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For a podcast of the vigil, go to [www.udel.edu/podcast/].
Click here to read A Message to the UD Community from President David P. Roselle.
The vigil, which included comments from Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Protestant, Buddhist and Baha'i faiths, helped provide comfort to those in attendance and allowed them to show support for the Blacksburg, Va., community.
“Yesterday was a tragic day and we feel deeply the loss,” Kim Zitzner, UD religious and spiritual life liaison and Catholic campus minister, said in her opening remarks. “It is a wonderful thing that you are doing by coming out tonight to offer your support. As we feel the winds and the chill, we also feel the warmth of the candles.”
Rabbi Eliezer Sneiderman of UD's Chabad Center for Jewish Life next addressed those gathered at the vigil and connected with mourners by sharing a personal story of one of the victims--the 76-year-old Holocaust-survivor-turned-professor, who was shot while holding the door so his students could flee to safety.
“The ivory towers of an academic institution should offer sanctuary,” Sneiderman said, “but evil can come anywhere. The evil that happened at Virginia Tech did not happen at Darfur, but at a college campus.
“Jewish tradition teaches the way to conquer darkness is with light. Goodness is contagious. So I challenge you to do a good deed and reach out to those around you, because your actions just may prevent a tragedy of this kind.”
Ambrose Eckinger, chaplain of UD's Catholic Campus Ministry, offered his thoughts by reading a passage from Wisdom 3:1-3.
Grant Wolf, UD Baha'i adviser, said that “healing comes from unity,” and read a Baha'i prayer before turning the vigil over to UD's a cappella group, the Golden Blues, who performed two musical selections--"Change" by Billy Strauss and "Meaning" by Gavin Degraw--during the event.
Bill Shearer, executive director and campus minister of the Wesley Foundation, UD's Methodist association, represented Ismat Shah, UD's Muslim Student Association Advisor and read an Islamic prayer.
The Rev. Donna McNiel, associate and campus minister for UD's Episcopal Campus Ministry, read a psalm before turning the vigil over to UD sophomore Annie Norton, from Chevy Chase, Md., who read from a composition she'd written on her reaction to the shootings.
“After the initial shock wore off, my thoughts turned to sympathy,” Norton said. “From there, I thought about the victims, and I thought about what they wouldn't get to do.
“I can only hope we don't forget them or this day, and keep them in our hearts and minds as we journey through life.”
Philip Conrad, UD Zen student adviser, read comments from Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh on compassion.
“Compassion contains deep concern,” Conrad said. “One compassionate word can open the door to liberation. One action can save a person's life. One thought can do the same, because thoughts lead to action,” he said. “We need to be aware of the suffering but maintain our own strength.”
Zitzner concluded the service by asking all present to take a moment of silence to gather thoughts and send prayers before leaving the vigil.
Students who attended the vigil did so for a variety of reasons, chief among them the impulse to show support to the Virginia Tech community.
“I came out tonight to pay my respects and show support for the victims,” Patrick O'Keefe, a sophomore marketing major from Oakton, Va., said. “My older brother attends Virginia Tech, and he's all right and didn't know any of the victims directly, but the campus is really shaken by this.”
Madison Goldberg, a sophomore biology major from Hillsborough, N.J., said that she attended the vigil in support of her friends who go to Virginia Tech, and also to pay her respects to one of the victims, whom she knew. “I've been talking with and e-mailing all my friends since Monday, and even though I go to UD, we're all calling ourselves 'Hokies' tonight,” Goldberg said.
Meghan Kolp, a junior marketing major from Allentown, Pa., said that when she heard Monday's news, she immediately thought of how UD would be shattered by a similar tragedy.
“When I heard about what happened at Virginia Tech, I put Delaware in that position,” she said. “It means a lot to me that I can show my support.”
"We decided to do this so that we will not only remember those who have gone, but we can show that we are standing with those on the Virginia Tech campus," Lonczewski said of the joint effort with Residence Life.
"When something tragic like this happens, everybody wants to be able do something about it, so this was our small way to contribute," Collins said.
Shannon Whalen, a sophomore health sciences major from Cornwall On Hudson, N.Y., said she and some friends came to the vigil in support of Virginia Tech students and their families. "It's nice we can show our support together this way," she said.
When asked why she came to the vigil, Kelsey Lanan of Hockessin, a freshman in the College of Marine and Earth Studies, said, "I felt it was necessary." Lanan, who has two friends who are freshmen at Virginia Tech, said she was able to find out shortly after the shootings there that her friends were unharmed by checking their Facebook pages on the Internet.
Article by Becca Hutchinson
Photos by Jon Cox