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Collegiate
Case
Study www.usatodaycollege.com

Terror in Illinois classroom Curbing Campus Violence

By Judy Keen
No public institution or workplace is immune to random violence; incidents
.....................................................................................3 occur at businesses, shopping malls, places of worship and on college or univer-
sity campuses. It se ems especially egregious that this type of violence should
occur at institutions of higher learning, however, as it often impacts those who
Va. Tech students move in, are experiencing their first real independence as young adults.
move on
By Donna Leinwand Since the Blacksburg tragedy, security efforts have increased and become more
sophisticated, yet, as free and open places of discourse, campuses will always
.................................................................................4-5
remain vulnerable.

Campus killers’ warnings This case study will explore efforts to identify those that may be troubled and
ignored prone to violence, as well as ways to increase student safety while maintaining
the essential open quality of higher education. Students will also consider the
By Thomas Frank impact of scho ol violence on th eir campus communities, p eer relationships,
.....................................................................................6 families and personal habits.

Campus security flaws in 15

slayings at colleges
By Thomas Frank
.................................................................................7-8
12 States debate guns
Campus alert systems take hold
By Andrea Stone
on campus
By Marisol Bello
.....................................................................................9 USA TODAY
Even before a gunman killed five peo-
Stunned campus vows to ple and injured several others in a lec-
bounce back ture hall at Northern Illinois University,
a small but growing movement had
By Andy Gardiner
been underway at universities and
.............................................................................10-11 state legislatures to allow students, fac-
ulty and staff to carry guns on campus.
Critical inquiry Twelve states are considering bills that
Discussion and future implications would allow people with concealed-
.............................................................................12-13
weapons permits to carry guns at pub-
lic universities. The efforts were
sparked by the Virginia Tech massacre
last April.
Case study expert:
Josephine M. Kim, Ph.D. Students for Concealed Carry on
...................................................................................14 Campus, an Internet-based organiza-
tion with 11,000 members in its
Facebook group, is calling attention to
the issue with a protest from April 21
to 25, a week after the one-year
anniversary of the shootings at Virginia
Tech on April 16
"The only way to stop a person with a
gun is another person with a gun," says
University of Cincinnati sophomore
Michael Flitcraft, 23. The mechanical
engineering major has a license to
carry guns but is prohibited by univer-
sity rules from bringing one onto the
campus.
So far, 1,600 students on 500 campuses
have signed up on Facebook to partici-
pate in the protest by wearing empty
holsters to class. W. Scott Lewis, the
group's spokesman, says about 530
students from 125 campuses joined a
similar protest in October.

