I sent the following to the President of Virginia Tech today. If your thinking is in phase with mine, I would urge you to do likewise. They’re making a mistake, and they need to back off. Â In my opinion, they should apologize for even considering an appeal.
Dr. Charles W. Steger
Office of the President
Virginia Tech
210 Burruss Hall
Blacksburg, VA 24061
VIA E-MAIL: president@vt.eduDear Dr. Steger:
How dare you?
By appealing a just and fair fine levied by the U.S. Department of Education, you have delivered a slap to the face of the families of the victims of the 2007 shootings on your campus. Many of my friends and relatives are graduates of Virginia Tech, and one is even an employee. You bring shame upon them as well.
May I remind you that one hour after your staff knew of the dormitory shooting, you were just convening a meeting in order to decide what information to release, and when, and to whom? May I also remind you that you released no warning or information at all for at least two hours after you knew of that shooting? Your Associate Vice President for University Relations, Mr. Hincker, seems very fixated on the fact that the word “timely” isn’t defined by the DOE or the Clery Act. My dictionary defines it as “coming early or at the right time.” Since the lateness of your warning probably resulted in many unnecessary deaths, tell me, Dr. Steger: did it come at the right time?
$55,000 is not a lot of money for a university the size of Virginia Tech. In fact, you probably take in ten times that in ticket sales for one single home football game. Your own total compensation was listed, in 2005-2006, at $602,951, eleven times the amount of this fine. I’d be completely comfortable, in fact, with asking you to take the entire amount of the fine from your own pocket; a manager is responsible for what happens under his supervision. In any case, raising the money certainly cannot be a problem by any stretch of the imagination.
The community, the country, and the world are already unhappy with your institution for its handling of this 2007 massacre. Virtually everyone agrees that you could have, and should have, done more to communicate the danger to your students, faculty, and staff in real time. By appealing this fine rather than simply paying it and moving on, you’re giving the public the impression that you intend to take no responsibility, no ownership, and no lessons from this incident. You want to present yourself as blameless — not only to the general populace, but to the very families of those who may have died due to your procrastination and inaction.
I’m a native Virginian. I now live elsewhere, but the Old Dominion will always be my home, and my heart will always live there. Please stop destroying its name. Please stop bringing shame to all of us by your heartless, callous, senseless actions in this matter. Pay your fine, consider it penance, and let’s all move on. No victim or family deserves the trauma of seeing you needlessly pursuing this embarrassing, insulting appeal.
Sincerely,
/s/
Scott Johnson