Virginia Tech will present Morgan Harrington with a posthumous degree during spring commencement Saturday.
Morgan went missing on Oct. 17, 2009 when she was in Charlottesville for a Metallica concert at the University of Virginia’s John Paul Jones Arena. Her remains were found on Jan. 26, 2010.
Jane Vance, Morgan’s mentor and instructor of the creative process, will speak during the department of religion and culture’s ceremony and present the degree.
“I think about this loss everyday,” Vance said. “It is a privilege to be able to speak.”
Morgan was Vance’s student in the creative process. Vance said she will tell the remarkable story of being Morgan’s teacher.
“Though she was 20 years old, she was in many ways as capable and rich with potential as any great friend I have had,” she said. “She was astonishing as a student, but in great part because she had the privilege of the two remarkable parents and an equally remarkable brother.”
Morgan’s parents, Dan and Gil Harrington, will be at the ceremony to accept the degree on their daughter’s behalf. Gil said the degree is a way to keep her daughter’s presence alive.
“I don’t want to erase her. This is a way of doing that,” Gil said. “She is still reverberating around here somewhere.”
Mark Owczarski, university spokesman, shares a similar sentiment.
“Giving this degree clearly shows our desire to keep these Hokies in Hokie Nation, even though they are not with us today,” he said. “It shows that though they may be gone, they are still a part of this Hokie family.”
Morgan is now a part of Nepal, where she was supposed to visit with Vance last summer. Despite her murder, Morgan still traveled with Vance.
Vance took some of Morgan’s ashes to Nepal last summer.
“I have never had a greater honor than to have carried her ashes to the sacred Himalayas,” she said, “except for graduation where I speak about this girl.”
However, Vance said she will speak for Morgan as well.
“I can talk about who she was and who she was becoming,” she said. “I remember Morgan. I loved her. I loved her. I kissed her goodbye on the side of the head and said she was amazing and said, ‘You will fly.’”
But Vance will not ignore what happened to Morgan.
“I am going to say what needs to be said about her murder,” Vance said.
A version of this article appeared in the May 13 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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What the heck, Morgan didn't graduate. She didn't have enough credits. She was failing a lab her freshman year. Why the heck does she get a posthumous degree when she might not have even graduated had she lived?
This is ridiculous, and lol at Gil saying it's a way to "keep her daughter's presence alive". I think that having a weekly article on Morgan in the school newspaper would have done enough, but oh no, apparently Morgan also needs to get posthumous awards for things she didn't even do.
Why don't we just go ahead and give her the Nobel for Literature, if she was so good at creative writing. It's not like her family will be satisfied with anything less.
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To the anons. First, Morgan didn't have the credits to graduate because she was murdered in the fall of her junior year. Most juniors don't have the credits to graduate--if they did they wouldn't be juniors. Other than that, I understand you to be miffed that there is information out about her?? Why?? To the second person, you are right, other people die and are not memoralized. However Morgan was murdered, and many, many people have written talked about her and have committed to trying to have her brief life mean something. If you, the second anon, want to build on the memory of one of the people you know who has died, then do something. Write about them, do a painting, build a memorial, and if you want I will work with you. Stating that other people have died and nothing has happened doesnt do anything. Again I am happy to help. Morgan is remembered becaue of how she died, because of how people feel about her, and becauese of the committment of many many people to making sure that she is remembered and that her short life has done some good. So far, there is a school wing in her name in Zambia, a medical scholarship in her name in the USA, and several victim rights laws on the books. This is because people acted. If you care about someone act on it.
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"First, Morgan didn't have the credits to graduate because she was murdered in the fall of her junior year. Most juniors don't have the credits to graduate--if they did they wouldn't be juniors."
Precisely my point. She did not have the credits to receive a degree, so she shouldn't have received the degree.
"Other than that, I understand you to be miffed that there is information out about her?? Why??"
I'm sick of people receiving credit for things they didn't earn. I'm also sick of having MY hard work being devalued because someone else gets the same thing for doing nothing. If Tech gave degrees out to everyone who got upset about something, it would make all degrees at Tech worthless. Morgan receiving it because she died only reduces the value of the degree for those of us who actually earned it.
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"Morgan is remembered becaue of how she died, because of how people feel about her, and becauese of the committment of many many people to making sure that she is remembered and that her short life has done some good. So far, there is a school wing in her name in Zambia, a medical scholarship in her name in the USA, and several victim rights laws on the books. This is because people acted. If you care about someone act on it."