© Copyright 2008 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co., Inc. All rights reserved.
AS SEEN IN USA TODAY’S NEWS SECTION FEBRUARY 15, 2008, 3A
"School is the only place I'm not allowed to carry my
weapon," says Washington State University senior Kristin
Guttormsen, 35, one of the group's student leaders. He car-
ries a .40-caliber Taurus Millenium Pro handgun.
"I felt defenseless, and it started to bug me, especially with
all the school shootings," he says. "We're not talking about
convincing people to get licenses, we're talking about peo-
ple who already have their licenses. And for the most part,
they are older students."
South Dakota is the latest state to join the debate. The state
House approved a bill last week that overturns the policy of
the state's six public universities prohibiting guns on cam-
pus. A state Senate committee voted down the bill on
Monday, but efforts continue to push the bill to the full
body for vote. Other bills are pending in Alabama, Arizona,
Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, South Carolina,
Tennessee, Virginia and Washington.
"This is the piece of legislation of the year" among state
lawmakers nationwide, says Kentucky Democratic Rep.
Kathy Stein, who opposes it.
In her state, there is a battle over a bill that would allow a
gun on campus if it is locked in a car. Stein says public uni-
versities should be allowed to set their own policies.
Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.
Kentucky's eight public universities bar guns on campus,
including parking lots.
The Kentucky bill's sponsor, Democratic Rep. Robert
Damron, says college campuses should be treated the same
as every other place in Kentucky, where gun owners can
keep firearms in their cars, regardless of whether they are
on public or private property.
Only Utah allows permit holders to carry guns on the cam-
puses of its nine public universities. Thirty-eight states and
the District of Columbia prohibit guns in schools; 16 of
those specifically prohibit guns in colleges and universities.
The push to allow guns on campus rankles Garrett Evans,
who was shot in both legs during the Virginia Tech ram-
page, and Omar Samaha, whose younger sister, Reema, was
killed.
"Having guns in the classroom only makes things worse,"
says Evans, 31. He says the Virginia Tech gunman, Seung Hui
Cho, walked into his German class and began shooting so
quickly that no one would have had time to shoot back.
Samaha says guns on campus are a risk in an environment
where young people drink and fight and are not always able
to control their emotions. "It's kind of a crazy notion to
think about," he says. "It takes us back to the Wild, Wild
West."
Page 2
AS SEEN IN USA TODAY’S NEWS SECTION FEBRUARY 15, 2008, 1A
Terror in Illinois classroom
6 killed, including gunman, in 2 minutes at university
By Judy Keen
USA TODAY
DEKALB, Ill. -- Students crawled, hid and ran in terror
from a man dressed in black who appeared from
behind a screen at a lecture hall Thursday at a universi-
ty west of Chicago and blasted students with gunfire
before killing himself in a melee that was over in less
than two minutes, school officials said.
Five died from gunshot wounds and 16 others were
injured in the Northern Illinois University (NIU) shoot-
ing, university Police Chief Donald Grady said.
Desiree Smith was sitting near the back of a lecture hall
in Cole Hall around 3 p.m. when the shooter walked
through a door at the side of the stage and started
shooting.
"I kept thinking, 'Oh God, he's going to shoot me. Oh
God, I'm dead,'" the senior journalism major said.
"People were crawling on each other, trampling each
other," she said. "As I got near the door, I got up and I
started running."
Grady said the gunman had a shotgun and two pistols
and was not a student at the school of 25,000 students.
University President John Peters said the gunman was a
former graduate student in sociology at NIU, but was
not currently enrolled at the campus about 65 miles
west of Chicago.
Peters said the four women and one man the gunman
killed were all students. Four others were in critical
condition late Thursday.
The shooting recalled the deaths of 32 people at
Virginia Tech last year at the hands of a student gun-
man, an act that prompted schools across the country
to re-examine campus security.
Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.
The shooting came after police investigated in
December writings on a dormitory wall that included
racial slurs and references to the Virginia Tech shoot-
ings. Police found no imminent threat at the time.
The first shots were fired just after 3 p.m. during a
geology class led by a graduate student. At 3:07 p.m.,
Peters said they put the entire campus on "lockdown,"
but did not elaborate on what that meant. Two minutes
later sophomore Melissa Elaguizy said a teacher arrived
at her classroom in DuSable Hall, near Cole Hall, to
warn of a possible shooting and order the doors of the
classroom locked.
Peters said the school put out a campuswide alert at
3:20 p.m. that included a message on the school's web-
site, e-mails, voice mails, public address systems and
calls to media outlets. The warning on the website was
posted at 3:20 p.m.
Elaguizy said she didn't receive a warning on her cell-
phone. The first e-mail she got warning of a possible
gunman came at 3:41 p.m.
On campus Thursday night, students were streaming
out of a dormitory heading for home.
Robin Johnson, 18, a freshman from Chicago, was in her
English class when classmates received text and phone
messages about the shooting. She said her teacher
locked the door, shoved a desk against the door and put
a trash can on top of the desk.
"We didn't know how many of them there were. We
didn't know if we were safe," she said.
Eric Johnson, 23, a senior from Addison, Ill., said he was
standing 20 feet from the entrance to Cole Hall when
"the doors flung open and a ton of people ran out. They
were yelling, 'He's got a gun!'" Johnson heard two shots
as he ran back to his dorm room.
Contributing: William M. Welch in Los Angeles; Alan Gomez in McLean, Va.
Page 3
AS SEEN IN USA TODAY’S NEWS SECTION AUGUST 17, 2007, 4A

Va. Tech students move in, move on

Shooting victims not forgotten as semester begins
By Donna Leinwand
USA TODAY

BLACKSBURG, Va. --When Whitley Johnson begged her

mother to let her return to Virginia Tech a few days early
for flag-team tryouts, Melanie Johnson gently broached
last semester's tragedy with her daughter.

Whitley, who had lived in West Ambler Johnston, the

dorm where the first shootings took place on April 16,
had a ready response.

