EAST LANSING, Mich. (WXYZ) — It’s been another somber day on campus, the last day for those students to retrieve belongings they left behind as they ran from the terror that unfolded here Monday night.
Now the university prepares to bring students back for the purpose of this institution - education.
“While we are returning to standard operations, classes remain suspended through Sunday,” said MSU Interim President Teresa K. Woodruff, Ph.D.
Michigan State University is preparing to resume classes Monday, 7 days after a gunman opened fire in two separate buildings on campus, killing 3 students and critically injuring 5 others.
“I feel like we all have our own way of coping with what happened like emotionally and physically and everything, so I feel like it is a little bit soon to go back,” says Natalie Polehna, MSU Junior.
In the university’s student newspaper is an editorial echoing that sentiment, pleading for the school to take a different path.
The Editorial Board writing: “We need more time to process without a class to worry about. Some of us feel like we can never step foot on our campus again.”
Students told us today they don’t feel safe.
“I actually had class in the classroom, so I know that they’re planning on moving all the classes from Berkey Hall either online or to another building,” says Amanda Koch, MSU Junior. “So, I mean that makes me feel a little better, but not really.”
“It’s so hard to put a timeline on this because it’s so, I don’t even know when it will feel okay or if we’ll ever feel okay to go back. And I can’t even put a timeframe on it, but I definitely can say it’s not a week. For sure,” says Mable Phillips, MSU Junior. “It’s not the next Monday.”
While some students believe quickly regaining a sense of normalcy will help heal.
“Getting back to it as soon as possible but still respecting students' time for mental health and stuff like that is definitely necessary,” says Matthew Sommerdyke, MSU Freshman.
Others say that right now is too difficult to manage.
“That’s all anyone is thinking about, sitting in class. No one’s really thinking about what’s going on in the lecture, they’re thinking about how they can get out of the classroom the fastest or they’re thinking about just the situation in general,” says Koch. “Heartless almost. Like, like we didn’t just lose people that we care about? 3 of our classmates? Feels insensitive and too quick.”
