April 17, 2007

To the University Community.

On behalf of the University of Delaware community, I have extended heartfelt sympathies to persons associated with Virginia Tech. Our thoughts and prayers go to our friends and colleagues there.

As noted earlier, for University of Delaware students affected by this tragedy, our Center for Counseling and Student Development is ready to provide support. To contact the center, call (302) 831-2141.

The Virginia Tech tragedy makes us even more mindful of our responsibility to safeguard all the members of our community. Our security and emergency plans are multifaceted and involve City, County and State Police. Those plans are routinely evaluated and, in view of this week's tragedy, a comprehensive evaluation is under way, and additional ways to improve protection will be specified.

Our residence life staff is scheduling special meetings in all the residence halls to review safety procedures and inform students of the resources available to them. I encourage every residence hall student to attend these meetings. We will also use UDaily and other vehicles to inform the community about safety and security procedures.

The University has the capability to send batch E-mail and voice-mail messages. We have earlier solicited bids for a text messaging system and expect to install such a system in the near future. Text messaging systems send text messages to large numbers of cell phones almost instantaneously. For these capabilities to be fully useful, it is necessary for each student to enter his or her cell phone number in the student information system, UDSIS. I encourage every student to list their cell phone numbers as soon as possible. Similarly, all faculty and staff should make sure to provide their department heads with emergency contact information, including home and cell phone numbers.

I assure you that the issues raised by the terrible tragedy at Virginia Tech will receive our full attention in the days and weeks ahead. This is our top priority.

Sincerely,

David P. Roselle
President