"She told me, 'Mom, we don't live in a spirit of fear. I've

got to go back and finish what I started,'" Melanie
Johnson recounted as she unloaded her overstuffed SUV
outside Whitley's new dorm, Cochrane, this week.
Dozens of universities, including Tech, have instituted
emergency text messaging systems that can send thou-
"This year is about celebrating the lives we did lose and
sands of alerts to cellphones and e-mail accounts within
continuing their legacy by continuing ours," adds
seconds, says Catherine Bath, executive director of
Whitley Johnson, 19. "We've moved on, but not in a
Security on Campus, an organization in King of Prussia,
sense of disrespect."
Pa., that seeks to make campuses safer.
As the new semester begins -- first with a formal dedi-
"Everybody has this 'can't happen to us' mentality," Bath
cation Sunday of a memorial to the victims, then with
says. "It's a shame that it took a tragedy. Now universi-
the start of classes Monday -- students will see new
ties need to put emergency preparedness plans into
security measures and a phalanx of mental health coun-
place."
selors who will be available as needed. Administrators
hope to strike a balance, they say, between remember-
Binghamton University in Binghamton, N.Y., emphasized
ing the victims and beginning anew.
campus safety more this year during orientation, says
Before 5,200 freshman arrived for orientation this sum- Kenneth Holmes, assistant vice president for student life.
mer -- a significantly higher number than last year --
school officials removed most of the impromptu com- "Virginia Tech was certainly on people's minds (during
memorations that sprang up in the weeks after the orientation)," Holmes says. "Parents asked a lot of good
deaths of 32 victims and student gunman Seung Hui questions about whether we would be prepared for an
Cho. active shooter on campus. We are, and we have been."

"We didn't want to ignore what had happened, but we
didn't want it to define their college experience,"
Director of Orientation Rick Sparks says.
The impact of the massacre -- the nation's deadliest
school shooting ever -- extends far beyond Virginia Tech,
rippling through colleges and universities nationwide.
At University of Colorado, Boulder, administrators updat-
ed the policy on campus violence, says Brad Wiesley,
commander of the university's police department. One
change says that deans, professors and staff can refer a
person for counseling, something previously left to the
police, Wiesley adds.

Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved. Page 4

AS SEEN IN USA TODAY’S NEWS SECTION AUGUST 17, 2007, 4A
Although the university cannot compel a student to seek
counseling, administrators hope the policy will flag
potentially troubled students, he says.
At Virginia Tech, administrators announced several new
security policies and sent a letter to parents of new stu-
dents to reassure them about safety.
u Dorms, previously locked just at night, will be locked
24 hours a day, accessible only to student residents who
gain access with an electronic "Hokie Pass."
u Students can register for the new emergency notifica-
tion system.
u Older door locks will be replaced with exit bars that
cannot be chained shut, as Cho did during the shootings.
Students say they are grateful for the added security but
don't feel vulnerable.
"I'm not afraid for my safety. It's something that could
have happened anywhere," says Meron Assefa, 27, of
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, who will begin graduate studies
in economics. She says the security measures are more
comforting for family and friends who have never been
to Virginia Tech but watched the tragedy play out on TV.
"Everybody knows about it. They call it the 'shooting
school,'" Assefa says. "Even my 7-year-old cousin told me
he didn't think it was a good place to go."
In the town of Blacksburg, most store owners have
removed the memorial signs that once covered Main
Street's windows. Still remaining are signs displaying
poet and faculty member Nikki Giovanni's defiant avow-
Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.
al the day after the shooting: "We are the Hokies. We
will prevail."
"There came a point where it was time to move on, to
put some of the signs away," says Blacksburg Mayor Ron
Rordam, whose town will swell from 16,500 residents to
41,500 residents as students arrive this weekend.
"The town is affected more deeply than people realize. If
you live in Blacksburg, you're a Hokie," Rordam says. "In
everyday conversation, we still discuss it."
On Sunday, the community will confront the massacre
during a dedication at the Drillfield, the quadrangle and
heart of the university. President Charles Steger will rec-
ognize the victims and unveil an arc of 32 stones, each
weighing 300 pounds and engraved with the name of
one of the dead.
The memorial echoes an impromptu commemoration
created during an outpouring of grief after the shootings.
Students collected 32 limestone rocks, locally known as
Hokie Stones, and placed them in an arc. Within hours,
the stones were covered with Hokie ornaments, bou-
quets and teddy bears. The original stones will be pre-
sented to the victims' families, says Tom Tillar, vice presi-
dent of alumni affairs.
"I think it's a healing place," says Matt Gart, the campus
landscape architect who supervised the memorial's
design and construction. "I hope people will see it as a
place to celebrate the lives of those we lost."
Page 5
AS SEEN IN USA TODAY’S NEWS SECTION JUNE 13, 2007, 1A
Campus killers’ warnings ignored
Shooting victims not forgotten as semester begins
By Thomas Frank
USA TODAY
About once every year, a campus murder is committed
after administrators take insufficient action despite
warnings about threats, flawed security or dangerous
situations, a USA TODAY analysis of college homicides
since 1991 shows.
In at least 15 of the cases reviewed, the campus killer
showed signs of being a danger, often with either a crim-
inal or psychotic background, or by making violent
threats.
The massacre of 32 at Virginia Tech in April, like some of
the 15 cases, fits a pattern of killings committed by iso-
lated, vengeful students who turn homicidal with shock-
ing brutality. Students have been stabbed 97 times, shot
11 times, burned, strangled, suffocated and beaten with
force that one pathologist compared to falling off a TV
tower.
USA TODAY reviewed information on 110 campus mur-
ders since 1991 for which detailed information was
available from court testimony, depositions, psychologi-
cal records and news reports.
The campus murders examined also have exposed safety
flaws such as inadequate security forces and the ease
with which students and workers can hide criminal
backgrounds, the analysis shows. Just this week, rela-
tives of those killed at Virginia Tech demanded the
release of student gunman Seung Hui Cho's mental
health records.
About a third of campus killers analyzed over the 15-
year period had recently been rejected, many of them
men who had killed a former girlfriend and often them-
selves. Seven were failing or thwarted graduate students
who murdered faculty members.
Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.
"There's a lot at stake personally in college," and rejec-
tion can be daunting, says Russ Federman, head of the
University of Virginia's psychological services.
Homicides on campus remain a rarity. The nation's 4,200
campuses -- home to about 17.5 million students --
report a total of about 15 murders a year, according to
Education Department data.
College administrators say they usually cannot prevent
murders because they don't know whether a student
will turn violent. "It's rare that a college would have
some kind of advance notice," says Brett Sokolow, a
Pennsylvania lawyer who advises colleges on safety.
That may be the case because campuses often lack sys-
tems to spot violent students, says S. Daniel Carter, vice
president of Security on Campus, a safety-advocacy
group. "Many campus murders have been preventable,"
Carter says.
Colleges have paid millions to settle lawsuits alleging bad
security and have tacitly acknowledged security flaws
by tightening safety after a murder. Officials often face
criticism and occasional legal sanctions.
In March, Edward Waters College in Jacksonville paid
$2.75 million to the parents of a freshman who was shot
to death at his dorm in 2004. College security director
Timothy Rose said that with more security, student
Jonathan Glenn "would have had a chance."
University of North Carolina Wilmington administrator
James Dixon III left his job and pleaded guilty to forgery
after his son was convicted of raping and strangling a
student in her university dorm in 2004. Dixon had lied
on his son's admission application, omitting recent crimi-
nal charges. "It wasn't like (the killer) just out of the blue
lost his mind," says Thom Goolsby, a lawyer suing UNC
on behalf of victim Jessica Faulkner's parents. "He was a
ticking time bomb."
Page 6
AS SEEN IN USA TODAY’S NEWS SECTION JUNE 13, 2007, 3A
Campus security flaws found in
15 slayings at colleges
Analysis of killings shows problems that may contribute to other crimes
By Thomas Frank
USA TODAY
The University of Washington devised a bold plan six
years ago to protect students and faculty after a strug-
gling medical resident shot to death his mentor, then
killed himself.
A new safety team would be alerted to all threats. It
would move potential victims to a new dorm or office,
assign them police protection or take steps such as
changing their phone numbers.
In March, when university employee Rebecca Griego told
supervisors and campus police that her former
boyfriend had threatened her in two recent calls to her
office, no one told the safety team.
On April 2, former boyfriend Jonathan Rowan found
Griego in her campus office. Emptying his six-shot
revolver, Rowan killed Griego, 26, and himself. She was
alone at the time.
The murder is one of at least 15 in which colleges have
provided flawed security, ignored threats or danger signs
or paid insufficient attention to disturbed students, a
