Larry Hincker's history at Virginia Tech goes back about 40 years when he attended school here as an undergrad.
Currently, he serves as the associate vice president for University Relations, the office that handles all university news and relations with the press. One year ago, Hincker became deeply immersed in the immediate dealings with the tragedy, delivering press briefings twice a day, barely sleeping, and along with President Steger and VT Police Chief Flinchum, became one of the most recognizable faces from the university. As the anniversary approached, he found time amidst dealing with endless interview requests to sit down with the Collegiate Times to talk about last year's shootings, the changes of the past year and his hopes for the future. In the first section of the interview, Hincker discusses questions directly related to last year's shootings and the resonating effect it has had on this past academic year. A second interview is included in the regular edition of the Collegiate Times.
Caroline Black: Looking back now one year later, what do you remember about the morning of April 16? What goes through your head when you think about it?
Larry Hincker: What I've told everybody else is that I'm not going to relive April 16. The thing that I will share with you is the very surreal nature of having just been briefed on the scope and horror of that tragedy, and within minutes knowing that we have to start preparing for the onslaught. We were already getting phone calls, Mark Owzarski and I, that the trucks were rolling ... It was simply surreal, and I don't know any other way to describe it.
CB: From a policy-related perspective, looking at the aftermath of the shootings, over the past year your job has sort of evolved a lot, and you've sort of had to combine what you do with mediation and grief counseling in dealings with the victims' families. How do you feel, over the past year, the university's relationship with the victims' families has become and evolved?
LH: Before I answer that question, one question that you didn't ask me that I want to talk about is the role of mass communications in helping the institution through its grief recovery, I think that's something that we need to talk about. As we look back on the way the university "managed the aftermath of the crisis," we really were in a crisis management, crisis communication phase for a long, long time, and effectively we still are. I think our institution did an excellent job of trying to bring people together. President Steger was the one that said, "I want to have a convocation." President Steger wanted to have a convocation on Monday evening, and we all said, are you crazy? Yet we managed to pull together this university community in 24 hours. Remarkably, within hours, we began this process of healing. So, we did a lot of things very well. Whether it was management of reoccupying Norris, how we were going to involve the community, the memorial was a remarkably simple but poignant and powerful way to say, "We're not going to forget." But, one of the things we mishandled was the liaison with the families. We set up, literally, people inside student affairs, inside the counseling center, inside the dean of student's office, career services, all around the university, anyone who had some background in trauma management to be a liaison with one family member, to try to assist them with whatever their needs were, and injured students, so it was a lot of folks. One woman, she described it early on as "victims helping victims." When you think back, the whole institution, and our leadership, too, was in shock. Yet, we were trying to run this place and manage through. So our people were just exhausted, totally, totally exhausted. Late May, we said, "we need to have a full-time office," it took a while to get that going. Now we have the Office of Recovery and Support. Now there are trained counselors and there are people managing those students, who came back by the way, every single student ... it took a while, those people are grieving, traumatized, and many of them angry, but I think the university finally got its act together. That's one that took a long time.
CB: You mentioned at first how the university handled representing the families. How has that evolved this past year, how has that relationship changed from then until today?
LH: People still continue to struggle and grieve; each family member will find his or her own sense of solace and recovery. Our job was to try to do what we could to help. They had many, many concerns, each are different from family to family. So that's been part of the mediation process, to try and address what those concerns are or were. We're hopeful that the mediation process will help speed the sense of recovery.
CB: Obviously a huge thing this past year has been policy changes. How has the collaboration been between the university and the needs of the students and the families toward enacting policy change?
LH: I know that Jay (Poole, director of the Office of Recovery and Support) has kept the family members apprised. When there were certain actions that we really felt were crucial to have family input, we did. I think the ultimate use of Norris Hall was a good example of that. The memorial, even though that was a little early in the process and I think people were still too badly injured to really think that through clearly, but we tried to directly involve (them). But also indirectly: for example, when these recommendations were made, families were included, certainly in the governor's panel. They weren't included in ours, because their voice was coming in through the governor's panel, but since that time Jay has gotten input from them.
CB: It's going to be extremely hard to come to a compromise when you're dealing with so many people, including all the families and all the injured students, so how do you react when the overwhelming consensus and you all agree one way, and a handful of people disagree? I know for example there was never a unanimous agreement about the Drillfield memorial. How do you compromise with such a large group of people?
LH: I guess you just have to go with critical mass. I've got my own thoughts about the memorial, but I'm going to bite my tongue, and I have bit my tongue and will continue to. This is what grief recovery is like, you just find a way. You listen as best you can, and you make decisions. When I think about the zillions of decisions we made in April, May, June, July, August, all the way through. I mean we were making lots of decisions, and every now and then you said, "Let's make it quickly," the memorial was a good example, or "Let's go slow," and Norris Hall is a good example. You just kind of do your best.
