Officials at UNC Charlotte are not yet sure what will be done with the building where a shooter opened fire last week. The Kennedy building is now locked down and only accessible by people in the information technology division by key swipe.
Chancellor Phillip Dubois said there likely won’t be any summer classes in that building.
“I visited yesterday with the employees in the Kennedy building and they love that building. They don’t love what happened there, of course,” said Dubois. “But they love that building and they had been trained in their active shooter response in the building. So they knew exactly what to do and they were very grateful for that.”
A remembrance commission will be deciding how to memorialize the two victims of the shooting — Riley Howell and Ellis "Reed" Parlier. Dubois said the commission will start the process after some reflection time over the summer. He said the 14-member commission will study and possibly visit other universities to see how they have honored victims of shootings. Dubois said in the meantime, archivists will be collecting and preserving materials from makeshift memorials on campus.
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David Spano is the director of the Center for Counseling and Psychological Services at UNC Charlotte. He said in the week since the shooting, about 400 students have come to the center to talk about the tragedy. Spano said some counselors have made arrangements to meet students off campus if coming back is too upsetting. Spano said he’s working with other university counseling centers to see students who live across the state and are returning home over summer. Spano said he’s working to get an agreement from all UNC system schools across the state to see students in need of counseling services.
“We will post on our website by the end of the week a number of local contacts where students can call and get some referrals into that community. We will communicate that to the students by the end of the week,” said Spano.
More than 350 faculty and staff have sought counseling since the shooting through an employee assistance program the university provides.