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2006 Christmas Message to the Duquesne Community
This season of Christmas and the coming of a
New Year is a time for celebration, gift-giving
and family. We celebrate the miraculous entry of
the Holy Spirit into history at the birth of Jesus
Christ, and the remarkable faith of generations
of believers. We also mark the end of a calendar
year and anticipate the possibilities inherent
in fresh beginnings.
These joyous insights into salvation history
and natural renewals prompt gift-giving and the
traditions of the holiday season. Of all gifts,
it is presence itself that we value most—particularly
of family—at this time of year.
This year’s Christmas and New Year season
come at the end of one of Duquesne’s most
difficult semesters. Just weeks after the start
of the fall term, when a dozen new recruits to
our basketball program were acclimating to Duquesne,
the unthinkable occurred. Two young men, unaffiliated
with our University, fired multiple gunshots into
a group of our students, all of them on our basketball
team.
This terrible act could hardly have been more
anomalous. Our campus is among the safest urban
campuses in the nation. The student event preceding
the shooting was peaceful and followed all our
University regulations, including the presence
of extra security.
Five students were wounded and scores of others
on the scene were deeply shaken. Hours and days
of anxiety followed. We prayed together for the
recovery of our students. An exhaustive examination
of that evening’s events was undertaken.
We now know the exact moment the shooting occurred.
Our campus police were immediately on the scene.
Within three minutes, the Pittsburgh City Police
arrived. Five minutes after the shots were fired,
emergency vehicles were at the scene. Ten minutes
later, the first victim left the scene for Mercy
Hospital next door. In under an hour, professionals
from Campus Ministry and the University Counseling
Center were on campus to care for students who
had witnessed the shooting and its aftermath.
The incredible speed of these responses, and
the prayers of so many, helped our injured students
make remarkable recoveries. In the two most serious
cases, scientifically trained health care professionals
freely use the word “miracle.” Because
of the swift and continued care of our students
traumatized at the scene, psychic wounds are healing
dramatically as well.
In the days that followed, our gifts were tremendous.
Students reached out to one another in unprecedented
acts of support. Faculty made themselves even more
available to students; many devoting class time
to discussion of the incident and ways to move
forward. We had remarkable presence from Spiritans,
the Athletics Department leadership, Resident Directors
and Assistants, and professional staff across campus.
Communications professionals did a superb job of
keeping all our constituencies well informed. Leaders
in Student Government and the Black Student Union
drew unity out of a potentially divisive incident.
And we received many, many moving expressions of
prayer and support from alumni, parents and friends
of Duquesne University from across the nation.
So at this Christmas and New Year season, we
celebrate miracles large and small; the large miracles
that protected our students’ lives, the many
smaller miracles of care for one another. The Spirit
gives life on our Bluff, and did so in a miraculous
way this semester. As we greet a New Year, we do
it stronger, prouder, and more confident in Duquesne
than ever before.
Duquesne celebrates the joy of this season with
our family, the greatest gift our University gave
and received this semester. When we needed each
other most these last few months, we were there.
We were present to each other as family, a family
in spirit, the family of Duquesne. From our family
to yours, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Charles J. Dougherty, Ph.D.
President
Duquesne University
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