CB: Speaking on policy, I was wondering in terms of, especially because President Steger's recent "town meeting" conference sort of raised a lot of questions, and answered a lot of questions, for you personally, policy-wise, considering all of the recommendations for security changes, do you feel right now the university is where it needs to be in terms of progress for implementing all of the security recommendations from both Kaine's panel and our own review panels?
LH: First of all let me say that one of the things I think is so tragic about the tragedy at Virginia Tech -- I mean loss of one life is terrible, 32 is just through the roof -- is that this was a pretty safe place. Blacksburg is a pretty safe place. University campuses in general, particularly in rural areas, are very safe places ... I think Virginia Tech was, and continues to be, a safe place, but April 16 changed a lot for higher education. One of the things that it changed is this heightened sense of vigilance for safety. Whether it's things like just being more alert to your surroundings, more alert to the people you're around, or whether it's more alert to the people who come on our campus. The incident recently where the student had to go home, that began as an altercation, but they were able to go a step further because of this heightened sense of vigilance. So yes, I think they're making good progress. The difficulty we had is that other universities were able to come in, take a look at Virginia Tech, and implement a few things here and there. A threat assessment team, emergency alert systems, and they could kind of get back to what they were doing. We're trying to manage through this crisis, and then we have 400 recommendations laid on top of us ... We recently just released $2 million of funding. About $1 million of it is going to be base-funding adjustments, to go through yet another round of security implementation. So yeah, we're making good progress, it's just going to take some time.
CB: And where is the $2 million coming from at this point?
LH: Out of our hide. The state's not giving us a dime. Some of the money is, for example, to put additional counselors in place, and case managers. Some of the money, not all, to support the Office of Recovery and Support is coming from grants. They're going to last a short time. Other dollars, for example, for the emergency alert system, emergency notification, infrastructure improvements, the university is just finding a way out of the existing budget. Which of course means there is something else that you don't do.
CB: Following up on the school's relationship with the families of the victims of April 16, a new topic lately has been the settlement offer that recently came from Gov. Tim Kaine's office. What kind of stance does the university have on the offer?
LH: Since the university is part of the discussion, we have a say, and that's about as much as I probably can say on that topic.
CB: For you personally, what are your feelings or plans or anticipations about the next week, leading up to April 16?
LH: Well, you saw a little bit about the controversy there (regarding the planned April 16 Drillfield "lie-in"). Our goal always has been to remember the day solemnly, simply, and in accordance with the wishes of the families. This was really developed, in large part, with students and families sitting at the table. What has transpired, what's been developed, is in large extent, their wish. That's why we've been very insistent that we want to do everything we can to preserve the solemnity of the day and make it a day of remembrance. That's my goal, that's our goal, and I've been working, for example, to try and minimize the impact of the media. There aren't going to be satellite trucks on the Drillfield this year like there were last year. I want to make sure the media (doesn't) interfere with the life of the campus. At the same time, obviously I'm sensitive to their needs.
CB: Do you personally have any plans for that day? Will there be a balance between work and peace?
LH: No. We'll be working like crazy. We'll be doing the early morning shows live. That's one of the reasons why we didn't close down the university, because we knew that there would be a lot of support activity required, whether it's in physical plant, whether it's in the visitor's center, there are going to be people coming to campus. We needed to keep the campus running, and I'm one of the offices that really needed to run.
CB: Do you have anything to say on the possibility of future litigation against the university? Is the university preparing for that sort of thing?
LH: I'll tell you what we have said all along. We realize that litigation is a possibility, and one of the reasons why we have participated in the mediation is, we know that all parties - those that were hurt and suffer the most pain, as well as the Commonwealth of Virginia and this institution - we know that recovery is going to be stimulated the most and helped the most by coming to grips with what it is that people need. That's why we think that mediation is an important part of the recovery process. We are hopeful that we can address and resolve the issues that people have.
CB: Does the university have plans for how to retain those relationships that you spent a year building when mixing in a possible legal situation?
LH: President Steger has said we're not going to treat anybody differently whether there's litigation or not. We've talked about that. We plan on supporting the needs through the Office of Recovery and Support regardless of litigation.
CB: Do you have any hopes for how the media will approach the upcoming anniversary and the weeks surrounding it?
LH: Well, just like the first day back at school on April 23 was a milestone, the first day back at school Aug. 20 was a milestone, this is a milestone for us. I hope that it will be a day that the institution can continue the recovery and rebuilding process, and likewise for the media. I frankly don't expect and hope that I don't see them on April 16, 2009. The reason is, I'm so cognizant of the university's needs. I remember when the SGA sent me a memo saying, can you ban the media from campus when we start school on April 23? I'm sensitive to my role in being the intermediary with the media to try to help you guys have a normalized experience here as college students.
CB: Speaking of being someone in the administration who is most in tune with the student body, what would you want them to know about this upcoming week?
LH: Students? You might make me emotional now. It was the students that turned the tide. The sense of community, it really came from the students. So, tell them thanks. You guys are why we're here. You guys are why we're here.