President Merten's Letter to the Mason Community

The community at George Mason University extends our prayers and deepest condolences to our friends, family, and colleagues at Virginia Tech. The shared sense of tremendous loss is one that is very difficult to communicate with words—words seem inadequate given the magnitude of this tragedy.

But ultimately healing must begin, and we must go on. I want to commend our students, student leaders, and our Office of University Life for how quickly they mobilized on our campus to offer assistance to their friends at Virginia Tech, and for their quick action to organize prayer services and vigils so the Mason community could remember and honor the victims. A schedule of the events and activities taking place on our campus is posted on Virginia Tech Outreach Efforts.

I also want to thank the dedicated professionals at our Counseling Center who are working round-the clock to address the needs of our students. Anyone who wishes to seek services from the Counseling Center can call 703-993-2380 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. After 5 p.m. please call the University Police Department at 703-993-2810. They will page the counselor on duty. Faculty who are seeking advice for classroom discussion can visit an excellent web site, counseling.txstate.edu/crisis.htm which is highly recommended by our counseling staff.

I also want to address the inevitable question of safety on our campus. Like most universities across America we are compelled in the wake of this tragedy to review our security procedures. I have asked members of my administration and our security team to undertake this review so I can be assured we are taking every plausible precaution to maintain a secure and safe campus. George Mason University has a well-trained police force; we are currently utilizing state-of-the-art security systems across campus, and we have highly experienced professionals on our staff with extensive crisis management backgrounds.

I am committed to providing the safest campus possible for our students, faculty, staff, and all those who visit George Mason University.

Once again, I extend my deepest sympathies to my friend and colleague, Dr. Charles Steger and to all the students, parents, faculty, and staff at Virginia Tech.

Sincerely,

Dr. Alan Merten, President

George Mason University