Criticism of VA Tech Prez Not Entirely Warranted?
By Allison Kaftan on Sat 1 Sep 2007 |
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VA Tech president Charles Steger has recently come under fire from parents and other critics who say he should have done more and been more accountable for the shootings on April 16. This criticism stems from the report released by the VA Governor Kaine-appointed review panel, which found among many other things, both good and bad, that “[s]enior university administrators, acting as the emergency Policy Group, failed to issue an all-campus notification about the WAJ killings until almost 2 hours had elapsed. University practice may have conflicted with written policies.
In response, Steger has refused to resign and even said that things could have been worse.
I am troubled by the idea that an officer of a university should be asked to resign because he could not prevent someone else from becoming a murderer or whatever else they expected him to pull out of his crystal ball. The whole thing smells too much of hurt and traumatized people seeking vengeance or closure of some sort.
But this sentiment is apparently popular among Virginians: The Bullwinkle blog gave him a knucklehead of the day award for refusing to say he’d have done anything differently if he could; laurelliberian seethes that VA taxpayers’ dollars go into a hefty salary for this man who waited two hours to tell the rest of the campus that fellow Hokies had been slain.
It took me awhile before I found a perspective in the blogosphere I agreed with: farewell2logic decries the scapegoating coming from grieving parents, calling it “dangerous and poorly thought out” in his/her post, “Revenge Costs Too Much:”
I feel bad for the families who lost children and spouses that day. I feel bad for the whole campus. They have to find a way to get past the trauma they all experienced and live their lives knowing they could have been one of the victims. BUT, is firing a university president who has also survived this and gained valuable, irreplaceable hands on experience dealing with a crisis a logical move? No workshop or drill can compare with the educational elements that came with living through that day while in a position of responsibility. Steger has gained that experience and knwoledge in the hardest way possible.
What bothers me is the language used by both Steger and the report: “might’ve,” “if,” “could’ve.” The desire for accountability and results and closure I empathize with. The appropriateness of Steger’s resignation for basically acting as an accomplice in the VA Tech murders? Not so much. I think he is just as correct as the report — things could’ve been better or worse. We don’t know.
Furthermore, the report notes a number of things that contributed to the tragedy — very few, if any, of which implicate Steger personally.
And therefore, although I don’t know if any direction is easily the right one in this situation, I don’t know if I agree his resignation is appropriate.
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Lately, many universities and higher-education institutes are installing emergency alert system. Obviously, it’s because of the recent tragedy incident.
Similar to 9/11, the Department of Homeland Security was formed. Bush was reading a book to children. Michael Moore in his film, “Fahrenheit 9/11”, complained that Bush’s reaction was far too slow. Should we ask Bush to resign? Nope.
A new question: is Gallaudet ready? I know RIT is… http://www.democratandchronicl...../1002/NEWS
The new alert system at RIT will include text messaging, instant messaging, e-mail and voice calls to cell phones and dorm phones.
My jaws dropped when I read “instant messaging.”
WAD: Yes, we should have asked Bush to resign for many many many reasons.
His “slow” reaction was actually inappropriate, because if you watch his actions carefully, he was told about the plane crashing into WTC by one of his aides.
Now, any sane, logical-thinking person would immediately say, “Excuse me, I am sorry, but I must go and take care of something very urgent.”
Then when everybody hears about the WTC and Pentagon, trust me, that class would have forgiven Bush right away.
But nooooooo, Bush STAYED where he was and acted like nothing was wrong, which to me is bizarre and inexplicable.
As for the VA Tech prez…I have no opinion on this. I think he did the best he could under the circumstances.
Comments not aimed towards the previous commenters, just to the community in general:
At first, I thought Dr. Steger should have had resigned. But after reading through all the publically released data, I now agree it was a most unfortunate situation where all could have had done better… BUT… based on the usual experience PRIOR to that fateful day, expecting a single shooting incident and for the shooter to immediately flee the area and possibly even the state was just simply the normal expectation.
Hindsight is always perfect; foresight is not. Imagine you were Dr. Steger on that fateful morning, about 5 minutes after he first got word. What would he have had been thinking? Probably that the shooter was rushing away from the scene to avoid capture. So it is logical he thought he had time to deal with and contain the crime scene, and mobilize the full force of various University support personnel. He didn’t yet have the information that a) the student had not yet left the area, and b) that the student had much more in mind. In his shoes with these facts and expectations, what would you have had done? Realistically? Probably about the same.
I dare anyone to say that before the VT incident, that anyone realistically expected a second shooting and for it to result in a massacre. It just simply wasn’t in the typical administrator’s experience.
Now? Yes, all of us are now much more painfully aware of the possibilities as well as what to do about it. Unfortunately, too late to help the victims. It’s clear that Dr. Steger didn’t do some things as well as he should have had, but he at least did it with good faith and on basis of prior experience. Let’s not crucify him.
Much more useful to focus on things that we CAN change now to lessen the impact of future incidents. Quicker responses of administrators, perhaps permission for a select few authorized senior administrators to send out critical campuswide messages without waiting for a full conference in case of critical emergencies, campuswide notification systems and procedures in place, better awareness of mental health issues at the student level as well as referrals and treatment, and so on.
A major focus in the aftermath has been to focus on rapid communication and response, but not so much on how to train students to spot brewing mental health issues, how to refer it to proper folks in a way that won’t set off a disturbed individual and still respect his/her privacy rights, how to bring up concerns about potential mental health issues for oneself or others and have it taken seriously.
Students need to be made aware of the mental health aspects because they interact the most with other students and are likely to spot unusual trends long before anyone else — interviews with the student’s friends and roommates reinforces this. So students are a very valuable resource to leverage, if properly trained and educated.
My heart goes out to the entire VT community, the victims and their survivors, their families, and even the student’s family. Unimaginable and unspeakable grief; no one should ever have to suffer all these. Let us hope that with our newly enlightened understanding, we may better prevent or mitigate such tragedies in the future.
There were past incidents at the VA Tech before the worst mass student killings which the adminstration and campus security unit handled them very well. Why not on the day of Cho’s lurid shootings of students?
All the university presidents and the entire adminstrations ought to make sure that the emergency system for the whole campus to be in tiptoe shape.
The security staff at the VA Tech didn’t ring the campuswide alarm when they discovered the body at the dormitory. They should!
Gallaudet University had done many poor things with the Gallaudet’s DPS (DOSS) unit over years. They spent the grants on patrol cars and other things, not on the survilleance cameras as originally envisoned by the grant people. The campus finally got the survilleance cameras 16 years later!
Many Gallaudet students constantly complained about the poor campuswide security before the installation of survilleance cameras.
The Gallaudet DPS never held workshops on personal safety and how to prepare if domestic violence or aersenal shooting occurs.
Have the Gallaudet DPS recently hold any mock execrises for any possibility of mass shootings, etc? I do not think so!
Does the Gallaudet DPS equipped to blind any shooter? I doubt!
The FBI’s Countersurgency Unit are not fluent in ASL or gestures. How can those people communicate with someone deaf infuriated with the gun in hir hand? The Gallaudet DPS will be put in such awkward postiton to convey the ASL conversation.
I doubt that the Gallaudet DPS have been trained in any biohazard handlings. They should! That is for the sake of Gallaudet campus safety!
Robert L. Mason (RLM)