugh? I don't think so. Does this coverage intensify the pain of the community, the survivors and the victims' families? Undoubtedly, but surely they would understand that news of this magnitude must be reported. Even without Cho's help, there would be extensive coverage of Cho - a disproportionate amount. But even without considering the civic responsibility of the news business, let us remember that it is a business. If no one tuned into this stuff, no one wo…
creator: Michael Althouse
date: 2007-06-02
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5
language: eng

Nicole Regina White
description: Items left at the memorial plaque of Nicole White on the drillfield. Photo taken on 5-1-07. Photo by Teri H. Hoover.
creator: Teri H. Hoover
date: 2008-04-21
contributor: Kacey Beddoes
rights: Teri H. Hoover <crystalirisphotos@gmail.com>
language: eng

Nikki Giovanni's Convocation Address
description: Nikki Giovanni's Convocation Address Delivered April 17, 2007 We are Virginia Tech. We are sad today, and we will be sad for quite a while. We are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning. We are Virginia Tech. We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly, we are brave enough to bend to cry, and we are sad enough to know that we must laugh again. We are Virginia Tech. We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did nothing to deserve it, but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS, neither do the invisible children walking the night away to avoid being captured by the rogue army, neither does the baby elephant watching his community being devastated for ivory, neither does the Mexican child looking for fresh water, neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy. We are Virginia Tech. The Hokie Nation embraces our own and reaches out with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong, and brave, and innocent, and unafraid. We are better than we think and not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imaginations and the possibilities. We will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears and through all our sadness. We are the Hokies. We will prevail. We will prevail. We will prevail. We are Virginia Tech.
creator: Nikki Giovanni
date: 2007-04-25
contributor: Brent Jesiek
language: eng

NIU auction sign
description: This sign advertising a silent auction for Northern Illinois University hung on the front of Squires Student Building on April 8, 2008. Sign says: "Silent Auction for NIU Wed, 4/9 8:30-6PM Squires 2nd Floor"
creator: Kacey Beddoes
date: 2008-04-08
contributor: Kacey Beddoes
rights: Kacey Beddoes (kbeddoes@vt.edu)
language: eng

NIU Boards on Alumni Mall
description: Message boards on alumni mall prior to a Virginia Tech candlelight vigil for NIU. Photo taken Monday, February 18, 2008. Lane Hall is visible in the far background. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0.
creator: Brent Jesiek
date: 2008-02-18
contributor: Brent Jesiek
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0
language: eng

NIU has several examples to follow for Cole’s future
description: Photo: Photo by ALAN LEON | RRSTAR.COM Six huskies and flowers are set up as a memorial in front of Cole Hall on Feb. 22, 2008, on the campus of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. Story: Geri Nikolai, Isaac Guerrero and Sadie Gurman GateHouse News Service Mon Feb 25, 2008, 02:36 PM EST As officials at Northern Illinois University prepare for the return of 25,000 students this week, they have announced only one decision about the scene of the shootings. The building where a gunman killed five students and then himself on Feb. 14, Cole Hall, will remain closed this semester. Space has been found in other campus buildings to move all classes from the two large lecture halls in Cole. What happens afterward is the subject of speculation. Some students say they could never go back into the building and could not concentrate on academics if they did. Some suggest Cole be turned into a memorial. Others say that despite the tragedy, NIU cannot afford to raze a classroom building in an era of declining state support. Officials say they haven't discussed the future of Cole. Cherilyn Murer, who chairs the NIU board of trustees, said she doesn't know what will be done after this semester. Murer said the options include resuming classes, transforming it for some other use or closing it permanently. But it's too early to say, Murer said. "It's only been a week," she said. "Right now, the emotions are so raw that it would be premature to make a decision about what we'll do with that building." Another trustee, Barbara Giorgi Vella of Rockford, expects there won't be serious discussion of what to do with Cole until summer. At that point, she said, financial constraints have to be taken into consideration, along with the feelings of students and staff. Busy building Cole Hall, where nearly every undergraduate has at least one class, is one of the largest classroom buildings on campus, with two auditoriums seating what students estimate to be 250 people each. The idea of closing …
creator: Geri Nikolai, Isaac Guerrero and Sadie Gurman
date: 2008-02-26
contributor: Kacey Beddoes
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported
language: eng

