How MSU Students And Leaders Will Mark One Year After Mass Shooting

 

East Lansing — One year after a gunman rampaged through Michigan State University's campus, altering thousands of lives and shattering a sense of security, those in the MSU community and beyond East Lansing will mark the anniversary with reflection, remembrances and activities.

Luminaries will light up windows across East Lansing and elsewhere on Tuesday. The battery-operated candles are one way to acknowledge the mass shooting that left three dead and five others critically injured, organizers said. They said it was important to offer a variety of activities for students and staff because everyone grieves differently and some may not want to reflect at all.

Some will focus on service opportunities, giving students a chance to give back on the one year mark. Spaces will be set up on campus to give students places to pause and reflect. Activities will be offered every day next week.

"I think at the end of the day, it's just really important to acknowledge that people are at different places in healing,” said Emily Hoyumpa, president of ASMSU, the university's student government.

MSU has canceled classes Tuesday for its 51,000 students and the largest, most public memorial event will be a candlelight ceremony from 7:30-9:30 p.m. in Lot 62, north of Spartan Stadium, near the Spartan statue. It will be open to the public, interim President Teresa Woodruff said last month. She said participation in activities is voluntary.

"It is important for all of us — myself included — to remember that leading up to Feb. 13, 2024, community members will experience many different emotions," said Woodruff. "The planning underway, led by committees including students, staff and faculty, strives to provide space and time for individualized reactions and experiences as we honor those we lost, those injured and all affected by the tragedy that occurred on our campus."

Three students were killed in the Feb. 13, 2023, shooting — Brian Fraser, Arielle Anderson, and Alex Verner — after the gunman fired shots inside a Berkey Hall a classroom and then at the Union. Five more students were severely injured: Nate Statly, John Hao, Guadalupe Huapilla-Perez, Hanyang Tao and Troy Forbush

Before the gunman was caught by police, thousands of students, employees and the community sheltered in place in dorms, restaurants and other buildings for hours on and off campus, waiting for news. The shooter took his own life later that night.

Organizers have spent months developing remembrance events

Healing and remembrance activities in East Lansing will begin Monday. Organizers said while there was no blueprint on how to plan these kinds of events, they wanted to ensure students, staff and community members had a variety of ways to participate if they wanted.

“Some people want to be part of these things, some people don't, and it's just really important to validate that and for those people who want to be with others — have those spaces, but also make sure that those who are not ready to be with others have the resources available to them to seek help if they need it," said Hoyumpa.

Luminaries will be distributed from 5:30-8:30 p.m. Monday at the Breslin Center, where students can decorate them and find mental health resources. The luminaries will also be distributed to alumni groups across the country and can be picked up at alternate locations around campus and East Lansing.

People can place the luminaries in windows or bring them to Tuesday night’s remembrance gathering, Hoyumpa said.

“Everyone will light those on Tuesday night and put them in their windows and so it'll kind of light up the community here in East Lansing but also across the country,” said Saylor Reinders, a junior and president of Students Demand Action, a student organization at MSU dedicated to ending gun violence. Students Demand Action was one of several student organizations involved in planning next week's activities.

Giving back

ASMSU, in conjunction with Students Demand Action, Sit Down Michigan State, March for Our Lives and the Center for Community Engaged Learning also planned a student day of service and kindness between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Tuesday, ahead of the evening remembrance ceremony.

There are two locations for service activities — on campus in the International Center and off campus in the Hannah Community Center.

“Our on-campus location is specifically focused on words of kindness and acts of kindness through service,” Hoyumpa said. “The activities off campus include packaging supply kits for local schools and youth serving organizations, and decorating brown sack lunch packs for the Kids Food Basket.”

The campus community also will have access to reflective spaces staffed with counseling support in Brody Hall, Main Library, International Center and Hannah Community Center throughout the day. Therapy dogs also will be at the Eppley Center. Religious reflective spaces and leaders from various denominational beliefs as well as counselors will be present at the Alumni Memorial Chapel.

It's important to get as many mental health resources as possible out into the community, Hoyumpa said.

“I'm just hoping that the mental health resources we have — students, faculty and others are able to access them, as well as look at getting reimbursed for mental health resources if they're off campus through the Spartan Strong Fund,” Hoyumpa said.

Students, faculty, staff and first responders can apply for reimbursements for mental health services from the Spartan Strong Fund, the university announced last month. A quarter of the fund, or $500,000 has been allocated to support out-of-pocket costs including deductibles and co-pays related to outpatient counseling and inpatient hospitalization with a mental health diagnosis.

Activities throughout week

Activities connected to the one-year mark will continue throughout the week. On Wednesday, students can sit with a cup of coffee and coloring materials at the main campus library's green room from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., an activity sponsored by MSU's student government, Sit Down Michigan State, Students Demand Action, March for Our Lives and the Center for Community Engaged Learning.

Classes resume Wednesday but assignments and exams will not be due.

And on Thursday, a student Advocacy Day will begin with a sit down in front of the state Capitol at 2 p.m., marking the first anniversary of a student-led protest at the Capitol last year that called for stricter gun regulation legislation.

“We're going to kind of replicate a similar thing, a sit-down protest, show legislators that we're still healing, that we're still angry, that we would like to see more change and then afterwards, we'll go into the Capitol and speak with some legislators,” Reinders said

The students plan to speak with legislators at 4 p.m.

Friday is a self-care day, where students will have access to free food, self-care kits, therapy dogs and mental health resources in the North Business and Student Services buildings.

“We tried to do events … one that's legislative, one that's remembrance, one or two that's mental health, just to kind of have a variety of events people can choose to go to,” said Joseph Kesto, president of March for Our Lives MSU. “I'm excited that we're able to get funding ... from MSU and then work with their administration to kind of plan this week of remembrance events and mental health events.”

Plans are also in the works for a permanent memorial to honor the victims. The university announced in June that roughly $300,000 from the Spartan Strong Fund, and any contributions that exceed $2 million, would go toward a memorial.

The Feb. 13 Permanent Memorial Planning Committee, composed of students, faculty, staff and community liaisons, is seeking community input through a survey and sessions planned for spring, according to Woodruff. Based on feedback, the university plans to create a request for artist proposals by the end of the semester.

Clawson vigil

Clawson Public Schools, meanwhile, is holding its own memorial event for Alex Verner, who was a Clawson graduate, with her family at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Clawson City Park Softball Field. Attendees are encouraged to bring a flashlight to "light up the sky for Alex," according to a post by the district.

The event was organized by the AV24 committee, a group of Verner's former teachers, coaches and students who knew her.

Kelly Horne, Verner's varsity basketball coach and a member of the committee, said students are encouraged to wear AV24 shirts or orange shirts, the color for gun violence prevention, in school Tuesday.

Horne, who is the high school's assistant principal and athletic director, is dedicated to making sure Verner isn't forgotten.

"Within our (basketball) program we talk about Al almost every day," Horne said. "When we break for huddles, I'll say AV and the girls say 24, or I'll say who was 24 and they'll say AV, so she's always with us."

"She left such a legacy that if it's within my power she's never going to be forgotten in this building."