USA TODAY analysis of more than 100 college killings
since 1991 shows.
The massacre of 32 at Virginia Tech in April, like some of
the 15 cases, fits a pattern of killings committed by iso-
lated, vengeful students who turn homicidal with shock-
ing brutality.
The pattern revealed by campus killings points to broad-
er security flaws at colleges that can contribute to the
2,500 annual rapes and 3,000 annual aggravated assaults
at colleges, campus safety experts say.
Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.
"Murders can expose flaws in the system that go a lot
deeper," said S. Daniel Carter, vice president of Security
on Campus, a safety-advocacy group. Campus adminis-
trators often do a poor job telling students and one
another about threats, Carter said.
'People let their guard down'
At the University of Washington, Rebecca Griego's super-
visor "wasn't really aware of the policy" requiring him to
notify the safety team, university spokesman Norm
Arkans said. Police are trying to figure out why the team
wasn't alerted, even after Griego gave university police a
copy of a court protection order.
"We try to do the best we can," university police Chief
Vicky Stormo said, "and sometimes things just don't go
right." She added: "People let their guard down (on cam-
pus). People tend to look at the good and don't think
that when they see something, maybe there are evil
intentions."
That's happened numerous times, according to court
records.
u In January 2002, Peter Odighizuwa shot and killed an
administrator, a professor and a fellow student at
Appalachian School of Law a day after being asked to
withdraw for academic failure. Odighizuwa had threat-
ened students and staff for months, according to former
financial-aid officer Chris Clifton. Administrators "just
brushed it off," Clifton said.
uIn October 2002, Robert Flores, a failing University of
Arizona nursing student, fatally shot three of his instruc-
tors, including one who had recently sent administrators
a "heads up" e-mail warning that Flores "has significant
behavioral problems," according to public records. An
instructor who was not killed had reported Flores'
threats against the school to police, but police never
contacted Flores. A dean in charge of discipline never got
the report.
Page 7
AS SEEN IN USA TODAY’S NEWS SECTION JUNE 13, 2007, 3A
uIn March 2004, Shuvender Sem, who has a history of
mental illness, stabbed to death a fellow student at
Maharishi University of Management in Iowa just hours
after attacking another student in a classroom. Joel
Wysong, the university's dean of men, had taken Sem to
his apartment after the first attack "to keep an eye on
him," Wysong said in a police statement.
When Wysong left Sem alone in his kitchen, Sem took a
paring knife, went to the dining hall and stabbed Levi
Butler four times with no provocation.
Some campus officials, particularly professors, are ill-
equipped to handle troubled students, experts say.
"The people who might see those behaviors first have
the least background in how to deal with it," said
University of South Florida criminologist Max Bromley.
The number of potentially troubled students is growing
as colleges enroll more people with mental disorders,
said Russ Federman, head of University of Virginia psy-
chological services. Those students can function in aca-
demia using psychotropic drugs that are increasingly
effective.
Seriously disturbed students often "discontinue their
medication, and that's the point at which they unravel in
violent ways," Federman said.
Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.
Trouble predicting violence
Wendell Williamson, a University of North Carolina law
student, had been hearing voices for two years until a
university psychiatrist gave him anti-psychotic medicine.
Within six weeks, Williamson was "doing remarkably
better," psychiatrist Myron Liptzin wrote in a 1994
report.
Liptzin retired a month later without arranging for
Williamson to see another psychiatrist, according to a
court deposition. "It was his choice" whether to get
treatment, Liptzin said in the deposition.
Williamson stopped taking medication, returned to
hearing voices and "decided I'd have to get violent," he
later told a psychiatrist. In January 1995, Williamson
strode through downtown Chapel Hill near the UNC
campus and killed two people at random with a rifle.
Colleges say they cannot predict when a troubled stu-
dent will turn violent. In a one-month span in 2004, two
University of North Carolina Wilmington students were
murdered by other students who hid their criminal
backgrounds on admissions applications. A report by the
University of North Carolina found a pattern of appli-
cants with criminal backgrounds lying on applications
and suggested better scrutiny of applications.
Page 8
AS SEEN IN USA TODAY’S NEWS SECTION OCTOBER 3, 2007, 3A
Campus alert systems take hold
By Andrea Stone
USA TODAY
When a University of Memphis football player was found
fatally shot on campus, resident assistants banged on
doors warning students to stay in their dorm rooms.
When a man wearing a Fred Flintstone mask and toting a
.50-caliber rifle was arrested at St. John's University in
Queens, N.Y., students were alerted by text message 10
minutes later.
And when a man called the University of Wisconsin-
Madison and said he was on campus with a gun, admin-
istrators sent e-mails and put the word out on the
Facebook website.
In each of the cases in the past week, college administra-
tors say their quick actions stemmed from lessons
learned after April's shooting rampage at Virginia Tech,
where 32 people were killed by a suicidal gunman.
While the number of violent campus incidents remains
steady, there are more alerts since the Blacksburg
tragedy, says Robin Hattersley-Gray, executive editor of
Campus Safety Magazine.
"Before Virginia Tech, we never had a reason to be able
to deliver a message in any big hurry," says Dale Burke,
UW-Madison's assistant chief of university police. The
school has since cut delivery time for mass e-mail from
several hours to 30 minutes.
Virginia Tech administrators have been criticized for not
alerting students and locking down the campus in the
two hours between the time that gunman Seung Hui
Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.
Cho killed two students in a dorm and when he killed 30
others in a classroom building before killing himself.
Several reviews recommended better security and
emergency alert measures.
Other campuses have heeded the advice. After two stu-
dents were shot and wounded at Delaware State
University on Sept. 21, classes at the Dover campus were
canceled and notices went up on the school's website
and in buildings urging students to stay inside. Student
Loyer Braden, 18, was later arrested.
Colleges are taking a "multilayered approach," says Chris
Blake of the International Association of Campus Law
Enforcement Administrators. That means anything from
low-tech door knocking to plasma screens flashing
warnings.
No one was hurt last week at St. John's, which issued a
"stay in place" order that lasted more than three hours.
"We erred on the side of safety," university spokesman
Dominic Scianna says. Before the incident, he says, 2,100
people had registered for emergency text messages.
Now, there are 9,000.
When an armed robber hid out on campus last Friday
and was soon captured, UW-Madison officials e-mailed
two updates.
Says Bob Eoff of the University of Memphis: "Virginia
Tech changed everybody's thinking."
Page 9
AS SEEN IN USA TODAY’S SPORTS SECTION SEPTEMBER 20, 2006, 3C
Stunned campus vows to bounce back
Duquesne students, leaders offer support, hope in wake of shootings
