Open Letter

An Open Letter to College Administrators.

I was living in southern Colorado on September 11, 2001. We were so far away, so safe, yet we all felt so vulnerable. We went to bars to watch CNN alone in a crowd. Our National Parks were shut down and offices closed early. We weren’t in any danger, but we were scared.

This is how you might feel or how your student staff feels right now. No matter how many miles away from Virginia you are, this massacre affects you, your students and your staff.

I wrote yesterday that I never had a death as an RA, but I had close calls and scary nights. Dorm fires states away rang alarm bells in my head. I told my students that death wasn’t an option and that it was never too late to knock on my door.

It took years for me to remove the bricks of the emotional walls I built to offer that kind of service to my residents. To snap into duty within seconds of an alarm ringing.