Doctor P
<font color=navy><font color=navy>Chocolate covere
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2000
- Messages
- 6,550
I haven't been on the boards much the past few weeks and hate to return with a post like this, but the DVC boards have been my home for most of my time on the DIS so I thought this would be the appropriate place to make this post (I also posted a response in the Chicago area DIS'ers ongoing Community Board thread since there were some inquiring about my DW and I in that thread).
Some of you who I have met may know that I am a professor and department level administrator at Northern Illinois University. My department office is just a matter of a few yards from the lecture hall where the Valentine's Day shooting took place, and a few feet (maybe 30 or 40) from the back door the shooter used to enter the stage area. Last Thursday, I was overloaded in work at my other office and chose not to walk over to the department offices even though I was acting chair due to the chair's absence on that day. Instead, I spent the afternoon about 150 yards away in my other office working on department business and paperwork in my quieter office.
I will spare the details of my afternoon after the shooting started, but I will say that I am still shaken by the turn of events as you might imagine. One of my job responsibilities is to oversee the advising of our department's undergraduate students. I expect that this will be a difficult task over the next several weeks and months as things hit people in different ways. We will begin training in a couple days to prepare for the return of all of the students to campus for classes.
Please keep all of the victims, their families and friends, and all of the Northern Illinois University community in your thoughts and prayers. I cannot tell you how much we appreciate the outpouring of love and support we have received from around the world. Every little bit helps. We will survive, we will persevere, but our lives and my life will never be quite the same. National and international attention is something a university always seeks, but receiving it in this way is so very sad and troubling. Thanks for listening.
Some of you who I have met may know that I am a professor and department level administrator at Northern Illinois University. My department office is just a matter of a few yards from the lecture hall where the Valentine's Day shooting took place, and a few feet (maybe 30 or 40) from the back door the shooter used to enter the stage area. Last Thursday, I was overloaded in work at my other office and chose not to walk over to the department offices even though I was acting chair due to the chair's absence on that day. Instead, I spent the afternoon about 150 yards away in my other office working on department business and paperwork in my quieter office.
I will spare the details of my afternoon after the shooting started, but I will say that I am still shaken by the turn of events as you might imagine. One of my job responsibilities is to oversee the advising of our department's undergraduate students. I expect that this will be a difficult task over the next several weeks and months as things hit people in different ways. We will begin training in a couple days to prepare for the return of all of the students to campus for classes.
Please keep all of the victims, their families and friends, and all of the Northern Illinois University community in your thoughts and prayers. I cannot tell you how much we appreciate the outpouring of love and support we have received from around the world. Every little bit helps. We will survive, we will persevere, but our lives and my life will never be quite the same. National and international attention is something a university always seeks, but receiving it in this way is so very sad and troubling. Thanks for listening.