By Andy Gardiner
USA TODAY
PITTSBURGH -- Students balancing cellphones and back-
packs filled the Academic Walk on Tuesday afternoon,
strolling down the brick-paved pedestrian promenade
that is one of Duquesne University's most popular gath-
ering spots on campus. But the co-eds had to step
around police crews sweeping for shell casings and tele-
vision camera crews shooting footage for that evening's
news.
The scene is an eerie reminder of the tragedy that struck
this 10,000-student Catholic university early Sunday
morning when five members of the men's basketball
team were shot. One of the players, Sam Ashaolu,
remained in critical condition Tuesday with bullet frag-
ments in his head at nearby Mercy Hospital.
What led to the shootings is still unclear, but several
players told the Associated Press the shooter was a non-
student unhappy that the woman he accompanied to the
dance at the Student Union had talked with a player. The
shooter and at least one other man followed the players,
opening fire as the players made the 100-yard trip down
the A-Walk to their dormitories.
As police charged two men with the shootings Tuesday,
the Duquesne university community attempted to move
forward.
"I would never have expected something like this to hap-
pen here in a million years," said Carmen Bruce, a
Pittsburgh native and member of the women's basket-
ball team. "The teams here are very close and if some-
thing happens to one of us, it happens to us all. We're
just trying to stay positive and rally around each other."
One of the most frequent questions athletics director
Greg Amodio has heard since Sunday is how the shoot-
ings will affect the team.
"In all honesty, we haven't really thought about it much
at this point," he said. "Right now we're on a day-to-day
basis, and our focus is on our student-athletes who are
still hospitalized and their families.
Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.
"We begin and end each day trying to figure out what
the immediate needs are. But we have to move away
from just being reactionary and start to look soon at
where we are going."
New hope for the Dukes
Where Duquesne hopes it is headed in men's basketball
is up. Once a proud program and still the school's signa-
ture sport, the Dukes went 3-24 last year and have only
one winning season the last 20 years.
"I think the thing we have to get past is the idea among
some people, some sportswriters, some of our alums,
that the program is star-crossed," said university
President Charles Dougherty. "We have to undo the nag-
ging perception that there is something wrong here that
can't be fixed."
Amodio was hired in 2004 to change that perception. He
brought in coach Ron Everhart last March to lead the
way. Everhart had turned around struggling programs at
McNeese State and Northeastern and completely
remade the Dukes roster.
Eight scholarship players from 2004-05 left the program,
five by transfer. In came 10 new faces, including transfers
Kojo Mensah and Shawn James who must sit out this
season; junior college players Ashaolu and Stuard
Baldonado, and five freshmen. Mensah, James and
Baldonado were among those injured Sunday, along with
Aaron Jackson, one of only two players returning from
last year.
"From Day One we knew our biggest challenge as a bas-
ketball team this year, as a basketball program, was going
to be the team-building process," Everhart said.
"Pretty much everything we did revolved around sacri-
fice, selflessness, the things that create togetherness and
a sense of team. And these guys were doing that every
step of the way."
The basketball team attended Duquesne's football game
against St. Francis on Saturday and were together at the
dance sponsored by the Black Student Union that night.
Page 10
AS SEEN IN USA TODAY’S SPORTS SECTION SEPTEMBER 20, 2006, 3C
Although Jackson was wounded in the hand, he helped
get Baldonado into his car and drive him to the hospital.
"When this senseless act of violence happened, our play-
ers put their lives in danger to help their teammates,"
Everhart said. "When guys are willing to do that you
have something special."
NCAA President Myles Brand told Dougherty his organi-
zation was ready to help on any front as the school dealt
with the tragedy. Duquesne has set up counseling for all
its student-athletes and Dougherty has met daily with
the basketball team. Amodio said that the players, while
disturbed about and concerned for their teammates,
have been steadfast.
"Kieron Achara (a returning junior forward) told us last
night he could see no reason why this wouldn't make us
even stronger as a team," Amodio said. "How they're
looking at this is how this will draw them closer together
and ultimately make them better in the future."
Practice begins in four weeks.
"At camps and clinics nobody really talks about how to
deal with something like this," Everhart said. "You're just
so concerned about the players who are injured and
you're so concerned about their well-being and their
families.
"But the unity on this team is so strong. They've really
stuck together beyond what I thought would be possi-
ble. This team is going to be OK."
Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.
'Historically, a safe place'
Duquesne has prided itself on the safety of its campus.
Even after the shootings students said they felt safe and
that this incident was not representative of their school
or community.
"When you send your kids to school you don't expect
them to be in the middle of a shootout and you would
never expect that to happen at Duquesne," said Norm
Nixon, the school's most celebrated basketball player
(1973-77) who went on to play in the NBA. "You have to
take steps to make sure it never happens again."
Dougherty said the university is setting up a committee
to review security: "A college campus is an open place
almost by definition, so what measures of enhanced
security are appropriate will require some reflection and
discussion."
"Everything is on the table at this point except that I
know that we can't just put a bubble over ourselves. We
don't want to make it discouraging or impossible for visi-
tors to come on campus. The dialogue now has to be do
we continue in that direction and do it with some
enhancement of our security."
Amodio said he has received calls from colleagues
around the country offering support and acknowledging
the shootings could happen anywhere.
"Historically this has been a very, very safe place, and
that's what we've tried to stress," he said. "This truly
was an isolated incident perpetrated by individuals who
were not even students here. This was not indicative of
who we are and the environment we have."
Page 11
Discussion Questions:
1. Brainstorm ways to handle the following situation: ‘Joe’ is a bit of an unknown; he doesn’t say much to other stu-
dents, rarely participates in class and is a very talented artist. His notepad caricatures of students and faculty
are often circulated and have earned him a certain degree of notoriety, in spite of his reticent nature. When
looking for a lost item, his roommate discovers a pad of drawing paper filled with violent images that include
buildings on campus and students or faculty. The roommate shares his findings with a group of friends that
include you. What guidelines should you follow when trying to determine if a student is an imminent threat to
him/herself or others? What dangers are there in taking action against someone who turns out to be merely dif-
ferent or ‘weird,’ with no proclivity toward violent action? Discuss with your peers what actions could, or should
be taken in this scenario.

