Previous |
Next |
April 17, 2007, 06:24 PM ET
Virginia Tech Student's Facebook Group Offers a Way to Grieve
Kevin Robinson, a student at Virginia Tech University, spent late morning and early afternoon Monday under lockdown in a campus lecture hall. When he finally got back to his dorm room, one of his first moves was to log on to Facebook.
With a few keystrokes, Mr. Robinson formed “VT Unite,” a Facebook group that offered students a place to grieve — and to show solidarity — in the wake of the day’s deadly massacre. “After this horrible event,” he wrote on the group’s main page, “it is our responsibility as students and community to unite and support all those affected.”
“When I first thought of starting a group, I was kind of surprised that no one had done it yet,” he says.
Within a day, more than 5,400 students and alumni joined “VT Unite.” Students contributing to the group’s discussion board offered prayers for the families of the deceased and for all of “Hokie nation.” The students helped spread word of a candlelight vigil held last night in Blacksburg, and they posted commemorative images that have already become iconic to many of Virginia Tech’s Facebook users.
One such image — showing Virginia Tech’s logo in front of a black ribbon — has become especially popular. Hundreds of students have changed their profile pictures, which are typically flattering candid photographs, to that icon.
Many Facebook users with no affiliation to Virginia Tech have done so as well. The social network’s “global” users — people, like high-school students and adults without .edu e-mail addresses, who are not connected to college networks — cannot view the “VT Unite” group. But groups that are open to those users have already popped up, and one of the most widely-visited is “VT Unite Global,” which was also created by Mr. Robinson.
Mr. Robinson says he hopes both of his Facebook groups will continue to expand — as signs of support to Virginia Tech students, and, possibly, as tools to raise money for the families of the victims.
“Once we’ve had a little more time to grieve,” he says, “I’d like to use this as a forum to make suggestions about how we could offer some tangible support.” —Brock Read
Categories: Student-Life
Add Your Comment
Commenting is closed.