Amid the barrage of news reports and speculation surrounding the deaths of the 32 individuals at Virginia Tech, members of the University community came together on Wednesday for a candlelight vigil in memory of the victims of the tragedy. Several dozen students and faculty and staff gathered on the steps of Olin Library at 7 p.m., where speakers and audience members were invited to share their thoughts.
Tracy Kimball ’08, who organized the vigil, introduced the night’s speakers and made the opening remarks.
“Some of us may be feeling a bit insecure, that the safety of college life is now somehow jeopardized,” Kimball said. “But the reality is, there never were any guarantees. We are no more or less safe today than we were last week. The difference is that today we are more aware of out vulnerabilities. The antidote is not to separate or lock ourselves away–it is to come together, as we have tonight, as an extending family.”
Rabbi David Leipziger, the University’s Jewish Chaplain, echoed Kimball’s message of inclusiveness, urging those present to come together as a community. Leipziger also read out the names of the individuals who died, noting the diverse range of backgrounds among the victims and the wide-ranging effects of this single incident.
“Some of the dead included: a young Peruvian who came to the U.S. to study French; a freshman from Dumont, New Jersey; a Romanian-born Holocaust survivor and professor; a civil engineering doctoral student from Indonesia,” Leipziger said.
Leipziger also asked the audience not to unfairly blame Koreans or Korean American communities simply due to the gunman’s background.
“Let us be extra sensitive to the 100,000 Korean students in the United States and the one million Korean Americans,” he said. “They have nothing to do with the tragedy at Virginia Tech.”
“Over the years I have tried to cultivate a practice of learning as much as I can about horrors I can’t fix, so that I can’t get off the hook by saying I didn’t know about them,” said President Doug Bennet. “So last night [Midge and I] watched as much coverage of the massacre as we could. I saw a good school, like ours, larger and probably with an even broader range of students. I saw a school administration doing the best it knew how to do in the face of an unprecedented attack, and learning lessons that will help us make Wesleyan safer.”
Bennet had previously addressed the University in an all-campus email, in which he reminded students of the 24-hour support services through the Office of Behavioral and the general campus emergency preparedness plan. According to the email, in the event of a similar catastrophe as that at Virginia Tech, information would be provided by Internet, voicemail, e-mail, cell phone, and in person via Residential Life services.
The vigil closed with a performance by The Spirits a cappella group. Participants were then invited to write messages on the cards, posters, and banners provided, which would then be sent to the Virginia Tech student union.