Larry Hincker, associate
VP of university relations at Virginia Tech, who acts as the spokesperson for
the school, was at the meeting of eight university officials Monday, April 16,
that decided to withhold the news of two student murders that were discovered
at 7:15 a.m.
Larry
Hincker, associate VP of univ. relations at Virginia Tech. |
The
VT website had a picture of his supervisor, Elizabeth Flanagan, VP of development
and university relations, but not of Hincker. The department said it would look
for such a picture.
The two-hour delay in notifying either the campus
or the media is being blamed by some critics for the later murders of 29 students
and one professor.
Cho Seung-Hui might not have carried out his planned
slaughter if TV trucks and reporters were roaming the campus, critics are saying.
Students
would have been more cautious if they knew a murderer was on the loose, critics
are also saying.
Not informed of the early murders until much later
were the nearby Roanoke Times, which covers University news, and WDVJ-TV,
the local TV station.
Officials
at Meeting
University officials at the meeting shortly after
the initial murders were discovered (besides Hincker were:
Mark
McNamee, provost. Kay Heidbreder, legal counsel. Wendell Filchum,
university police chief. David Ford, associate provost. James
Hyatt, chief operating officer. Zenobia Hikes, VP of student affairs.
Kim O'Rourke, chief of staff.
There were no representatives from the
student body.
Greta Van Sustern of Fox News last night interviewed a
student who lived in the dorm where the initial murders took place who said police
refused to tell her why they were present in the dorm when she saw them on her
way to class shortly before 8 a.m.
They told her she would not be allowed
to return to the dorm but would give no reason. When she returned from class at
9 a.m. they continued to withhold the news of what happened but let her into the
dorm on the condition she would not leave it, the student told Van Sustern.
Van
Sustern commented before the interview was shown that listeners were apt to be
"shocked" by what the student was about to tell them.
VT officials
have been saying they acted in the best way they could based on information that
was then available.
Andrea Peyser, New York Post columnist, carried
the list of the eight people at the VT meeting, saying it was a "travesty"
that the earlier murders were not given wide publicity. She blasted the "shameful
inaction" of the eight administrators and quoted Mark Owczarski, director
of news and information, as saying that "The decisions that were made corresponded
to the amount of information available."
Prof. Rachel Holloway,
head of the communications dept. at the school, is a member of PRSA. Ashley Hess
is president of the school's PRSSA chapter. The website of the chapter
currently does not list any officers or board members by name.
The role
of Flanagan's department is to "promote public understanding of and support
for Virginia Tech" and to "create a positive public impression of the
university and its faculty, students and programs," the school's website
says. |