Editor's note: The files linked in the archive are of two points of origin. The files labeled "This material was gathered in August of 2008" have been available for some time to those who visited University Relations and is also accessible through the Prevail Archive. The other documents were released for the first time on Dec. 16 as part of the settlement. These files include all of the Cho-related correspondence, have never before made public and are largely independent of Prevail and University Relations content.
Documents released to the families of April 16 victims by the university yesterday unveil a portrait of Seung-Hui Cho previously unrevealed.
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Nicely done. No reason at all to keep these away from the public. You've done a service by putting them out there. Transparency all the way. Sad the school paid nearly half a million dollars for proprietary software when the big-G could have put it together for nothing...
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You should have respected the University's desire to let the families digest the information. Way to heap more pain onto the families.
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I agree with Robert. No wonder the university keeps getting accused of being careless and irresponsible when students like yourself and the rest of the staff blantly disregard the families feelings and privacy. These were going to be made public in due time and there was no need to publish them now, especially right before the holidays. It has done nothing but open all the wounds for the entire Hokie community.
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If none of the information is specific to the families, or is private medical information, I don't see why to hold it back. Clearly, the university is hoping to delay the release until no one cares anymore.
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The information has been publicly posted since last month. Any effort by the university to keep the information unavailable to the public is simply stonewalling. The information has been available to the entire public via a FOIA request or on www.prevailarchive.org since last month.
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How dare you open the wounds by grouping the apparent nonsensical amount of data into reader-friendly categories. (I'm proud the CT is my school's paper... good work, staff).
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Thank you for making this information public. Those ranting about "re-opening old wounds", etc. are ignoring the obvious here: email's sent over the web server at a public university are public property. As such, the public has a right to view them--not after any other specific members of the public, but as soon as they are available. Thank you for protecting taxpayers' rights by releasing the information we are obviously entitled to access in a timely fashion. Given the amount of time that elapsed between the original incident and the present, it was high time this information was released.
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Posting this information online is pure sensationalism. Publishing these messages- some of which are confidential- is extremely insensitive. The standard of your publication must be of such a high standard to stoop to this level. Hope you are satisfied.
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I don't understand the people who are complaing about the publication of these materials and conversations. I think it's a good source to study, prevent, see things so they won't repeat. If it's bothering some so much, why are they here reading it? This is not about sensationalism, it's about learning. "If you don't learn from the past, you're doomed to repeat". I feel sorry for everybody involved here, but I find it also pretty obvious what was going on with the shooter... without our too easy access to guns he would have "accomplished" just the fraction of what he did...
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Janet, it's the fact that the CT deliberately posted this information before it was supposed to be made public. They kind of overstepped their boundaries. The fact that they are student media doesn't give them to right to do something like this. There's nothing wrong with releasing this information, it's about adhering to the rules and requests of the families and others in order to protect these documents. Why does everyone think it's ok to deliberately overstep these boundaries?
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Thank you for publishing the information. It was the correct action. It is a shame that some people believe hiding important information like this is inappropriate. The families have had plenty of time to absorb this information and releasing it does no harm to them.
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Thank you for putting forth this information, God Bless you all.
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Brian: This information is ALREADY PUBLIC. It has been public for months, by going to Burruss Hall and making an appointment with University Relations. The information was already digitized, at www.prevailarchive.org. The information is freely and publicly available. The CT did an excellent job by making it further accessible.
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