Campus shootings cast long shadow over colleges

KENT, Ohio -- The bullet scars are faintly visible on the University of Texas clock tower that served as a sniper's nest more than 40 years ago. Kent State University students still field questions from strangers about the four people slain there by National Guard troops in 1970.

It's a sign of what's to come for Virginia Tech: The challenge of moving on after a national tragedy without being defined by it.

"From my university's standpoint, we have got to move forward," said Larry Hincker, the school's associate vice president of university relations. "As you can imagine, we cannot let this horror define Virginia Tech. We're going to do whatever we can to get this place on its feet again."

Until a Virginia Tech student shot 32 people to death this past week, the deadliest shooting on a U.S. campus happened Aug. 1, 1966, at the University of Texas in Austin, where a heavily armed former student opened fire from the clock tower's 28th-floor observation deck.

It took 90 minutes for police to reach Charles Whitman's perch and kill him. By the time it was over, 16 people were dead and 31 wounded.

The following day, the only formal observance of the shooting was the decision to fly flags at half-staff.

"I don't recall the university was closed the next day," said Larry Faulkner, a graduate student in 1966 who went on to become the university's president. "We ended up going back to business pretty quickly."

Not until January did the school add a bronze plaque to a small memorial garden behind the tower. The inscription reads: "To those who died, to those who were wounded, and to the countless other victims who were immeasurably affected by the tragedy." Whitman's name is not mentioned.

"I think that was the right thing to do," said Gary Lavergne, a university admissions officer whose book, "A Sniper in the Tower," is considered the definitive account of the massacre. "You don't want to turn a campus, which is really a symbol of life and growth, into a graveyard or something that reminds you of murder."

But La-vergne cautions Virginia Tech against taking a similar path.

"That's an agonizing choice UT had to make, and still grapples with. And Virginia Tech is going to go through that every anniversary for the first 10 years and every five years after that. We're still going through that at UT."

Kent State waited two decades to create a memorial to the four students who were shot and killed by Ohio National Guard troops during a campus protest of the invasion of Cambodia.

In 1975, the university said there would be no official monument. Two years later, protesters opposed to the building of a gym annex on the shooting site formed a tent city, with more than 100 people living on the hill where Guardsmen fired.

"There's a great deal more that the university could have done in the early years to heal the wounds," said Alan Canfora, who was shot in the wrist.

The memorial, featuring a plaza of blank granite walls, was built in 1990. Gravelike markers were added in 1999 where the students fell.

"Maybe our lesson is you do move on eventually," Kent State spokesman Ron Kirksey said. "You don't forget things that happen. Things can get better. We're stronger now more than ever."