College Tragedies

Sunday night at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, my school, a student was found dead in their dorm room. No reason was released for her death until late Tuesday night. The media started covering this story Sunday night(cause-bacterial meningitis). They were not allowed on campus and were not given any facts about the case. This brings up an interesting question for journalists. Was this death a suicide? If so, did they act to soon? How does a media outlet cover this story? For me there is no clear answer. As student journalists we are very close to those effects. What should our roll be? We have stepped back and let the facts play out and tomorrow we will be moving full force to cover the story. Any comments on how you would handle this ethical question? Here is the latest local press story.

On Monday night there was a candle light vigil held and I went to take some photos because for me its what I do best and it helps me deal with situations. As I was taking these photos my mind raced back to NIU. I was just at NIU two weeks ago and these photos looked very familiar to me, but I approached them in a very different way. This time I stayed far back and took community shots, at NIU I got close and tried to tell the stories of individuals. This is all very difficult and I will post more as we discover what works and what doesn’t. I will leave you with my reflection piece of my NIU experience and a photo from Loras and NIU:

Loras Vigil

NIU Vigil 

 

“We are NIU.” The image of these three simple words still plays in my mind as I write this because, in many ways, we are all NIU. Nolan Hanson, a junior at Northern, was standing out- side on a freezing Friday night handing out buttons depicting a black ribbon and NIU’s logo to anyone who passed by. As I talked with him, he said “None of us will ever forget where we were when we heard the news. These words sounded very familiar to me, and I thought back to our parents’ generation, when President Kennedy was shot. If you ask anyone where they were on that November day in 1963, they will tell you exactly when they heard the news and where they were. Our generation will forever remember where we were when we heard the news that a plane had struck the Twin Towers in New York City on that September morning. For the students of NIU, they will always remember where they were on the afternoon of Feb. 14, Valentines Day, 2008. These events are what make each of us a part of NIU in our own little way. As a college student I felt very connected to all of the NIU students because just 10 months ago, after Virginia Tech, these students felt the same way many of us feel about this shooting —this could never happen to us. As college students, we should look at this and feel connected because we are all peers. These students go to class just like us, they live in dorms just like us, and they do the very same things we do each and every day and that is why, today we are all NIU.”