I
Tuesday, April 17, 2007- 9
W The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Other students and facul mem- said, then pushed his way in.
FromHOTS page 1idtha there had b a vague Gene Cole, who works in Virginia
From page 1 notion that there had bee a shoot- Tech's housekeeping services, was
ag at the dorm. Seve l faculty on the second floor of Norris Hall
. "I was crying," Otey said. "I was members said they h, d reached yesterday morning and saw a per-
worried that the guy with the gun campus during or just after the son lying on a hallway floor, he told
was going to come upstairs too." Norris Hall shooting a d had gone The Roanoke Times. As Cole went
The violence began early in the unimpeded to their bui dings. up to the body, a man wearing a hat
morning at West Ambler Johnston, Many were bewildeid or angry and holding a gun stepped into the
the school's largest dormitory, where that the campus had n t been locked hallway. "Someone stepped out of
two people were killed, officials down earlier, afterth first incident. a classroom and started shooting
said. But when the first class started "I am outraged a hat happened at me," he said. Cole fled down the
two hours later, many on campus todayon the Virgir iaTechcampus," corridor, then down a flight of steps
remained unaware of any danger. wrote Huy That Ton, a member of to safety. "All I saw was blood in the
"I woke up and I didn't know the chemical en ineering faculty, in hallways," Cole said.
anything was wrong," said Sarah an e-mail mess ge "Countless lives The gunman was described as
Ulmer, a freshman who lives in East could have b en saved if they had methodical, squeezing the trigger
Ambler Johnston. "I went to my informed th student body of the almost rhythmically. "Sometimes
first class and my teacher was talk- first shooti What was the secu- there would be like a minute or
ing about how some people weren't rity depart ent thinking?!" so break in between them, but for
coming because there was a gun Campus officials said they the most part it was one right after
threat at West A.J. and they were believed th , first incident was con- another," Otey said.
blocking it off. It was like, 'Oh."' fined to a ingle building and was Elaine Goss of Waynesboro, Va.,
The school did not notify students essentiald a domestic dispute, and said she first spoke to her son, Alec
by e-mail of the first shootings until had no id a that the violence would Calhoun, a student, at about 9:30
9:26 a.m., said Matt Dixon, who lives spread e sewhere. a.m., after he had leapt from a sec-
in the dorm. Dixon did not receive The p lice said they still did not and-story classroom window as the
the e-mail message until he returned know if the two shootings were the gunman entered. "I couldn't under-
from his 9:05 class. When he left for work o the same gunman. stand him. It was like gibberish,"
that class, he said, a resident adviser The gunman in Norris Hall was Goss said. "It took a while to figure
told him not to use the central stairs, descri red as a young Asian man out shootings, lots of shootings, and
soe left another way.w t o pistols who calmly entered that his whole class had jumped
On dry erase boards, advisers c lass oms and shot professors and out the window." He landed on his
had riten,"Sty i yor roms" sud Is. He peeked into the Ger- back, and "we made him go to the
Dixon said. man class in Room 207, witnesses emergency room," she said.
MESAInt rnet, plasma-screen televisions, "Put it back into the community
From pageUiversity computers and printers, instead of things like beauty salons,"
From page 8 sh wer facilities and a vintage disco she said. "That would be a lot more
th rodrvoc, Otzsad b 11. useful."
the broadervoice," Ortiz said It is also the only University build- While most programs like the
between MESA and the Assisting ig with a restaurant license that Trotter additions are still in the
Latinos to Maximize A shisteng egally allows student groups to use works, one change that Acosta has
Lroran then MAcs achievement ts kitchen. This allows the groups to already implemented at both the
program when Acosta asked ALMA ire caterers outside of the Univer- MESA office and Trotter is the stu-
of its publications. ALMA's largest sity or prepare food in the kitchen on dent staff.
t pidin. aL s ret io their own, Burnett said. Acosta said when he began work-
rogram pis providing an urientatio Burnett said that some University ing in August, there weren't many
program that is solely for ami buildings are sterile and hands-off student employees in MESA.