The VAST majority of people who "care" about Morgan only started caring after they learned she was dead. Very few of the people who made support groups even knew she existed before her news coverage. It's just like in the video game article. Some guy from Colorado made a support group for Tech because of the 4/16 video game. He would not have known about 4/16 had the news not covered it. He had NO connection to it, and yet he gets involved. It's the same thing with Morgan. Nobody knew about her until she died, and now she's a superstar that everyone cares about. It's pathetic.
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wow. this anon poster is something else. you are a fcking prick. fck you. i'll say it. i'm a 2007 grad and you're just some ahole cnt who doesn't respect the dead. you must really think that your little piece of paper means something when really it's symbolic, just like this gesture VTECH is making toward a fellow Hokies family. It's called a symbol. I know two things about you based on your comment. First, you were not here during the shooting. Two, you are a prick. Gut Check time ahole.
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you are the rear of a jack.
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So what about the other students who died? I've had classes where a student died, and they never had any recognition. Not even an article in the CT.
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Right or wrong, there is a difference bwtween perceptions of death and murder. Morgan was kidnapped and murdered, making national headlines, hence the recognition and continual CT coverage. I don't see any harm in awarding her an honorary degree posthumously.
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Oh big whoop, she was murdered. Let's give her the Nobel Peace Prize while we're at it.
Being murdered doesn't mean you earned anything. It doesn't make you a hero, it doesn't make you a graduate. It only makes you dead. Let those who actually knew and loved Morgan grieve privately. Don't drag the rest of us into this drama by pasting her face and name all over the place.
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To the second anon I am serious. If you want to memoralize a Tech student who died, let me know through this posting and I will work with you on it. Noone shoudl be forgotten.
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"And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:"
-Hebrews 9:27
Everyone, including Morgan, will be forgotten by future generations of humans. The only important thing is whether or not you are ready to meet your maker.
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Your response was immature, cruel, and unnecessary. Consider for a moment how her parents or any parents would feel after reading that.
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I am referring to the first Anon, not the previous comment.
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seriously? I think the comment is well put. I don't know Morgan Harrington nor do I care about her continued presence b/c I will continue to ignore it the same way I did with the national news. It has no impact on my life and irritating to drag out the memory of some girl to an entire community, most of whom knew of her through news and didn't actually know her. Among her friends and what not, that's lovely if they want to make a plaque, memorial, or scholarship among that group of people, but to shove down our faces more Morgan Harrington than I want to know or remember is immature, cruel, and unnecessary to the rest of the people in the world. Seriously, it's upsetting this girl had to die, but it doesn't pertain to me and I don't feel apart of it or involved. Consequentially, I don't want to hear about it anymore.
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Completely immature and self-centered.
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It's not immature or self-centered to not feel the need to care about one particular individual that the rest of the school says you should care about. I don't see ANY articles in the CT about the suffering going on in other countries. There are entire GROUPS of people being subjected to the same thing Morgan was every single day, but only Morgan gets singled out. Why? Because she was a "pretty, rich white girl".
It was the exact same thing a few years ago. VCU made headlines when some girl mysteriously disappeared. For over a MONTH there was daily news about her (it turns out she died from er0tic asphyxiation with her boyfriend at the time). But one of the opinion writers was upset because a poor black girl had ZERO news coverage (except for his opinion piece). The only differences were skin color and wealth.
So I ask again, WHY do we care about Morgan? There are plenty of other people in the world who experienced the exact same thing Morgan did, but they get no memorial. There are countless numbers of people being subjected to cruelty who don't get mentioned for no reason. You all only care about Morgan because the media decided to focus on her story. If anyone is being immature, it's you. Not those of us who see Morgan as no different from anyone else.
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agreed. see my comments below anon, anon2 and anon3
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Some of the comments here are just cruel and nasty. Those commenters should be ashamed of themselves and learn to have respect for Morgan's family and friends. I've appreciated the CT's coverage of this story. I don't expect a student newspaper in Blacksburg to cover world news (to the commenter who wants to know why this story has gotten coverage and not the dozens or more who die around the world each day in terrible circumstances.) You expect them to have a bureau in Kabul? Grow up.
