Tech spokesman updates 4/16 archive status

By Scott Leamon
WSLS10 Reporter
Published: July 21, 2008

  Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said the university is still going through documents to be featured in a 4/16 archive required by a June settlement with almost all of the victims families.

  Hincker disputed a Richmond Times-Dispatch report on Sunday which quoted him saying the university would not release “key material” some of the families want in the archive.

  “That’s not true,“ Hincker said Monday morning outside his office in front of Burruss Hall.

  “All that’s saying is that was not available to [the Times-Dispatch].“

  Hincker said four Times-Dispatch reporters, who spent two days on campus last week going through 20,000 pages of papers related to the shooting incidents, did not see all the materials which will be made available on the archive.

  Hincker said the archive could contain more handwritten notes from some of the university’s top administrators in the hours after the shooting, as well as dozens, if not hundreds, of emails traded between administrators following the tragedy.
 
  The agreement stipulates Tech must have the archive up and running within six months of the settlement agreement, meaning the university would have to comply by no later than December 17th.

  The settlement also stipulates the university will be in control of the archive.

  Hincker said the materials were not organized as of yet, but seemed confident the university would make the mid-December deadline.

  Douglas Fierberg, one of the attorneys representing several family members involved in the settlement, said if his clients deem certain materials were left out of the archive that shouldn’t be, they could challenge Tech’s decision in court.

  Fierberg said the settlement agreement was not in jeopardy.

  Hincker reiterated the university was not trying to hide anything from Times-Dispatch reporters.

  He said some of the material the Times-Dispatcher asked for in a Freedom of Information Act request simply had not been properly vetted by university lawyers.

  Federal law will prohibit certain information from ever becoming public, such as much of Cho’s mental health records, and Cho’s student records, Hincker said.