Virginia Tech sets Ground rules for April 16 Media Coverage

By John Carlin
WSLS10 Anchor
Published: March 7, 2008

As students enjoy the last few days of their spring break, Virginia Tech is making sure their next day off—April 16th—is what it’s been declared… a day of remembrance.
Shortly after the shootings last year, media from across the nation and around the world descended upon the campus.  And while the majority of them left a week later, many came back for graduation.
Already, the university has requests from 400 people with 250 media outlets, some as far away as Japan, to be on campus for the anniversary.  But today I talked to university spokesman, Larry Hinker, who explained they want the media to be more respectful and understanding.

There were roughly 1-thousand members of the media on Virginia Tech’s campus in the aftermath of the shootings last April, and they wore out their welcome in a hurry.

Tech sophomore Michael Brennan said, “They were a little bit invasive they were in your face, they were not allowing the students to come to grips with what had happened.”

Yet without the media, the world would never have known the magic of the candlelight vigil.
VT alumna Stephanie Wright watched from Northern Virginia. “I was always able to hear what was going on, see what was going on, but never felt like the media was in anyone’s face or disrespectful to the campus,” she said. 

This year there will be a day a remembrance, but the university wants to keep the media under control.  Vice President for University Relations, Larry Hinker explained, “This University has been poked and prodded and looked at in a lot of different ways.  And we need to try convey to our colleagues like yourself, the sensitivity that I think is necessary to help this university to continue to heal,” he said. 
The Tech drill field will be a focal point for the day’s activities.  Obviously it’s a huge space.  It also happens to be a public space which means in reality the media can’t be restricted any more than the rest of the public, and the university knows that. But they are hoping that members of the media will be respectful.

“There’s no reason for me to say, and no ability for me to say you can’t go.  But you would ask what?  I’d ask you to simply put your hat on, if you were on the other side of the camera,” said Hinker  
VT graduate student Curt Gervich, found the situation perplexing.  “I guess it’s ironic, because a lot of people feel like media was invasive, and then the media comes and asks us what the media should do,” he said.

Already, officials have said the Norris Hall is off limits to the press on April 16, 2008.  Certain areas of the drillfiled will be marked off to keep cameras at a distance, and both protographers and reporters have been asked to stay out of private areas such as the chapel. 

Additional guidelines are to be posted on Tech’s website as the anniversary draws nearer.