2. Some estimate that only about 25 percent of campus crimes are reported to the authorities. What types of cam-
pus violence are most often un-reported? What individual, institutional, and socio-cultural factors are most
responsible for under-reporting incidents of campus violence? What strategies can be implemented to encour-
age reports of campus violence?

3. To what degree do you think current privacy laws and regulations make it too difficult to share vital information
with campus officials when there is a potential threat to students? What exceptions or changes to current law
might be justified in an effort to reduce campus violence?

4. Experts have cited sports culture and the use of drugs or alcohol as factors contributing to school violence. How
do these shape the culture on your own campus? What role do you think they might play in promoting violent
behavior?

5. How have the most recent incidents of campus violence, including Blacksburg, affected your relationships with
fellow students and peers, your family and any personal habits?

6. Some have expressed concern that our schools, as gun-free zones, are defenseless and especially vulnerable to
those who intend to do harm. States such as Arizona are debating changes to the law that would allow legally-
owned guns on campuses as a means of protection. Others worry that allowing people to be armed on campus
would create additional opportunities for violence. Do the recent shootings provide sufficient justification to
allow guns to be carried on campus? Why or why not?

Additional Resources:
v American College Health Association
www.acha.org/info_resources/guidelines.cfm

v Campus Violence White Paper (.pdf format)

www.acha.org/info_resources/06_Campus_Violence.pdf

v National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center

www.safeyouth.org/scripts/topics/college.asp

v Higher Education Center Resources

www.higheredcenter.org/pubs/violence.html

For more information, log on to www.usatodaycollege.com Page 12

Future Implications:

1. Discuss the role that the Internet plays in giving alienated youths opportunity, motivation and a sense of valida-
tion for violent behavior. Given the role that the Internet can also play in helping alert and protect students in an
emergency, would you say the Internet is ultimately more likely to increase or decrease safety on today’s campus-
es? Develop an “Online Campus Security Plan” that gives specific ways in which the Internet or other newer tech-
nologies could be used in an emergency on your campus.

2. Proposed state government initiatives include a study to see whether state background checks for gun registra-
tion should include mental health information, determine ways to identify mentally ill students and whether cam-
pus security officers should carry guns. Analyze these initiatives for their feasibility and potential effectiveness in
reducing violence on campus. Plan a panel discussion using the Voices toolkit (voices.usatoday.com) and invite
local and state government officials, college administration, faculty and students to discuss these and other initia-
tives to reduce the threat of campus violence.

