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President John D. Welty
issued the following statement today in response to yesterday’s
shootings at Northern Illinois University:
Once again, violence has caused tragedy on an American university campus
and once again we find ourselves asking the unanswerable question: Why?
We offer the entire Northern Illinois University community our
condolences and prayers as they deal with the immediate pain of such a
horrific occurrence. Our universities’ teams have been opponents four
times in football games over the years, but today there is no “us” and
“them” – just two communities separated in distance, but united in shock
and sadness.
As an Illinois native, your tragedy is deeply personal. I take comfort
in knowing we are a resilient people and that close-knit university
communities have a unique ability to work through every challenge, no
matter how daunting.
The sad reality is that no university can provide a 100 percent
guarantee of safety and security. What we can do – and have done even
before the tragedies at Virginia Tech last spring and, now, at NIU – is
constantly improve our ability to prevent violence and to respond to
emergencies.
While we mourn the tragic losses at Northern Illinois, we at Fresno
State pledge to continue our efforts to do everything possible to
protect our students, staff and faculty.
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