Latino students, and Accsta ase d but that he tries to make Trotter stu- "Students were not an integral
them to remove the race-sed dent-friendly. part of the services and program
aspect wftheirprogram. Burnett said he plans to add an development," he told the Daily in
Acostasaidthathewasconcern d art gallery, coffee cart, barber shop February. "How can you service
about providing1equal services to 1 and media library to Trotter before students if students are not an inte-
minority groups, but ALMA m m- September. gral part?"
lers said his actions made it s em Acostasaid the gallery would fea- Now both the MESA Office and
like an attempt to sever the relat on- ture artwork that celebrates cultural Trotter are run by student employ-
ship between ALMA and M.'SA. heritage and awareness months. ees, including some employed
Acosta said he only want d to The barber shop would offer through the work-study program.
expand ALMAs program to i lude haircuts to students from all back- Acosta has also developed various
other ethnic groups, grounds. Acosta said Ann Arbor student initiatives, like the group
Part of s plan fore mmu- lacks this amenity. of students who will travel to the
sfty scampus would e ere ating a "Here I am, a brown man with National Conference on Race and
saounsa tor tets nf I back- kinky hair, and the community of Ethnicity in American Higher Edu-
grounds to iteract and to. discuss Ann Arbor is not welcoming," Acos- cation in California this summer to
issues of race and etheit ta said. "Why is it that if a student of understand how diversity issues are
Acosta said these types nf inter- color wants to get a haircut, the best addressed.
actions are nut taking p ce in the place to get a haircut is in Ypsi?" Acosta said he hopes these stu-
pravide spaces for studeS needs to Acosta also said he plans to work dents plan a small symposium at the
to expe- with the American Culture depart- University similar to the one they're
rience diverse exchanges ment to bring some classes to Trotter. attending.
The William Motu e Trotter Ortiz disagreed with Acosta's Acosta said he doesn't want stu-
Multicultural Center sa prime can- focus on Trotter. She said the dents to think that MESA is straying
didate frthis propose space. improvements at the center would from its dedication to a cross-cultu-
Aotam Cswre with Trot- not be the best way to spend funding al, inclusi'e campus. "We still have
ter Program Cente Coordinator for the majority of Latino students. the same mission. We still have the
Edward Burnett to dd more ame- She said putting money into plan- same goals," Acosta said. "I think
ng on Washt- ning, minority groups, educational we're just trying to embrace more
enaw. initiatives and conferences would be brothers and sisters into the pro-
Trotter is equi ped with wireless better. cess."
Students watch from the doorway at Virginia Tech as police infiltrate the area where yesterday's shooting took place.
'U' RESPONSE
From page 1
DPS spokeswoman Diane Brown
said she could not speculate on
what specific steps police might
take in response to a shooting on
campus, but she said DPS officers
are trained in "quick action deploy-
ment," a model that includes the
use of special tactics and equip-
ment and can be used to respond
to a situation similar to the one at
Virginia Tech.
Brown said DPS has increased
such training in recent years in
response to workplace and school
shootings.
Some students interviewed yes-
terday called for administrators to
increase security on campus.
"I used to walk around campus
alone at night up untilithis point, but
now I'm afraid to go to class," said
LSA freshman Fiona Nowlin.
The shootings took place in a
dorm and a classroom building.
"The University needs to make
sure that only students enter Uni-
versity buildings," Nowlin said.
But Brown said the University
needs to find a balance between
security and openness.
"We don't want to make our cam-
pus so restrictive that you can't have
a community environment," Brown
said. "We're not a gated community.
We're not a private institution. We
are open to public."
After the 1999 shootings at Col-
umbine High School in Colorado,
many high schools installed metal
detectors and tightened security.
Brown said because no building
can be made completely secure, stu-
dents should call police when they
see suspicious activity on campus
and not let people they don't know
into residence halls.
"We have the residence halls
locked 24 hours a day," she said.
"Yet we know that people that are
unauthorized are getting in."
As of deadline early this morn-
ing, police had not confirmed that
the two separate shootings were
connected. The chief of the Vir-
ginia Tech campus police said at a
press conference last night that the
gunman responsible for the second
wave of shootings, who was found
dead at the scene, was not aVirginia
Tech student.
Brown said that the University
is part of a county-wide agreement
that would ensure that DPS gothelp
in an emergency situation from
area police agencies, including the
Ann Arbor Police Department.
But communications with those
other agencies could be a problem,
Brown said. She said DPS can get a
common channel with only some of
the surrounding police departments.
"Right now that is a bit of a chal-
lenging situation," she said.
There is an effort underway to
improve emergency communica-
tions between police agencies in
'Washtenaw County, Brown said.
Brown said she doesn't know
what changes in campus security
the shootings might cause.
"It's reasonable to expect that
police agencies across the country
and universities across the country
are going to be following this inci-
dent closely and looking for lessons
learned," Brown said.
- Jessica Vosgerchian and Alese
R-avr ' -rnntihi ,"+ o t-" r nnrt_