2008 Woodie Awards
Safety doesn't always come in numbers
Muhlenberg Weekly Executive Board
Issue date: 4/19/07 Section: Op/Ed
- Page 1 of 1
The horrific tragedy at Virginia Tech seems all too familiar. Like Columbine in 1999 and the Amish school in 2006, the nightmare of school shootings continues to haunt our dreams and our academic environments. The College took immediate action and held a vigil for reflection and prayer on Tues., Apr. 17, in remembrance of those who were killed and wounded in this violent travesty. And like many of you, our televisions and computer screens blinked with the latest updates and breaking news on the Virginia Tech shootings.
That's right, we sit in our cozy, though slightly cramped rooms, eating our humdrum, though nourishing food, watching the lives of many fall to pieces and an reputable institution attempt to control the situation. We ponder the occurrences with sadness and unbelief, with those of us familiar with the admissions process, thinking how their application rate is surely going to drop. Suddenly, we look at the clock and realize that our every day routine is still going on, uninterrupted by chaos and death.
Students of the College complain about a lot of things: small room sizes, boring food choices, crowded dining halls, inadequate parking space. Many of us liken our College atmosphere to that of high school, full of gossip and school-kid drama, the most physical danger ever being the wounding of your reputation. We are not lessening nor dismissing the significance of the violence that has occurred on our campus, yet we need to accept that in the scheme of larger more destructive incidents like Virginia Tech, our campus is a walk in the park.
We hope that the shootings at Virginia Tech make students pause and appreciate the relative safety we experience day in and day out on this campus. Because of our smaller size, the campus can be closely monitored and we humor the idea that students won't get left behind or lost in the crowd like the loner, Virginia Tech shooter. We like to think the professors of this "caring college" would not only recognize symptoms of depression in their students from the close student/teacher interactions, but would follow up, making sure they were getting the help they needed. Next time you are walking down Academic Row, look around and breathe. You are awake; you are alive. Stop sweating the small stuff and appreciate where you are now and where your education will take you in the future.
That's right, we sit in our cozy, though slightly cramped rooms, eating our humdrum, though nourishing food, watching the lives of many fall to pieces and an reputable institution attempt to control the situation. We ponder the occurrences with sadness and unbelief, with those of us familiar with the admissions process, thinking how their application rate is surely going to drop. Suddenly, we look at the clock and realize that our every day routine is still going on, uninterrupted by chaos and death.
Students of the College complain about a lot of things: small room sizes, boring food choices, crowded dining halls, inadequate parking space. Many of us liken our College atmosphere to that of high school, full of gossip and school-kid drama, the most physical danger ever being the wounding of your reputation. We are not lessening nor dismissing the significance of the violence that has occurred on our campus, yet we need to accept that in the scheme of larger more destructive incidents like Virginia Tech, our campus is a walk in the park.
We hope that the shootings at Virginia Tech make students pause and appreciate the relative safety we experience day in and day out on this campus. Because of our smaller size, the campus can be closely monitored and we humor the idea that students won't get left behind or lost in the crowd like the loner, Virginia Tech shooter. We like to think the professors of this "caring college" would not only recognize symptoms of depression in their students from the close student/teacher interactions, but would follow up, making sure they were getting the help they needed. Next time you are walking down Academic Row, look around and breathe. You are awake; you are alive. Stop sweating the small stuff and appreciate where you are now and where your education will take you in the future.