Collegiate Times

There has been much speculation from students, families and faculty alike on what will be done to Norris Hall after the events of April 16. The administration will consider everyone’s opinions, but nobody knows when those decisions will be made, said university spokesperson Mark Owczarski.

“It is a very important decision,” Owczarski said. “You just can’t make a very important decision like that at the spur of the moment.”

Owczarski said that with graduation coming up, he feels that this really isn’t the time to make these decisions. Rather, he said, this is a time to commemorate those who are graduating.

“We are trying to get through from April 16 and we still have commencement to look forward to,” Owczarski said.

At this time, there is not a lot of concrete information about what will be done to Norris Hall, Owsarski said.

There are, however, a lot of opinions about what should be done coming from the student body. Opinions range from completely tearing the building down to leaving it up as an academic building and almost everything in between.

Emily Davis, a freshman human nutrition, food, and exercise major, referred to Columbine when she said that she doesn’t think Norris Hall should be completely torn down.

“I think they should tear out the inside like they did to Columbine,” Davis said, “Keep the structure but re-do every thing that was affected.”

Davis said that she thinks if Norris was completely torn down, it would be impractical because everyone would have to be assigned to different classes.

Danny Voltmer, a freshman mechanical engineering major, agrees that Norris should be rebuilt instead of torn down, but for a different reason.

“(Tearing down Norris) would kind of empower Cho because it would be symbolic in saying this really hit us hard,” Voltmer said, “It kind of goes against the ‘we will prevail’ thing.”

Voltmer thinks that a memorial should be built in front of a rebuilt Norris as well.

Other students think that the whole building should be built into a memorial, but not torn down.

“I think demolishing the building is almost acting as if it never happened,” said Veronica Park, junior architecture major.

Leana Hearn, also a junior architecture major, agreed that the building shouldn’t be rebuilt because it would cost the school money and it is “kinda pointless.”

“I think it would be nice to have a memorial where it happened in the building,” Hearn said. “I can see why people wouldn’t want to have classes in there.”

Christy Willard, a sophomore agricultural sciences major, said that she had a class on the third floor of Norris Hall, but she would not want to go back in there because she had a friend that died in the building.

“I just don’t want to go back in there and have a teaching atmosphere in (the building),” Willard said.

Still, others think that the building should continue to be used as an academic building like it was before April 16.

Blake Day, a freshman English major, said she thinks that the building should be left as it is.

“We can’t let this incident stop us from living our normal lives because we can’t be afraid anymore,” Day said. “We need to move forward with our education.”

Still, another student, Stephanie Lizza, a freshman international studies major, said that she thinks the building should be taken down completely and that a memorial should be built in its place.

“If I ever have a class in there, I will change it because I don’t want to go in there,” Lizza said.