3. Using the link in the additional resources section of this case study, learn about the different types of violence
illustrated in the American College Health Association Campus Violence White Paper. Which of these is most
prevalent on your campus? Using the crime statistics listed in this white paper as guidelines to help avoid crime,
create a public service message to raise awareness of potential opportunities for crime, as well as illustrate ways
to increase student safety. In the case of sexual assault, be sure your message doesn’t focus primarily on the indi-
vidual victim’s responsibility to avoid sexual assault without balancing this risk management information with pre-
vention education that stresses the perpetrator’s responsibility.

4. Picture a college campus with alcohol-free and smoke-free dormitories, zero-tolerance policies for offenders, an
atmosphere that encourages witnesses to report crimes, and a system that no longer makes it necessary for a vic-
tim to participate in a campus judicial proceeding. What impact would this culture change have on safety, the inci-
dence of crime, student health and academic progress? If positive results could be shown in all of these areas,
would students be more likely to enroll in an institution that imposed these regulations? Why or why not? Using
the Voices toolkit at voices.usatoday.com, debate ways to reduce violence by making changes to the campus envi-
ronment, in general, and on your campus, in particular. Which of your solutions may alienate students who are
accustomed to the freedom of an open campus? How might you convince students that any proposed restrictions
or loss of privacy and freedom were worth it?

Voices Extension:
The questions and activities below utilize USA TODAY's Voices initiative to help you and your fellow students learn
about, debate and inspire action on issues of importance in our country and world.

The Voices website (voices.usatoday.com) provides information and tools you can use to get discussions, forums or
debates going on any number of important topics.

1. Using the Share Your Story link on the Voices website at voices.usatoday.com, post the steps that you, other stu-
dents on your campus, and/or college officials have taken to a) provide a culture that facilitates treatment for stu-
dents suffering from stress or depression, b) create a system that allows both students and faculty to communicate
safety concerns to the appropriate authorities, knowing that they will be taken seriously and c) address the fear
students may feel in the wake of incidents of campus violence.

2. Explore the arguments for and against gun control on the Voices website at voices.usatoday.com. How do these
arguments inform the debate over the best ways to control college violence in the future?

For more information, log on to www.usatodaycollege.com Page 13

About the Expert: Josephine M. Kim, Ph.D.
Josephine M. Kim is a Lecturer on Education in the Risk and Prevention program at Harvard
Graduate School of Education. She earned a Ph.D. in counselor education and supervision from
the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia in May of 2005. She is a Licensed
Mental Health Counselor in the state of Massachusetts and a National Certified Counselor
whose clinical skills and experiences span many contexts including residential facilities, com-
munity agencies, and public and private schools. She has worked with multicultural popula-
tions through individual, group, and family counseling and has taught students of all ages in
many educational contexts, including private and public language schools and private and pub-
lic colleges and universities. She has provided professional consultation and expertise on mul-
ticultural, mental health, and educational issues to various internet, newspaper, magazine, and
television sources in Korea and in the U.S. She has been the keynote speaker at numerous par-
ent, teacher, and youth conferences in Asia and in the U.S, and in 2007 alone, she presented 23
educational symposiums in Korea and 35 in the U.S. As a bilingual and bicultural Korean-American counselor and
educator, Dr. Kim has worked to destigmatize the utilization of services by minority populations, educating on the
salience of mental health issues, career development education, and the access to equitable student services within
schools and communities by marginalized populations. She has been called upon during national crises, being
deployed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the federal government to work
with Katrina victims during the summer of 2006 and being recruited by the provost’s office of Virginia Tech in the
spring of 2007, following the campus massacre.

Questions from the Expert:

1. How important is emotional and psychological health in one’s overall health and school adjustment?

2. How do you feel about seeking services at your school’s counseling center to address your personal concerns dur-
ing distressful times?

3. What are your family’s perceptions regarding seeking professional counseling for personal concerns, and how do
their views affect your personal values related to service utilization?

4. Was there a particular time when you could have benefitted from seeking help? Did you seek counseling services
at that time? If so, what was that experience like? If not, what prevented you from seeking help?

5. If and when you seek counseling, what are the key elements that you would expect the practitioner to possess?

6. How should one’s racial and familial culture be addressed in counseling sessions?

7. How equitable are the services of your university’s counseling center in terms of servicing the racially and cultur-
ally different client?

8. If you were to provide recommendations to improve the current services of your campus’ counseling center, what
would you suggest?

To read additional works by Dr. Kim, visit:

www.usatodaycollege.com

For more information, log on to www.usatodaycollege.com Page 14