“The Virginia Tech massacre has struck home for one University of Akron professor. Paul Levy, a professor of psychology attended VT and earned his masters and doctorate there. While it has been 18 years since he was there, he said he still goes back to visit.”
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The Virginia Tech massacre has struck home for one University of Akron professor.

Paul Levy, a professor of psychology attended VT and earned his masters and doctorate there. While it has been 18 years since he was there, he said he still goes back to visit.

My feelings run pretty deep, Levy said reffering to Monday’s masacre. It’s really very sad and disturbing to see everything that has happened.

Seeing the campus on TV and watching students and getting emails from faculty and staff from there all makes it very personal.

However, Levy said it really doesn’t change anything regarding safety at Akron.

We all know there are unstable folks running around, he said. Universities are open to the public; that’s their premise. We obviously can’t close them off.

Students seem to agree with Levy.

I feel the same as I did before (the shooting) because you can’t live your life freaking out, said Andrew Koehlet, a freshman civil engineering major. I don’t think campus is more or less safe than before.

Douglas Votaw, another freshman, said, Why wouldn’t I feel safe on campus?

He said that if you’re living in the dorms there have been incidents of some sort of predator, such as the convicted felons living in residence halls, and UA took care of that relatively quick.

Students are not worried, and Levy agrees they have little reason to be.

We need to recognize, there are many things that are a greater likelihood, Levy said. People leave here every night with a greater risk of a car accident.

He said the incident at Virginia Tech is just so horrific, it shakes us to the core. People are safe here, just like anywhere else.

Levy said no one has complete control at home, in the grocery store or anywhere.

Hopefully, Levy said, these things will not happen to us like they did to those at VT.

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