PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 27, No. 14, Feb. 21, 2008

Campus pays tribute to victims at NIU

By Sharita Forrest, Assistant Editor
217-244-1072; slforres@illinois.edu

Click photo to enlarge Photo by L. Brian Stauffer Reaching out Students sign a condolence message board at the memorial vigil outside the Illini Union on Feb. 18. The board was filled with signatures and messages within 30 minutes of being erected.

Posted Feb. 19, 2008

The news about the tragedy at Northern Illinois University stunned the Urbana campus community, not only because a campus within arm’s reach of the UI had been targeted, but because the gunman was a UI student. According to authorities, Steven Kazmierczak, a 27-year-old native of Elk Grove Village and graduate student in the School of Social Work living in Champaign, opened fire on a geology class at NIU the afternoon of Feb. 14, killing five people and injuring 18 others before turning the gun on himself.

UI police, who assisted in the investigation, said there was no information about Kazmierczak in the regional law enforcement database nor at any time was he known to be a threat to the Urbana campus.

“In the days to come it is important for all of us in the Illinois community to come together to express our feelings concerning this horrible tragedy and to share the grief that follows,” Chancellor Richard Herman said in an e-mail to the Urbana campus following the tragedy. “We can expect to feel a wide range of emotion. Please remember that we are a community and, as such, we must continue to care for each other. And, in dark moments such as these, we must turn toward each other, not away.”

Click photo to enlarge Photo by L. Brian Stauffer NIU vigil Hundreds of members of the campus community, including Chancellor Richard Herman, assembled on the Quad on Feb. 18 to remember the victims of the Feb. 14 shootings at Northern Illinois University.

Grief counselors from the School of Social Work traveled to Dekalb to assist the NIU community. Hundreds of members of the Urbana campus community, including Herman, paid tribute the night of Feb. 18 to the victims of the tragedy during a vigil on the UI Quad. People expressed their sorrow and reached out to the NIU community on a memorial message board that was erected at the vigil and on a Web site that was created and linked to the Urbana campus home page.

In the days following the tragedy, Campus Information Technologies and Educational Services saw a surge in the number of students and faculty and staff members logging onto the Web site for the Emergency Text Messaging System, emergency.illinois.edu, either to verify or update their contact information.

 On Feb. 13, the day before the shooting, 11 people logged onto the site. On the day of the shooting, 475 people logged on, and on the day after the shooting, 1,976 people visited the site.

As of Feb. 18, a total of 15,370 students and 5,762 faculty and staff members had visited the site to view or update their contact information since the system’s inception at the beginning of the fall semester. The system can provide up to four means of contact for each person, including two text message numbers and an additional e-mail address in addition to their campus e-mail address.
Campus police and university officials are continually updating their emergency plans, and are working with campus units to develop emergency operations plans for various sorts of situations, including armed subjects, pandemics and natural disasters. Campus officials also are investigating the possibility of implementing lockdown procedures in the event of an active threat and providing expanded distribution of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather radios to broadcast messages about severe weather and other emergencies to the campus community.

Message from Chancellor Richard Herman

In the wake of the tragedy at Northern Illinois University, it is important for all members of our University community to review the Emergency Messaging System. This system is currently in place, fully operational, and is a way to reach you in the event of a campus emergency.
The campus already has several ways to reach you, including mass mail, the campus home page, a telephone tree, local media, recorded messages at 265-UIPD, weather sirens, and loudspeakers in police cars.

Emergency Messaging provides the campus another important method through which to contact you in real time. If you have not yet registered, please do so immediately. The process only takes a few minutes.

To register, go to emergency.illinois.edu and log in.

In the event of an emergency, you will receive messages at each of the numbers/e-mails you have provided. When that happens, the message will come from emergency@illinois.edu and the subject line should be: EMERGENCY! After reading the message, please share the information in it with those around you.

If you encounter difficulty when registering, please contact the CITES Help Desk at: 244-7000 or consult@illinois.edu.

We have already successfully tested the system and will do so periodically.

Resources

 • The blog for posting condolence and other messages

 • Any UI faculty or staff member, or student who feels the need to seek counseling is encouraged to do so.

• Faculty and staff: Contact the Faculty/Staff Assistance Program, 244-5312 or 244-7739 (24-hour crisis line), or visit its Web site, www.fsap.uiuc.edu/.

• Students should call the Counseling Center, 333-3704 or 359-4141 or visit the center’s Web site.

 • UI police: 1110 W. Springfield Ave., Emergency: 9-911 (campus phones), 911 (off campus) Non-emergency: 333-1216

What to do …

In the event of an active threat, such as a shooter, police and the Office of Campus Emergency Planning offer the following tips:

• If possible, distance yourself from the threat by evacuating the building or area safely.

• If evacuation is not possible, go into the nearest room, restroom or office and lock the door. If you cannot lock the door, block the entrance with objects to prevent entry. DO NOT answer or open the door until instructed to do so by police.

• Secure doors and windows.

• If time allows, turn off all lights and electronic or other devices to give the impression that the room is unoccupied.

• Seek shelter behind sturdy cover – block walls, heavy desks, etc. – and stay out of sight.

• As soon as safely possible, call 911 from a non-university phone or 9-911 on a campus phone. Provide your exact location, name, the number of assailants (if known), and information about injuries to you or others.

• Provide first aid to those who are injured.

• DO NOT approach police officers as they search for the suspect(s) and eliminate the threat. Once the area is cleared of the threat, emergency personnel will aid the injured and safely evacuate the facility.

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