NIU response helped by Virginia Tech lessons
description: Doug Finke GateHouse News Service Fri Feb 15, 2008, 09:31 PM EST SPRINGFIELD, IL - Northern Illinois University's response to Thursday's shooting rampage may have been helped by what state officials learned from last year's massacre at Virginia Tech University. A Campus Safety Task Force was created to see what could be learned from the Virginia Tech incident and how those lessons could be implemented here. Representatives from state colleges and universities, including NIU, attended task force meetings. One of the most important lessons discussed was getting information to students as quickly as possible. "The response at Northern Illinois, from our standpoint, was extraordinary," said Mike Chamness, chairman of the Illinois Terrorism Task Force. Students were notified within 20 minutes that a shooting occurred, to take cover and stay away from some parts of the campus, Chamness said. At Virginia Tech, it took more than two hours to issue an alert. Students at NIU also were relaying text messages to each other. One idea discussed by the task force was that colleges should use multiple means to convey an emergency message to students, including encouraging the use of text messaging. Rep. Rich Myers, R-Colchester, said Western Illinois University in his district just went through a drill to notify students in case of emergency. "They sent text messages to cell phones, voice mail, e-mail," Myers said. "As I understand it, it was a very successful test." What to do after an emergency is only part of the task force's responsibility. It is also examining prevention. A full report is scheduled to be delivered April 1. "A mental health survey is still being completed," Chamness said. "That purpose is to look at ways to identify potential issues and how to deal with those, how to get help to those people." That will probably require the assistance of students themselves. "Be alert. If you see something that looks suspicious, don't be shy or embarrassed about picking up the …
creator: Doug Finke
date: 2008-02-26
contributor: Kacey Beddoes
rights: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0
language: eng

NIU thank you
description: This is a thank you letter from NIU in response to a banner and photo that was sent from the VT Office of Research. The photo, in which employees wore black and red and are surrounded by employees wearing hokie colors, was blown up poster size and was sent along with the banner that reads "We're All Huskies Today" to the Division of Research and Graduate Studies at NIU. Photo by Vicky Ratcliffe.
creator: Vicky Ratcliffe
date: 2008-04-13
contributor: Kacey Beddoes
rights: Victoria Ratcliffe <vfrazier@vt.edu>
language: eng

NIU to Va. Tech: 'We understand what you're going through'
description: By Chris Green RRSTAR.COM Posted Apr 16, 2008 @ 11:00 PM Last update Apr 17, 2008 @ 07:38 AM DEKALB — Northern Illinois University senior Sonia Salazar said Virginia Tech students put their feelings of sorrow on hold to help the students at NIU heal. And on Wednesday, Salazar was joined by nearly a thousand other NIU students and staff who wanted to return the support for the students at Virginia Tech. NIU students and University President John Peters recognized the one-year anniversary of the shooting deaths at the Virginia Tech campus with a candlelight vigil in the Martin Luther King Commons, an outdoor venue in the center of the campus near the student center. One year ago Wednesday, a gunman took the lives of 32 Virginia Tech students and faculty before taking his own. It was the largest such campus massacre in the history of the country. Peters recalled the initial hours and days following the Feb. 14 slayings at NIU, when five students were shot and killed by Steven Kazmierczak, who also took his own life. He said the entire campus felt "isolated." "We simply couldn't imagine that anyone else could understand what we are going through." Then the phone calls and e-mails came in. "We understand what you are going through. You are not alone." Peters said a "collective hand of support" was extended from Blacksburg, Va., to DeKalb. "They shared openly and lovingly." The two universities are linked not only in their empathy for one another, but also by an unnerving coincidence. Green Bay gun dealer Eric Thompson told authorities his Web site, topglock.com, sold two empty 9 mm Glock magazines and a Glock holster to Kazmierczak on Feb. 4, just 10 days before the 27-year-old opened fire in a campus classroom. Another Web site run by Thompson's company, www.thegunstore.com, also sold a Walther .22-caliber handgun to Seung-Hui Cho, who shot down 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus before killing himself. Peters added, "One day, two Virginia Tech students came by my …
creator: Chris Green
date: 2008-04-19
contributor: Kacey Beddoes
language: eng