Students return to classes at Northern Illinois
Josh Noel, Chicago Tribune (MCT)
Issue date: 2/25/08 Section: Local and State
CHICAGO-On a gray, icy Monday morning, students began circulating on the Northern Illinois University campus shortly before 8 a.m. classes for the first time since the Feb. 14 shooting that claimed the lives of five students.
In a lot of ways they looked normal-headphones in ears, cell phones pressed to heads, bags slung over shoulders.
Except for brief glances they largely ignored the police tape that still encircles Cole Hall, the scene of the shooting, and the vast memorials of flowers and balloons planted in the snow and ice.
Even as the morning wore on and foot traffic increased, students described the mood as subdued.
"But it's good to see people back here," said Jeff Brown, 35, a senior history major from Sugar Grove. "On the surface things may eventually look normal, but this will stick around for the rest of the semester."
The reopening of campus came after an emotional memorial service Sunday evening that honored the victims of the Feb. 14 carnage.
The service filled the 10,000-seat Convocation Center on campus. DeKalb itself shut down, with almost every marquee in town carrying the region's new, and necessary, mantra: "Forward, Together Forward."
Inside the arena, dignitaries and frat boys, friends and strangers gathered to remember the Valentine's Day shooting, the 48 shots fired, the five students killed and the 16 wounded.
"I have seen your courage, and I have seen your strength," university President John G. Peters told the audience, as security guards walked the aisles handing out tissue. "Your presence wraps us in a warm embrace and reminds us we are not alone."
Hundreds spilled into the arena's lobby and adjacent overflow rooms, standing shoulder to shoulder to watch the service on flat-screen TVs. Thousands more saw the ceremony in rooms across NIU and at satellite campuses in Hoffman Estates, Rockford and Naperville.
The memorial was the culmination of 10 days of grieving, which began hours after Steven Kazmierczak, a former NIU student, opened fire on a crowded lecture room. The gunman took his own life, leaving few clues to his motive.
In a lot of ways they looked normal-headphones in ears, cell phones pressed to heads, bags slung over shoulders.
Except for brief glances they largely ignored the police tape that still encircles Cole Hall, the scene of the shooting, and the vast memorials of flowers and balloons planted in the snow and ice.
Even as the morning wore on and foot traffic increased, students described the mood as subdued.
"But it's good to see people back here," said Jeff Brown, 35, a senior history major from Sugar Grove. "On the surface things may eventually look normal, but this will stick around for the rest of the semester."
The reopening of campus came after an emotional memorial service Sunday evening that honored the victims of the Feb. 14 carnage.
The service filled the 10,000-seat Convocation Center on campus. DeKalb itself shut down, with almost every marquee in town carrying the region's new, and necessary, mantra: "Forward, Together Forward."
Inside the arena, dignitaries and frat boys, friends and strangers gathered to remember the Valentine's Day shooting, the 48 shots fired, the five students killed and the 16 wounded.
"I have seen your courage, and I have seen your strength," university President John G. Peters told the audience, as security guards walked the aisles handing out tissue. "Your presence wraps us in a warm embrace and reminds us we are not alone."
Hundreds spilled into the arena's lobby and adjacent overflow rooms, standing shoulder to shoulder to watch the service on flat-screen TVs. Thousands more saw the ceremony in rooms across NIU and at satellite campuses in Hoffman Estates, Rockford and Naperville.
The memorial was the culmination of 10 days of grieving, which began hours after Steven Kazmierczak, a former NIU student, opened fire on a crowded lecture room. The gunman took his own life, leaving few clues to his motive.
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