First Utterances

            Here, in its entirety, is the first mass public statement made by President Steger—an email to all Virginia Tech .edu addresses:

Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2007 12:41:44 -0400
From: Unirel@vt.edu
Subject: Statement by President Charles W. Steger
To: Multiple recipients <LISTSERV@LISTSERV.VT.EDU>

Shooting at Virginia Tech / Statement by President Charles W. Steger

The university was struck today with a tragedy of monumental proportions. There were two shootings on campus. In each case, there were fatalities. The university is shocked and horrified that this would befall our campus. I want to extend my deepest, sincerest and most profound sympathies to the families of these victims which include students There are 22 confirmed deaths.

We currently are in the process of notifying families of victims. The Virginia Tech Police are being assisted by numerous other jurisdictions. Crime scenes are being investigated by the FBI, University Police, and State Police. We continue to work to identify the victims impacted by this tragedy. I cannot begin to covey my own personal sense of loss over this senselessness of such an incomprehensible and heinous act The university will immediately set up counseling centers. So far centers have been identified in Ambler Johnson and the Cook Counseling Center to work with our campus community and families.

Here are some of the facts we know:

At about 7:15 a.m. this morning a 911 call came to the University Police Department concerning an event in West Amber Johnston Hall. There were multiple shooting victims. While in the process of investigating, about two hours later the university receivd reports of a shooting in Norris Hall. The police immediately responded. Victims have been transported to various hospitals in the immediate area in the region to receive emergency treatment.

We will proceed to contact the families of victims as identities are available.

All classes are cancelled and the university is closed for the remainder for the today. The university will open tomorrow at 8 a.m. but classes will be cancelled on Tuesday. The police are currently staging the release of people from campus buildings.

Families wishing to reunite with the students are suggested to meet at the Inn at Virginia Tech. We are making plans for a convocation tomorrow (Tuesday) at noon at Cassell Coliseum for the university community to come together to begin to deal with the tragedy.

            The initial discourse is primarily factual.  This is certainly in keeping with immediate needs of listeners:  What happened?  As mentioned earlier, crises are generally viewed as constructed by presidents, either downplaying significance of events or highlighting them, bringing a crisis into being to justify policy decisions.  These murders happened to Virginia Tech, however; President Steger was responding, trying to characterize what occurred.   Since the general consensus was that a crisis existed, President Steger’s response to the crisis is, by definition, crisis rhetoric.  What he could say is both constrained by and contextualizes the public response to the situation.