STAFF News

05/03/2007

A Perspective On The Lessons of Blacksburg

 “Before we identify and learn the lessons of Blacksburg, we must begin with the obvious: More than four dozen innocent people were gunned down by a murderer who is completely responsible for what happened. No one died for lack of text messages or an alarm system.  They died of gunshot wounds.  While we painfully learn our lessons, we must not treat each other as if we are responsible for the deaths that occurred.   

We must come together and be respectful and kind.  This is not a time for us to torture ourselves or to seek comfort by finding someone to blame.  Maybe as a result of the tragedy we will figure out how to more effectively use e-mail and text messages as emergency tools for warning large populations.  We may come up with a plan that successfully clears a large area, with a population density of a midsize city, in less than two hours. 

 Maybe universities will find a way to install surveillance cameras and convince students and faculty members that they are being monitored for their own safety and not for gathering domestic intelligence.  All of those steps might be helpful in avoiding and reducing the carnage of any future incidents.  But as long as we value living in a free society, we will be vulnerable to those who do harm – because they want to and know how to do it.

Time will not erase the horror witnessed on the Blacksburg campus.  But in time the university will return to its work of granting degrees to thousands of individuals who lead us to better lives.  That, after all, is what magnificent institutions like UT-Austin and Virginia Tech do.

 What is Charles Whitman or Cho Seung-Hui compared with that?”

Gary Lavergne is director of admissions research at the University of Texas at Austin and author of A Sniper in the Tower: The Charles Whitman Murders, published by the University of North Texas Press (1997)

Excerpt from the The Chronicle of Higher Education, Commentary, April 27, 2007.