Michigan State University will not hold classes Feb. 13, 2024, marking the one year anniversary of the deadly campus shooting with a remembrance event.
The details of the event are forthcoming, as the university hopes to design it using feedback from “the Spartan community” and specifically “those who were most directly impacted,” according to a release announcing the schedule change Tuesday.
Faculty and academic staff have been instructed to cancel classes planned for Feb. 13 and avoid assignments or exams on both the 13th and 14th.
The campus will remain open with dining halls, recreational facilities and CATA buses running as usual despite the class cancellations.
This means support staff will be required to work, though the announcement asks that “supervisors be flexible with approval of time off for those who need to step away from work on this day.”
The release also provides new details of the previously announced campus memorial, saying it will be designed by a committee of students, faculty and staff based on public feedback collected during Fall semester.
That memorial will be specific to the shooting, unlike the memorial tree planted in July which honored all students who died during the 2022-2023 academic year.
The memorial trees are a yearly campus event, though unlike previous plantings, The State News was asked to leave this year’s ceremony, leaving the details unclear.
Berkey reopening
In addition to the class cancellation and memorial plans, MSU also announced more details of the gradual reopening of Berkey Hall, the campus building where much of the shooting occurred.
Beginning this Fall, faculty, staff, and graduate students will have the opportunity to return to the buildings’ labs and office spaces.
Leadership in the College of Social Science – the department housed in Berkey – hopes that return will ease the transition back into the building for students, inviting them in for short meetings like office-hours or advising appointments before classes return to Berkey beginning in Spring semester 2024.
There are also ongoing discussions about physically remodeling parts of Berkey’s interior to help visually separate the space from the traumatic violence that occurred inside, Social Science Dean Brent Donnellan said in an interview with The State News.
On the staff side, Donnellan said “everyone we’ve spoken to wants to come back.”
After working remotely from various temporary spaces on campus since the shooting, social science staff “simply miss each other,” Associates Dean for Undergraduate Studies Emily Durbin said.
“People miss the feeling of being with their coworkers and physically seeing the students we’re supporting during the day,” Durbin said.
Despite the perceived excitement, they stressed that all the changes will remain optional, with staff being able to continue working from elsewhere and students being offered alternative meeting spaces in Owen Hall if they’re uncomfortable coming to Berkey to see their faculty and advisors.
“We’ve heard from our trauma experts that choice is important,” deputy spokesperson Dan Olsen said. “So, if we’re hearing from the community that they want to be back (in Berkey) then giving them the choice to opt into that could be helpful in their healing process.”
