University Administrations ... Why Several Organizations and Fraternities Exist ...
On the other hand, you also don't want to institute witch hunts on campus for strange students because you will infringe on rights, stigmatize mental health care, and many students won't seek help on their own for fear of adverse repercussions. Within the last year, for example, the US media ran an article on several students across the country who were expelled from school for mental illness or seeking mental health care. It is a fine line universities have to walk.
People forget that University Administrations can be considered political entities -- especially when it comes to either long-established, legacy universities, as well as very large universities. VT (as well as my own Alma Mater) falls in the latter category. University Presidents and their Administrations can cause their own issues, with their pressures, lobbies, resulting policies, crusades, etc..., or just to cover up their own failures.
I've seen it first hand.
When I was in college, my President and his Administration misappropriated funds earmarked for student groups to facilities. The first three times they took a quarter of a million dollars, we (the student body) signed off. The fourth time, totaling a full million, we barked as we were not consulted for yet a 4th time, which was already against the bylaws of the university and could be criminal from a financial aspect (separate, incorporated entities). It was almost 1/6th of our total budget at that point, and that money was earmarked for student organization funding, including many engineering ones (like mine). I.e., we were going to have to cancel large portions of engineering week, at a major engineering college.
He tried to get political, and we instantly barked back that our college (engineering) brings in the most private funding (over $40M/year at the time, much more now). He was personally pissed with the 7 of us representing the engineering college. He then demanded we sign or he would disband student government. While some of the student body backed down, we (representing the engineering college -- 1 of 5 in the university) did not. He not only disbanded student government, but referred some of us personally to the Board of Regents (possibly holding up our graduation), and called for a full audit. But it didn't end there.
The total dismissal of all student representation hit the media statewide, and he was under fire.
So then he fabricated facts for the media, and we were personally and professionally cruxified. We were publicly accused of everything from embezzlement to what could be considered extortion. My parents almost disowned me, and would not listen to a word I said, and cut off any funding while I was in college (although I was working full-time and on-my-feet at that point -- can't say the same for some of my colleagues). Of course, then the university President was stupid.
He directly created a new, student body, and in pure spite, refused to accept any representatives from the engineering college. That pissed off the Dean of the College of Engineering, and we found ourselves a "new ally." It got worse. The Dean of Student Affairs was in charge of personally appointing the new body, and 0 were non-minorities. That then pissed off many people in the college, and caused in-fighting in the University Administration.
In the end, a full year later, the Board of Regents cleared our names, restored the original Student Body, re-appropriated funds and slapped the entire, statewide university system with with countless limitations on the powers of the University Administration. Of course, none of this was reported publicly, and my parents -- to this day -- are still ashamed of me for that time by what they saw on the TV, and twice in my career people still remembered my name from that negative publicity.
Now what does this have to do with the shootings? Nothing, directly. But it does go to show that large universities (my Alma Mater is much like VT in size, focus, etc...) are heavy, political environments. They are not interested in due process, people are wrongly prosecuted for their views and values, and most people never know the truth of anything. Especially not the aftermath. Especially not the innocent. Especially not the ********* on anyone's name or rights.
So when people talk about "what we must do," I say, "nothing, nothing at all, please, for God's sake, please" and
definitely not in the aftermath! The results will be more political than anything. And please, for God's sake, don't always believe what you read in the papers when it comes from
one source -- especially not a large university and its administration!
In fact, many college fraternities in the United States were founded to ouster their university administrations -- including the fraternity I joined. It's not all about parties or what you see in the movies.
