By Vic Cox

Within hours of the shootings at Virginia Polytechnic Institute that took 33 lives on April 16, the UCSB community was already responding with empathy. Associate Students President Jared Goldschen organized a candlelight vigil for that evening, and sent out e-mail invitations to the student body and to his Facebook contacts. Between 250 and 300 reportedly showed up in a demonstration of grief and solidarity with the Virginia Tech community.

In a memo on April 18, Chancellor Henry Yang thanked “students who organized and participated in…the vigil, and all those across our campus who have expressed in numerous ways our sympathy and support.” He said he had shared these sentiments with Virginia Tech President Charles Steger, and ordered the campus flags lowered to half-mast for a week.

Besides reaching out to a fellow college community, the chancellor reminded UCSB that counseling services were available to faculty and staff through Human Resources (x3318) and to students through counseling services (x4411). He reassured employees that “the safety and well-being of our students and all members of our campus community” were a serious concern, and noted that both the police department and the campus Disaster Preparedness Committee were rechecking procedures in the wake of the mass killings.

In this, UCSB was following the lead of UC President Robert Dynes, who had promised that “All of our campuses will be reviewing again their safety programs and procedures (and that when the analysis was concluded of the) Virginia Tech shootings, we will apply those lessons as well.”

Dynes and Yang alluded to expanded support of student mental health services systemwide. But after two decades of underfunding, the needs of the UC mental health support system are substantial, according to a Student Mental Health Committee report delivered last September to the Board of Regents (see the Dec. 4, 2006 issue of 93106).

UCSB Vice Chancellor Michael Young co-chaired that committee, and one result of the report was $4.6 million added to the mental health portion of the proposed UC budget. Young has been reported to estimate that the system needs $40 million more to close the gap.