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Site of NIU shooting will be demolished |
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By MICHAEL TARM, Associated Press
Writer
DEKALB, Ill. - The Northern Illinois University building
where a gunman killed five students in an auditorium
lecture hall, then committed suicide on the stage, will
be demolished and replaced, school officials said
Wednesday.
Cole Hall — a huge classroom building at the center of
the 25,000-student campus — will be replaced with a
state-of-the-art general classroom building to be named
Memorial Hall, the university said.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich planned an afternoon news
conference to announce state funding for the project.
Students on campus seemed torn about the announcement.
"Some people can't stand to look at it, and others see
it as a memorial as it is," 19-year-old freshman Cassie
Dodd said. "Personally, I think it should stay. It's a
part of us now."
Junior Jessica Burnside disagreed.
"It's a trophy of a tragic, destructive event," said
Burnside, 21. "Nobody wants to be reminded of it."
Former graduate student Steven Kazmierczak burst into
the auditorium on Valentine's Day, carrying at least
four guns, and fired dozens of shots into a geology
class, killing five and wounding at least 16 people
before turning the gun on himself.
Demolition of the 40-year-old Cole Hall could begin this
spring, and construction on the new building is expected
to begin next summer, NIU spokeswoman Melanie Magara
told The (DeKalb) Daily Chronicle. Students could use
the new facility as early as December 2010.
At Virginia Tech, where student Seung-Hui Cho gunned
down 32 people before killing himself, officials decided
to turn the classroom space in Norris Hall into a peace
center and interactive learning space. Laboratories,
which couldn't be relocated because of the risk of
damaging expensive equipment, remain in use.
NIU resumed classes Monday after closing campus for more
than a week. The school has established a memorial
scholarship fund in honor of the students who died. |
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