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Monday, April 16, 2007 12:00 AM

University officials waited two hours to warn campus, students say

With at least 33 dead and 29 wounded, some ask why the campus wasn't shut down after an early-morning killing.

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  • Tuesday, April 17, 2007 07:57 AM

    salon, stop the emotional pandering, it's sickening.

    I tend to agree with those who deride Salon for jumping on the angle that the university reacted too slowly to the tragedy. This kind of blatant sensationalism, one day after an event, is no better than the headlines with implicitly screaming fingers pointed at the shooter's status as a foreign (South Korean) student. At times like this, I'm looking for the facts, not conspiracy theories, and it's a shame that salon is trying to harness the same base human emotions, just targeting a different crowd. The details and time for assessing adequacy of response will come later.

    With 25,000 students + several thousand staff on campus, we're talking about coordinating an entire community the size of Hyde Park in Chicago, New London, Conn., or Middletown, NY (verified in wikipedia). A) 2 hours response is not unreasonable for a community that size, and B) It's hard to imagine orchestrating a shut-down for a community that size, in the event of a shooting where the gunman is loose.

    With the resources of a community of several million in the San Francisco Bay Area, it still took a good hour for news of the hit and run driver who ran down 15 people in 30 minutes, who was still loose.

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