In the glow of candlelight as day fell to dusk, members of the Duke community gathered on the chapel steps to remember and honor the three victims of last week's shooting at Michigan State University.
Tuesday’s vigil at the Duke Chapel was organized by the Duke Student Government. Junior Ashley Bae, vice president of services and sustainability, opened the vigil. Recognizing the “violence and the grief and the sadness that has brought us all here together today,” Bae thanked everyone for attending and coming together as a community.
Gary Bennett, dean of Duke's Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, described the scene in his kitchen the morning following the shooting. He was sipping his cappuccino and making breakfast for his children when the story came on the news.
“I reflexively did the thing that most parents do in those moments, which is I jumped for the speaker to try to turn it off,” Bennett said. “And as I was running to try to intercept the speaker, so my kids didn't have to be confronted by hearing the news, it occurred to me that nothing that was going to be said that morning in the news was anything that would be unfamiliar to my kids.”
He talked about the abundance of active shooter drills his children, as well as Duke students, have been a part of “to protect themselves against the kind of evil that presented itself at Michigan State.” He noted that as a result of these drills, he was the only one in his house who was surprised to hear about the shooting.
Bennett emphasized the importance of taking a moment to reflect before taking action.
“The most important thing in moments like these is to sit for a minute and reflect on the pain and to actually feel the anger, feel the frustration, feel the intolerability of the situation, just to for a moment to allow ourselves to feel that distress, because it's that distress that motivates action,” Bennett said.
DSG Chief of Staff Hana Hendi and Swetha Rajagopal, vice president of Durham and community affairs, both seniors, read the names of the victims and shared pieces of the obituaries written by family and close friends.
Mitchell Eithun, a second-year student at the Divinity School, spoke about his time as a graduate student at Michigan State studying computational mathematics.
“I was formed there and made friends there. And the people and places are very special to me. And so to see it unfold, and to know that I've been in those places is just very sad,” he said.
He also expressed his anger towards the large number of mass shootings in the nation.
“I get angry at the injustice of our world, and that this happens so much in the United States,” he said. “I come back often to this verse that ‘[they] shall beat their swords into plowshares’ and all I can think of is guns into plowshares. We have too many guns, we have too many people with guns.”
Eithun also played the Michigan State fight song and alma mater on the carillon at the Duke Chapel last Tuesday. The video amassed a large number of views throughout the following days, garnering support from Michigan state fans and alumni.
Bae also asked those in attendance to donate to the Spartan Strong Fund, which provides support for “the evolving needs of the individuals most critically impacted.” Michigan State University is covering hospital bills for the injured students and funeral costs for the victims.
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Kathryn Thomas is a Trinity junior and new reporter coordinator of The Chronicle's 119th volume. She was previously news editor for Volume 118.