UNC-Chapel Hill sophomore Ashley Tatem writes "Heal Together" on a walking path outside the campus student center in Chapel Hill, N.C., Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2023, the day after a graduate student fatally shot his faculty adviser. Read more
Hannah Schoenbaum / AP
By Laura Sinko and Krista Schroeder, The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 8, 2023
On Aug. 28, a Ph.D. student at the University of North Carolina shot and killed a faculty member. The campus was on lockdown for over three hours while law enforcement officers searched for the suspected shooter. Two days later, the student newspaper, the Daily Tar Heel, published a cover of panicked text messages that students sent and received: “I’m in class everyone is losing it people are literally shaking,” “Please stay safe,” “Barricade the door if you think you can.”
As professors at Temple University, we share the sorrow and horror of such incidents, having experienced our own moments of profound loss. In February, a Temple police officer who tried to intervene in a carjacking was shot and killed in a neighborhood adjacent to campus.
As we reflect on these tragedies, we are drawn back to the need for a proactive approach to trauma response and prevention. Imagine a trauma-informed campus where signs of trauma are recognized early, the impacts of trauma are understood, and parents can trust that their children will be attending an institution that is equipped to support them.
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