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Campus Community Honors Virginia Tech Victims
Candlelight Vigil, Warren College Forum Among Tributes
Ioana Patringenaru | April 23, 2007
“Virginia Tech, you’re in our prayers.” “We have you in our hearts and minds.” “Today, we are all united as Hokies. My prayers for your continued Hope and Healing.”
UCSD students, staff members and faculty wrote messages, held a candlelight vigil and respected moments of silence last week as they tried to cope with the recent shooting at Virginia Tech that left 33 dead, including the gunman, and several wounded. Many UCSD students said they felt an instant connection with the victims.
“That could have been my school,” said Bertha Miranda, a fourth-year Spanish major. “I could have been in that classroom.”
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Students remembered victims of the Virginia Tech shooting at a candlelight vigil Thursday evening on Library Walk.
(Photo /Hydie Cheung) |
 Click here to see more pictures from the vigil. |
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Miranda was one of the students who braved the rain Friday and turned out for a forum organized by Warren College. The goal was to provide a safe space where people could express their feelings, said Tracie Davee, the college’s assistant dean of student affairs. She said several students asked her about her thoughts on the shooting. They also talked about gun control and potential copy-cat incidents.
Miranda said she and her classmates talked about how the shooting could have been avoided, but didn’t come up with answers. Friday, she mostly talked about hope. She hopes the wounded will survive and the dead will find a place in whatever heaven their religion provides, she said. “I came here just to show my respect to all the students who lost their life,” she said.
For Kendra McBean, a resident advisor at Warren, April 16, the day of the shooting, felt a lot like Sept. 11, 2001. She knew people in New York then. She knows some Virginia Tech students now. Her friends weren’t physically hurt, but they were distraught. One of them could barely talk when McBean finally reached her.
“My heart goes out to the families of the lost ones and all the Hokies. With love and support!” McBean wrote in orange and maroon on a white board provided at the forum.
Kenneth Wong, a freshman, didn’t know anyone at Virginia Tech, but said he felt an immediate connection with the victims anyway. “We’re just students trying to learn and pursue our careers,” he said. He talked about the shootings with his family and thought about the victims’ parents, too. “Their families must be so sad,” he said. Wong and others signed in memoriam cards, which will be mailed to Virginia Tech.
In addition to Friday’s forum, about 250 people turned out for a candle-light vigil Thursday on Library Walk, organized by the UCSD Center for Ethics and Spirituality and the Episcopal and Methodist Campus Ministries.
Some had friends at Virginia Tech; others just felt a connection with the students, said Mike Angell, a campus missioner for the Episcopal Church. The goal was to provide a place where the community could come together, he said. This wasn’t Angell’s first experience with school shootings. He went to the high school that was next to Columbine High, when the shootings happened there. Vigils meant a lot to him at the time. For him, Thursday night’s event was an attempt to give others the same safe haven, he said.
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