Activities and events canceled to make room for crisis management
Saira Haider, CT News Editor
April 25 2007
Student Activities has changed their plans for the remainder of the semester, accommodating counseling and memorial services in light of recent events.
Shannon Porter, associate director for Relay for Life at Virginia Tech, said that the executive committee wanted to plan a second "mini-relay" because their event was held last weekend, and most students could not participate because they went home.
However, the second Relay for Life event could not be carried out because University Unions and Student Services had to accommodate new events since last Monday.
"We are trying to be flexible, particularly as it relates to crisis response, memorial services and events," said Greg Beecher, associate director of administrative and business services. "We have been working to make sure that's a priority."
Event Planning has also taken over Cassell Coliseum for commencement. At this point, it is only open for memorial services, Beecher said.
Beecher has requested additional assistance to work more quickly to secure public place locations for these events.
Among the events that were cancelled, The Roots was scheduled for this coming Thursday by the Virginia Tech Union.
"The restriction isn't so much because of the services," Beecher said. "There have been some events that could not take place."
Some students think that holding these events would help the community.
"It just seems like now would be a good time to have those things on campus as a way to get away from all that's happened," said Chris Mitchell, junior electrical engineering major.
"We're trying to get over a major tragedy. A ton of students here love The Roots and the like, and a concert is a great distraction from everything," said Thomas Perks, junior English major. "The Roots still showing up would've been a nice thing for them to do to show that they actually do care about their fans."
Consideration for planning new events will be limited because of the amount of work it takes to put into an event, but if an organization is committed, they can try, Beecher said.
Memorial events and counseling is also an issue closer to exam time.
"You will discover that we are trying to respect university policy that events are not to take place 48 hours before exams," Beecher said. "But exams are not going to be normal."
Other things that were altered were deadlines for organizations to submit reservations for fall semester. Open reservations for rooms were supposed to take place last Monday but have now been moved to today through June 29 at 5 p.m. to make the deadline more flexible for each organization.
"Some organizations have been concerned (about requesting rooms for next semester), but others have too much to think about," Beecher said.
Beecher said that there have been a number of requests for crisis management and that the university is trying to accommodate them.