The View From Here . . .

By Bob Morgan, Jr.

Two major stories this week, the horrific shooting at Virginia Tech and the exoneration of three accused Duke students, both revolve around campus life, with a strong subtext of the responsibilities of college administrators.

At this writing, we do not know all of the details concerning the tragic murder of at least 32 people by a lone gunman at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg. There had been a shooting at a dormitory earlier in the day by the same individual, who then proceeded to lockdown a classroom and begin shooting.

The sadness and loss that parents, families and friends of the deceased students and faculty members are unfathomable.. In particular learning that your child, in whom you have placed so many hopes and aspirations, was killed for absolutely nothing while simply sitting in a classroom, must be an incredibly devastating blow.

Already, proponents and opponents of gun control have jumped into the fray, with proponents pointing to the ease of obtaining weapons like those used in the shooting and opponents noting that the on-campus ban on firearms prevented anyone from mounting an effective defense against the shooter. This debate, which rehashes old points in a new context, may best be left for a cooler moment.

But a subject that will not go away is the responsibility of Virginia Tech administrators in the situation. Once there had been a fatal shooting in the dormitory and an unapprehended shooter, why was the campus not locked down, or at least classes suspended? This is certainly the question that many parents are asking, with some demanding the ouster of the university president.

At least in a sense, and certainly in contrast to the devastation in Blacksburg, the Duke story had a relatively happy ending. But serious questions concerning how senior officials at the university handled the matter certainly remain. Of particular concern was how the university's administration treated the idea that Duke students were entitled to a presumption of innocence.

As reported in a Newsweek article this week, the students were banned from campus after the reported incident. When the family of one the falsely accused students met with the university's president to stress the presumption of innocence, the president replied only that "As a parent I feel for you, but as the president I can do only so much for you."

In light of the feeding frenzy that took place concerning the allegations, not only in the media but on the Duke campus itself, it would seem that considerably more could have been done by the president and many others. Indeed, it seemed that the women's lacrosse team had to shoulder the burden at Duke of opposing a rush to judgment.

No one would ever say that the job of a university president or senior administrator is an easy one, and hindsight analysis of a difficult challenge is always vastly superior. Nevertheless, parents and students invest a great deal of resources, both financial and otherwise, in higher education, and they have a right to the highest level of performance and good judgment by senior officials on campus.