Hundreds of students gathered this evening at the Erb Memorial Union amphitheater to participate in a candlelight vigil to honor the victims of the University of California, Santa Barbara shooting that took place on Friday, May 23.
The event began with a brief speech from Paul Shang, Assistant Vice President and Dean of Students.
“Now is not the time for us to try and explain why that awful thing happened in Isla Vista. Instead, now is the time for us to reach out to who we know over there, and here as well, and send them an extra text message telling them we care about them,” Shang said.
The vigil was organized by two doctoral students, Kelsey South and Leakhena Heng. They are both studying counseling psychology. Heng has close ties to UCSB – her younger brother graduated from UCSB last year and her younger sister is currently a sophomore there. South also received her bachelor’s degree from UCSB.
“We wanted to come together as a community and show our support for the community of Santa Barbara-Isla Vista,” Heng said.
Celine Saladin spoke on behalf of the Delta Delta Delta sorority. She honored Katie Cooper and Veronika Weiss, two members of Delta Delta Delta at UCSB who were victims of the shooting.
UO Active Minds and the Zanta club of Eugene-Springfield donated a total of 900 candles combined that were distributed at the vigil.
Many students arrived wearing the UCSB colors of blue and yellow. A number of others wore UCSB t-shirts and sweatshirts to show their support.
Alyssa Golditch and Misa Smith provided biographical information for each of the six victims: Katie Cooper, Veronika Weiss, Weihan “David” Wang, Christopher Michaels-Martinez, George Chen, and James Cheng-Yuan Hong.
A Eugene citizen, Paul Fleck, volunteered to sing at the vigil after seeing the event advertised on Facebook. He performed “Amazing Grace” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”
Following Fleck’s performance, the audience participated in a moment of silence to honor the lives lost in the shooting.
“It’s hard to comprehend such a horrible tragedy. Something we can do is sympathize with our friends and grieve with them,” President Michael Gottfredson said. “I’m glad so many people came out and expressed their support.”
Shang encouraged students to talk to the UO counseling center or the Office of the Dean of Students if they need help during this difficult time.
The vigil concluded with a member of the audience starting to chant the UCSB fight song. The rest of the crowd joined in and sang along.
“Olé! Olé! Olé! Gauchos!”