Students return to classes at Northern Illinois

CHICAGO-On a gray, icy Monday morning, students began circulating on the Northern Illinois University campus shortly before 8 a.m. classes for the first time since the Feb. 14 shooting that claimed the lives of five students.In a lot of ways they looked normal-headphones in ears, cell phones pressed to heads, bags slung over shoulders.

Except for brief glances they largely ignored the police tape that still encircles Cole Hall, the scene of the shooting, and the vast memorials of flowers and balloons planted in the snow and ice.

Even as the morning wore on and foot traffic increased, students described the mood as subdued.

"But it's good to see people back here," said Jeff Brown, 35, a senior history major from Sugar Grove. "On the surface things may eventually look normal, but this will stick around for the rest of the semester."

The reopening of campus came after an emotional memorial service Sunday evening that honored the victims of the Feb. 14 carnage.

The service filled the 10,000-seat Convocation Center on campus. DeKalb itself shut down, with almost every marquee in town carrying the region's new, and necessary, mantra: "Forward, Together Forward."

Inside the arena, dignitaries and frat boys, friends and strangers gathered to remember the Valentine's Day shooting, the 48 shots fired, the five students killed and the 16 wounded.

"I have seen your courage, and I have seen your strength," university President John G. Peters told the audience, as security guards walked the aisles handing out tissue. "Your presence wraps us in a warm embrace and reminds us we are not alone."

Hundreds spilled into the arena's lobby and adjacent overflow rooms, standing shoulder to shoulder to watch the service on flat-screen TVs. Thousands more saw the ceremony in rooms across NIU and at satellite campuses in Hoffman Estates, Rockford and Naperville.

The memorial was the culmination of 10 days of grieving, which began hours after Steven Kazmierczak, a former NIU student, opened fire on a crowded lecture room. The gunman took his own life, leaving few clues to his motive.

But Sunday night was not about seeking answers. The dead and wounded were honored, and the university community was challenged to take a stand.

"Each person touched by this trauma will always carry a bit of it in their hearts," said Cherilyn Murer, chair of the university's board of trustees. "But we have a choice, a choice to succumb or to fight back, and I believe we have all chosen to fight."

Many students seemed relieved to be back, as if the time off was almost too much.

"Campus has been too quiet this week, and we all miss one another," said Whitley Cole, a freshman from Evergreen Park who arrived hours early and was first in line at the Convocation Center. "We thought this is what we needed to get closure."

Five sprawling bouquets of red roses and white lilies sat on tables to one side of the stage, one for each of the victims, whose names were read as the ceremony began.

Gayle Dubowski. Catalina Garcia. Julianna Gehant. Ryanne Mace. Dan Parmenter. Their pictures faded in and out on screens. Students put hands over their mouths, cried. Some buried their heads in friends' shoulders.

Presidential candidate and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama left the campaign trail to attend the memorial. Dignitaries on stage included Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Sen. Dick Durbin and Michael Leavitt, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, who read a statement on behalf of President Bush.

Durbin encouraged students to find ways to carry on the lives of the victims.

"As we move forward together, let's make room in our hearts for their dreams," he said. "In that way death will not be the victor, and their dreams will live on."

At the end of the hourlong ceremony, junior Jeff Machaj, 21, of Schaumburg held his girlfriend's hand and joined the slow and contemplative crowd marching past the metal detectors brought in for the occasion and out the arena's glass doors.

"I feel a little less confused, a little less angry after seeing everyone come together like this," he said.

Brian Bielawski, 20, a junior from Naperville, was one of the last to leave.

"It was a nice capstone," he said of the memorial.

Then he raced off across campus, providing a hint that a sense of normalcy was at hand. He had a seven-page paper due Monday and had yet to write a word.

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(c) 2008, Chicago Tribune.