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I vehemently disagree. At the end of the day, all media forms use these stories to make money at the expense of people like the Harrington's. It's well understood that people will want to hear about tragedy and will respond with exceeding sympathy, thus media will profit through advertisements and readership (even the CT). The previous comments are not cruel and nasty, but rather well opined and provide readers of this online commentary with a sense that it is ridiculous to rally around one person whose life, an unfortunate tragedy, you know solely through media. I certainly understand the Harrington's must be grieving and I find it sad, but in all honesty I don't know them so my sadness can only extend but so far. No bureau is needed in Kabul, there are people that die in virginia every day. They die in places even closer to home: the new river valley. Yet nobody highlights their deaths because as a reader, you might not find yourself, well connected to the random old guy down the street who died from cancer. Harrington's story, however, is something people want to rally behind. Promoting one person's tragedy well far and beyond a single news article to National Headlines and posthumous degrees is excess is it not?
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I vehemently disagree. At the end of the day, all media forms use these stories to make money at the expense of people like the Harrington's. It's well understood that people will want to hear about tragedy and will respond with exceeding sympathy, thus media will profit through advertisements and readership (even the CT). The previous comments are not cruel and nasty, but rather well opined and provide readers of this online commentary with a sense that it is ridiculous to rally around one person whose life, an unfortunate tragedy, you know solely through media. I certainly understand the Harrington's must be grieving and I find it sad, but in all honesty I don't know them so my sadness can only extend but so far. No bureau is needed in Kabul, there are people that die in virginia every day. They die in places even closer to home: the new river valley. Yet nobody highlights their deaths because as a reader, you might not find yourself, well connected to the random old guy down the street who died from cancer. Harrington's story, however, is something people want to rally behind. Promoting one person's tragedy well far and beyond a single news article to National Headlines and posthumous degrees is excess is it not?
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Simple reply. no its not.
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1) Awarding degrees posthumously does not degrade the meaning of your degree, because the person is not alive anymore to do anything the would negatively represent the education that people receive at Virginia Tech.
Instead, its the people who are alive with a degree, that are walking around claiming Tech who are not up to par who damage the reputation of the VT degree. A dead person cant do that.
Hence, the logic about the degree being devalued because of a posthumously awarded degree makes no sense.
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2) It is not uncommon for universities to posthumously award degrees to persons who died tragically (like all of the 4/16 persons who died), and/or who died when they were very close to finishing (i.e. junior or senior year). It is a combination of PR and respect that the university does this for the parents. For the parents and persons who loved them it IS a way to remember the person. It represents what these person's feel all to well, that a loved one life was cut short before they even had a chance to reach their potential, even as they worked to do so while in college.
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3)Students who die (non tragically) often do get a posthumous degree, ESPECIALLY if they are very close to finishing. Just because it isn't televised, or in the news, or anything like that doesn't means it hasn't happened. So, to the person who said "I've had people in my class die and they weren't given anything": 1) Umm... how often are people dying in classes that you have? If its THAT often thats weird. Thus I DOUBT its as often as you make it sound like. 2)How well did you know these people? Can you verify that their families DID NOT get a posthumous degree for the person? probably not. and 3) How far along were all these people who died in your classes (again weird). Were they freshman? sophomores? last semester seniors?. If they were super early on, unless the family requested it, they likely didn't get one. if they did get one it wouldn't be necessarily printed in graduation program books for the corresponding year.
A person died, tragically. Don't be jerks. Let the family grieve and let the university aid their grief. geez. whats wrong with you people.
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simple reply. nothing.
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Violence, even apparently without motive, is tragically endemic to American society. It is something we live with, and horrific crimes happen every day. It seems to me that the Harringtons have been parading their dead daughter around in public in a bizarre and almost perverse fashion. I've never shared this opinion with anyone before, because I know it will arouse a lot of anger, but I am genuinely mystified at this behavior. Whether it's associating Virginia Tech and its degree process with their private grief, fanning the media fire and grabbing for the spotlight, or using her name and face to lobby the state government for controversial tactics like Familial DNA Databasing, they appear to believe that this very unfortunate event has somehow granted them a special importance. The media treatment of this case was, from the start, classic Missing White Woman Syndrome; the family's weird practice of plastering Morgan across the internet and turning her into an obsession didn't help at all. There's tragedy in the back pages of my family-- I doubt there's a person alive who isn't connected to this kind of grief. That's a sad fact of our world. This family's behavior to me seems the exception to the rule of quietly working to put the pain behind you.
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