The United States bore witness to the worst crime against humanity on a college campus in its history last Monday. 32 people, both students and professors, were shot and killed at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, in a horrific drama that began unfolding at 7:15 A.M. on Monday morning, and that has continued through the rest of the week as the victims are identified and more is learned about the killer. As of press time, there are (470) Facebook groups with, collectively, more than (insert number) members honoring those who survived and remembering those who were killed. These groups come from all over the nation and Canada, proving that the pain from this heartbreaking event has spread to everyone. This is not a tragedy that will soon escape from our minds or from the minds of anyone else on a college campus.As this tragedy weighs fresh on our minds, there is concern raised on this campus as to what would happen if anything like that should ever happen here. Is there protocol in place? What does it consist of? How would the word get out to the student body about what to do?President Steen sent out an e-mail on Tuesday stating to the campus, “Although we at PSU hope never to have to implement it, please know that we have an emergency and crisis plan in place.” While it does offer some calming effect that the students now know that there is, for certain, a plan in place, the unnerving feelings still remain because of the incredible amount of secrecy that surrounds the details around what “the plan” is. What is comes down to is this – the students are pleading with the administration and with the University Police Department to just give us an inkling of what to do in the case of such a horrible event ever happening here. We do not want or need to know every single step in place or all the details of an evacuation plan, but a simple, “Stay put” or “Run away” would suffice for what we want. Mass chaos will make the job of ensuring safety next to impossible, and all we want to be able to help you help us. Please, we’re begging you – give us some clue about what you want us to do so that we can make your job of keeping us safe as easy as possible.
– The Clock Staff