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"Some college administrators seem so distracted with fund raising, academic infighting, and community initiatives that they set up their emergency communications departments very poorly. Training is poor to nonexistent, secretaries are pressed into service with tremendous responsibilities for running 'notification systems' 24/7 and on weekends because no one else knows how to do it and the administration won’t pay for additional staff. Procedures are seat-of-the-pants and dependent on HIPPO (highest paid person’s opinion), except when something like Virginia Tech happens and there is some sort of scramble to do something different." --Donna
Most Colleges Avoid Risk Management, Report Says
Jill Biden Shines a Global Spotlight on American Community Colleges
Speaking at a Unesco conference in Paris, the vice president’s wife stressed the importance of two-year institutions to the nation’s educational goals.
Connecticut Public Colleges Lose 200 Professors to Early Retirement
Administrators are scrambling to plug holes in their course schedules for fall, with most expecting to do so by hiring more adjuncts or increasing class sizes.
U. of Georgia Paid 2 Fraternities $2.4-Million to Relocate, Contracts Show
The two were among five with houses on property where the university plans to build new academic facilities.
New Allegations in Admissions Controversy at U. of Illinois Suggest Ex-Provost Played a Role
Linda P.B. Katehi, the incoming chancellor of the University of California at Davis, has insisted she knew nothing of the admission of politically connected applicants at Illinois.
Sonoma State U. Foundation May Lose $350,000 on Loan to Former Board Member
The foundation will be forced to issue fewer scholarships in the 2010-11 academic year because of a diminished endowment, a university official said.
College Suspends Student for Working in Gay Pornography | 58
President Obama's Visit to Notre Dame Carries Barely a Hint of Controversy That Preceded It | 58
Drug Sting Nabs 21 Students at U. of Illinois | 57
Faculty Members and Union Protest Staff Layoffs at Temple U. as 'Cruel' | 57
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February 14, 2008
Gunman Shoots 5 to Death at Northern Illinois U. Before Killing Himself
Updated: 10:15 p.m., Eastern time
A former student shot two dozen people in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University this afternoon, killing five before shooting himself fatally, according to the Chicago Tribune.
None of the victims have yet been identified, but the university said four, including the shooter, had died at the scene and two others had died at the hospital. One of the wounded was the graduate instructor who was teaching the class.
It is not known what the shooter’s motive may have been. The university’s president, John G. Peters, said the gunman was “a former graduate student in sociology” at Northern Illinois who was “not currently enrolled.”
On its Web site, Kishwaukee Community Hospital, in Dekalb, Ill., reported that it had treated 18 victims. The gunman died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the police said.
The Northern Star, the campus’s student newspaper, quoted a witness as describing the gunman as “a skinny white guy with a stocking cap” who was dressed in black. The Tribune reported he was armed with a shotgun, two handguns, and lots of ammunition.
Police officers responded to a call of shots fired on the campus around 3 p.m., according to the Police Department of Dekalb, Ill. The shooting took place in Cole Hall, where a geology class was in progress. Classes have been canceled at least through Friday.
The incident occurred less than a week after a woman shot two classmates to death and then killed herself on the Baton Rouge campus of Louisiana Technical College. The Northern Illinois shootings also happened nearly 10 months to the day after 33 people were shot dead at Virginia Tech, in the biggest mass shooting in modern American history.
Posted on Thursday February 14, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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Next: Death Toll in Northern Illinois U. Shooting Rises to 7
Here we go again. Far too easy for anyone to buy a gun in
this country.
— Linda Feb 14, 10:36 PM #
It is high time for strong gun control laws. Visit http://bradycampaign.org/ to learn more about the issues and to see how you can make a difference. Wake up America!
— Craig Feb 15, 01:44 AM #
Wrong answer! It’s time for a lot of things, but not gun control. In fact, the opposite is true. . . one of the things it’s time for is the end of bragging foolishly that a campus is a “gun-free zone.” That simply encourages crazies who know there is no one to stop them. Gun-free zone = free fire zone.
It’s also time to stop the foolish insistance on privacy for those whom trained authorities believe may pose a threat to themselves or others. It’s a rare situation when people didn’t suspect that one of these gunmen might do “something.” We don’t know the facts here, but information on “bad” or anti-social behavior should be shared immediately.
— Bill Feb 15, 07:21 AM #
i think that people are killing innocent people for no reasons but we need obamah in the white house maybe he will change some laws!!!!!!!
— krystal Feb 15, 08:43 AM #
We don’t need laws changed, we need social responsibility and accountability changed and more Christianity in our lives. People who don’t believe there is ANY kind of after life where they will receive eternal punishment for their actions here on earth will do things like this.
— Bryce Feb 15, 08:56 AM #
Social responsibility and accountability we definitely need to change. We do NOT need to force Christianity on people. Just because your religion threatens eternal punishment for these types of actions doesn’t mean other religions do – just look at suicide bombers who believe their actions will land them in heaven. Most of the wars in human history have been fought for religion, so maybe it’s time for a little tolerance and keeping religion in people’s private lives where it should be.
Beyond that, you know nothing about this obviously disturbed gunman. He could have been a devout Christian. Please stop using tragedies to inject religion into the public sphere where it doesn’t belong.
— Beth Feb 15, 09:03 AM #
Place the blame where you will, but at the end of the day, if he wouldn’t have had a gun, the shooting wouldn’t have happened.
— AnOpenMind Feb 15, 09:19 AM #
The news reports are all saying that the shooter was a happy man. I doubt this. I strongly suspect that university knows something more, and that is that he was unhappy, very seriously unhappy.
It is reported that at the time he was a graduate student there, but another report says he was no longer enrolled. Is there anything in it that can be important in connection with the shooting?
Years ago, the shootings were the permanent feature of US Post Office, which was a bureaucratised quasi-socialist organisation with notoriously unresponsive management. Universities must study the conditions at the Post Office and how the habits apparently changed there.
— Michael Pyshnov Feb 15, 11:49 AM #
All right, to all the people in this thread who are and will be saying that strong gun laws are the wrong answer: Look at this nugget from a NYT article today (February 15, 2008): “But Mr. Grady said that those who knew the shooter said he had started acting erratic in recent weeks. “Apparently, he had been taking medication and he had stopped taking the medication in recent weeks,” Mr. Grady said.
“We had no indication at all that this would be the type of person to engage in this type of activity,” Mr. Grady said.
Mr. Kazmierczak bought two of the four guns used in the attack — a 12-gauge shotgun and a 9-millimeter Glock pistol — six days ago, and they were legally registered to him, authorities said. The two other pistols were being traced.” … BOUGHT TWO OF THE FOUR GUNS SIX DAYS AGO … THEY WERE LEGALLY REGISTERED TO HIM.
Compare this with the Virginia Tech massacre. Detect any pattern here? But no, people would have us believe that we should be dishing out even more guns! Hey, guns for everybody, ammunition too! Get rid of restrictions on campus, let’s see what happens then!
Go tell the families of the victims at NIU and Virginia Tech that stricter gun control would have made NO DIFFERENCE WHATSOEVER. Meet them all in person and tell them that what we really need is to get rid of “gun-free zones”. More guns into the hands of young people on our college campuses – that surely is the answer!
— Craig Feb 15, 01:36 PM #
To the people who think stricter gun control will stop any of this, open your eyes. Drugs are illlegal or controled, yet any one can go on the street and buy all the drugs they want. Making guns harder for law abiding people will not stop the criminals, they will just purchase them illegally…do you think a nut case going on a murder spree is going to follow a gun law!! get real!!
— coty Mar 6, 03:30 PM #