Skip to main content

A shaken academia

American universities have always been seen by the public as safe havens of free speech and tolerance. At times, expression within campus is somewhat dissonant from that outside of the university to the extent that townspeople at times don't get what the fuss is all about. Universities are not immune to senseless violence. The deadly shooting of 32 students and their professors at Virginia Tech has completely shaken every campus and town across the nation, if not all over the world.

Students have been shot dead on campus such as what happened at Kent State in Ohio at the height of the Vietnam War protest. The fact that this happened on a college campus and not on a city street is what shocked America.

Now everyone needs to take a close look at what really went wrong in the mind of 23 year old English major Cho Seung-Hui. While the gun control debate is expected to flare up, I hope the debate goes beyond guns. Issues like student safety on campus is of highest importance. How will universities and colleges deal with "troubled" students before they can commit a heinous crime?

Here at LSU, students are subdued. Since examination week is just two weeks away, this is the last time that fraternities and sororities can have socials and other activities before students hit the books and live in the library warrens. Many organizations have canceled their activities out of respect. A candlelight vigil is scheduled on Thursday. Each and every US university and college from the biggest universities and ivy league colleges to the smallest community college will have one in the following days.

The Chancellor sent an all points bulletin to all university constituents about the tragedy and what the university is doing to improve safety and security. He also reminded that LSU is a no guns zone and state law considers carrying guns in a school a major felony. He also directed the student health services to provide mental health services to those affected by the tragedy

My semester as a visiting professor in the USA is nearing its end. It really saddens me that my stint here would be capped by this tragic event. I believed something died in me. I'll attend the candlelight vigil on the Parade Ground on Thursday.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Simoun's lamp has been lit, finally.. not by one but by the many!

"So often have we been haunted by the spectre of subversion which, with some fostering, has come to be a positive and real being, whose very name steals our serenity and makes us commit the greatest blunders... If before the reality, instead of changing the fear of one is increased, and the confusion of the other is exacerbated, then they must be left in the hands of time..." Dr Jose Rizal "To the Filipino People and their Government" Jose Rizal dominates the Luneta, which is sacred to the Philippine nation as a place of martyrdom. And many perhaps all of those executed in the Luneta, with the exception of the three Filipino secular priests martyred in 1872, have read Rizal's  El Filibusterismo . Dr Rizal's second novel is a darker and more sinister one that its prequel but has much significance across the century and more after it was published for it preaches the need for revolution with caveats,  which are when the time is right and who will in...
Post a Comment
Read more

Leonard Co (1953-2010), Filipino botanist

With much sadness and shock I learned from WWF chair Lory Tan that internationally renowned botanist Leonard Co was killed together with a guide and a forest ranger last Monday, 15 November in a firefight in Leyte between Armed Forces of the Philippines soldiers and Communist guerrillas. As the Philippine Daily Inquirer reports it ,  Co and his researchers were surveying a forest plot of the Energy Development Corporation (EDC) for native Philippine trees and plants especially those that are in danger of extinction, like this Rafflesia flower (the picture I got from Dr Julie Barcelona's blog . Thank you Julie) The 41 year old Communist insurgency has again claimed another life of the best and brightest of the Philippines. In Leonard Co's case, a bright life that cannot be replaced. For he was one of if not the last of  the classically trained botanists in plant taxonomy and systematics in the Philippines. While one can learn the basics of these disciplines i...
6 comments
Read more

How should we remember General Antonio Luna?

Well it seems with that proposal to rename Camp Aguinaldo to Camp Antonio Luna in time for National Heroes Day has generated a lot of social media buzz. We really have to really understand our national heroes. Antonio Luna was a remarkable personality but like all of us was flawed. He likely would be an academic had the revolution not intervened. He would have been the first Dean of a College of Science of the Philippine University had the nation made the transition to indepe ndence in a peaceful manner. That was recognized by the American College of Pharmacy when they feted Dr Luna on what would have been his 60th birthday noting his work in combating malaria. But that was not to be. He became a soldier. General Luna was for a professional military within the bounds of the constitution. Perhaps that is the biggest sign of contradiction for today. Please answer the question: Would President Duterte (or a President Aquino, Marcos, Arroyo, Quezon etc) have a General Luna as his c...
Post a Comment
Read more