Jim Dickens / SPPSPresident Steger opened up about April 16 and the impact it has had over the past year.

Last April 16 was the beginning of his immersion into dealing with those hurt, injured, and lost as well as their families; taking on a slew of policy change and four different review panels, facing questions about his administration's reactions to the shootings, all while leading one of the largest and most prominent schools in Virginia forward amidst the heartbreak and chaos. In the first part of his interview with the Collegiate Times, President Steger addresses the issues stemming from the shootings one year ago. Look in the regular edition of the CT for a more personal interview with the president.

Caroline Black: As far as policy goes, obviously the past year has seen exponential growth in policy change, as far as security policy goes, as was recommended by the three internal review boards, how do you feel Tech's progress is in that area at this point?

Charles Steger: You know, we had over 400 recommendations. Some conflict with each other, some have several ways to get to a solution. We had all the various groups, including committees of our board, we had students, faculty, staff participating, and we put those 400 -- I think it was 430 recommendations into 33 major initiatives -- which were prioritized by these different groups. Just a few weeks ago we allocated the final stage of funding. Everything we do is very expensive — just changing the panic bars on the doors is over $1 million. I think by this coming fall, virtually all the initiatives that were articulated will be done. You've always got to continue to work on them, and I'll give you one example. VT Alerts: we've got about 20,000 people signed up. The fact is though, we have 26,000 students, we have 7,000 full-time employees, and 4,000 part-time employees, so we still have a ways to go to really permeate that group if we want to send out a message. However, if you look at the sign-up rates around the country, they're only about 40 percent, so we're a lot better than those, but we still have a ways go to on that. So, while we've done all those things, we're still going to have to work on them and every year, a new freshman class comes in.

CB: You mentioned the process of implementing security measures was put into the final stages of funding, what was that process like?

CS: We've spent now over $12 million in responding to all of these recommendations. A lot of that money is in terms of counseling and counselors and things like that. The Office of Recovery and Support that works with the families costs about $1 million a year. It was a very good thing to do; there are very real resources that go to that. After we prioritized the steps we would take, then we asked people to go and get real numbers. We didn't just sit around the table and say, "Maybe that's going to cost $500,000." We went to the vendors and things, and came back with real numbers. Then we authorized the funding, and they're being implemented as we speak right now.      

CB: As far as the monetary aspect, where is the university now? Are you still anticipating federal grants? How much deficit is there now?

CS: Well, a lot of the grants have not come in; I'm hoping they will. These things are important, but we paid for it. We got $1.3 million from the state, the rest of it we paid for by ourselves, which means that we didn't do a lot of other things, so this has a real impact on the institution.

CB: What kinds of things had to be compromised for the additional funding?

CS: We didn't compromise anything. The things that we felt were very important, we funded, and I have to still figure out how I'm going to pay for it.

CB: Was any money from the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund used for security measures?

CS: No funds from the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund were used to address any of the university problems. Donors from around the country and around the world gave us a little over $8.4 million, and we chose to use that to help the families. Lots of these families were in very difficult straits even before, and we felt the best thing to do was to use that money to help them. So none of that money was used for any university issue. So, we distributed $8.4 million, and we spent another $12 million on top of that.

CB: Speaking of the families, over the past year how have your interactions been and relationships evolved, including both support through the university as well as having their input on policy change?

CS: As you know, when we first started, we assigned, within the first couple of days, a liaison, one person to work with each family, because it was just impossible, given all the things that were going on -- we can't communicate with 58 people simultaneously. That helped to a degree, and those people did that on top of their existing jobs and whatever else. We also had regular communications with the families; I think we sent out probably 11 or 12 fairly lengthy letters. We organized meetings around the state for any families that wanted to come; we would have separate meetings for those who were injured versus those who lost their children. I placed phone calls to every family. Some families did not want to talk; in fact they didn't want to have any contact with Virginia Tech. Now, that's changing really for the better. I wrote every family a personal letter at Christmastime; I mean a hand-written, personal letter. One of the things our Office of Recovery and Support has done, they are almost in a daily contact. They have professional counselors who are trying to help those families, so all those things together helped the healing process, they don't solve it, because it's a problem we can't fix, but we're doing everything we can to try and help these families move forward, and to help this entire community move forward.

CB: Would you say those relationships were at all affected by the recent talk of possible litigation toward the university?

CS: Well, one of the things that we have done is that, whether or not people were intending to litigate, it didn't affect our communications, really.

CB: Does the school have any sort of contingency plan or plans in the event of litigation?

CS: I'll just say that we are fully prepared to deal with whatever outcomes, that's it.

CB: Reflectively, when you look back on one year ago, what do you remember about the morning of April 16?

CS: It was a rapidly changing circumstance. I think as we gathered information on what had happened we began to think about, "OK, what do we do to help this community cope with this crisis?" So, that's when we began to think about things like the convocation that happened the next day, what we could do to help the families … you have to sort through what exactly is it that you're dealing with, and that took some time, quite honestly. But as we did that, we began to think about, how do we do everything we can for these families, but how do we continue to move this institution forward? How do we -- and this is where the leadership question comes in -- how do you take this community through a grieving process? We're all human beings, and it's a very important part of our nature, and how you do that. People are grieving individually, but there's also a collective, shared sense of grief that we tried to do our best to help people cope with.

CB: Does any particular advice you received in the days following stick in your mind as being the most useful or helpful?

CS: Well, I think that I got a lot of encouragement from people, from all over. I don't remember particular advice; people were calling me up, and a lot of people were very sensitive to the fact that we were working 20 hours a day and all that, but I did get messages and phone calls from people who just wanted to let me know that their support and prayers were there.

CB: Regarding next Wednesday (April 16), I know that this week is going to be crazy for you, but do you have any plans for the day that may be more personal to you, or if you will get any time to yourself?

CS: Well I'm going to attend some of the events, and I'm just going to see how the day goes. We're going to have a lot of activity, lots of governors coming and all that sort of thing. I think the attorney general and lieutenant governor are coming to the vigil that night, Secretary (of Public Safety, John) Marshall, and there are a lot of other people probably coming that I don't know about, so we're just going to have to see how that goes.     

CB:  Is there anything else you'd like to discuss that we didn't touch on this morning?

CS: I would say that the sense of community is something we all work at, all of us, and the resiliency that was demonstrated on April 16 and after, and particularly on the part of the students, was remarkable. I'm not sure the institution could have managed to cope with the many problems without that. What the Hokies United did, what the student body did, it's not normal. I've visited places all over the world, and the sense of community that's here, I'm not saying it's not at other places, but it's not at many. So that makes me feel good. The students have been very supportive, and we try to do everything we can to be supportive of them. I have wonderful relationships with everybody. I just like to reiterate how important that kind of individual act of kindness that each person can do as you are here on campus, transforms the sense of community collectively, and we shouldn't lose sight of that.

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