3.24.16

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Thursday, March 24, 2016 | Volume 211 | Number 121 | 40 cents | iowastatedaily.com | An independent student newspaper serving Iowa State since 1890.

ISU students react to attack in Brussels By Michaela.Ramm @iowastatedaily.com

after the 2007 mass shooting, said they learned from and implemented some of their methods from this incident. Questions were raised after the shooting as to whether any concerns could have been noticed beforehand and if the shooting could have been prevented. Deisinger said these same questions came up after Columbine, the Virginia Tech shooting and Sandy Hook. “The earlier we can identify developing concerns, the earlier the concern can be manage and de-escalated,” Deisinger said. The ISU Threat Assessment process is currently “designed to identify individuals of concern, investigate individuals

The world was rattled Tuesday when three explosions in Brussels killed 31 people and injured over 300 others. The event hit close to home for some, especially to two ISU students who were in the airport hours before the attacks. The blasts occurred in the Brussels Airport in Zaventem and the Maelbeek metro station about an hour apart; BBC News reported 11 people were killed at the airport and 20 others were killed at the metro station. Jonathan McCann, a junior in computer engineering, was visiting Rachel Damman, his girlfriend and sophomore in accounting who is studying abroad in Italy, for Spring Break. The two arrived in Brussels airport Monday for McCann’s flight back to the U.S. The two departed, with Damman taking a train from Brussels back to Italy, around 3 to 4 p.m. the same day. Damman learned about the attack after she arrived in Italy. She reached out to McCann, who said he was just landing in Frankfort when he heard the news from her. “I was in shock about how close we were to that,” McCann said. “It was definitely hit home way too close for us and our families. It easily could have been us.” Among those, was one Iowa State student who referred to Brussels as “her second home.” Morgan Scharnhorst is an ISU aluma, who studied elementary education before graduating last May. After graduation, Scharnhorst spent the summer overseas in Brussels on the US Army Benelux base in Brussels. There, she worked with the Camp Adventure program to provide hourly daycare services for military families. She said most of the families she served were highranking officials or NATO families. When she first heard the news, she said she was glued to the TV. “I felt sick and my heart sank…” Scharnhorst said. “I have a lot of friends and ‘family’ over there because of my summer stay, so I immediately messaged all of them to make sure they were okay. While I was really freaked out, I’m glad they all could message me back right away and assure me they were okay.” It was a cause of coincidence that McCann and Damman ended up in Brussels, even though Belgium had not be a part of their travel plans at all. McCann said they were in Paris for the weekend traveling. However, due to air traffic controller strikes in the country, dozens of flights were cancelled, including McCann’s. In order to get back home, the pair were routed

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Preventing the unexpected Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

“Preparation is key for any situation we face in life” By Alex.Connor @iowastatedaily.com It is no longer a matter of if, but a matter of when. In the early 1990s, Gene Deisinger, retired threat management director at Virginia Tech, former associate director of public safety and current deputy chief of police at Iowa State, began working with a team to develop an approach to safety that would evolve into what is now — threat assessment and management. Threat assessment, a process designed to identify, investigate, assess and manage instances of concern before they happen, is widely used across the nation and has been in action at Iowa State since about 1994. The process can be used to identify any sort of threat to campus or workplace security, as no situation is the same. By intervening early, any potential danger is minimized. When Deisinger and his team, which included current Ames Police Chief Chuck Cychosz, set out to develop a model of threat assessment, it was a relatively new approach that Deisinger had never heard of before. Joking that the time period was preGoogle, Deisinger said in order to learn about threat assessment, the team had to find training sessions across the country where they would go to learn about violence in the workplace and on campus. An article published by the Daily in 1996 discusses this early program and what it meant for Iowa State. Loras Jaeger, director of the ISU Department of Public Safety at the time, discussed the critical response team that Deisigner was a part of. “It came from a desire to make campus as safe as possible,” Jaeger said in the

Iowa State Daily

Gene Deisinger led a threat assessment team in the 1990s. He and Ames Police Chief Chuck Cychosz accomplished being a part of one the first campuses to implement threat management.

article. Being one of the first campuses to implement threat management, Iowa State looked at models similar to what they were trying to accomplish, such as other general violent models, and then adapted that for higher education work. Part of the reason Iowa State began developing this model and looking for ways to improve the current system was because the fear hit too close to home after a shooting on the University of Iowa campus. In November of 1991, Gang Lu, doctoral student in physics, shot six people, leaving four dead and two injured, before fatally shooting himself. Deisinger, who had gone on to be the threat assessment director at Virginia Tech

Suspect in Tong Shao death pleads guilty to charges By Michaela.Ramm @iowastatedaily.com Xiangnan Li, a former Chinese exchange student attending the University of Iowa, pled guilty in the death of Tong Shao, a former international student at Iowa State University, the Des Moines Register reported Wednesday. Li appeared for court in the city of Wenzhou, and bowed to Shao’s parents, saying he was sorry for killing Shao in September 2014. Iowa City Police investigators Andy Rich and Dave Gonzalez are in China for the trial, the Register reported. Original story The suspect in the murder of ISU student Tong Shao faced trial in China on Wednesday. Xiangnan Li, a Chinese exchange student at the University of Iowa and the boyfriend of Shao, stood trial at the Intermediate People’s Court in the eastern Chinese city of Wenzhou, CNN reported. Li turned himself over to authorities in China in May 2015 and was arrested on June 19, 2015, on charges of intentional homicide. Li was named as the main per-

son of interest in Shao’s murder by Iowa investigators. However, by the time her body had been discovered, Li had returned to China. Shao’s parents, Shao Chunsheng and his wife Yang Xue, are seeking the death penalty, CNN reported. The verdict for intentional homicide can range from anywhere from 10 years imprisonment to capital punishment, according to Chinese law. CNN reported the trial was expected to take less than a day. Shao Chunsheng and Yang Xue met with Li’s parents Tuesday, who begged for his forgiveness and offered to pay a compensation for Shao’s death, CNN reported. Shao, a 20-year-old international student from China, was found dead in September 2014 by the Iowa City Police Department. Her body was discovered in the trunk of her Toyota Camry, which was parked at Dolphin Lake Point Enclave in Iowa City, where Li lived at the time. Tong had been reported missing by friends on Sept. 18. In the following days, details emerged about the Shao’s last

Student Government votes to reinstate office hours By Zack.Clemens @iowastatedaily.com

Courtesy of the Ames Police Department

Tong Shao, former International student at Iowa State, was found dead in September 2014. Her boyfriend, Xiangnan Li, pled guilty to killing her.

days; Shao’s friends said she had traveled to Iowa City for the weekend of Sept. 6 and 7 to visit Li. A text message from Li’s phone was later sent to Shao’s friends in Ames on Sept. 8 that said Shao was texting from Li’s phone because her phone was dead. The message said she was taking a bus to Minnesota to visit friends while Li flew back to China for an emergency and that Shao would keep Li’s phone with her. However, an affidavit revealed Li had Shao’s phone while on layover in Chicago. The document also stated, “de-

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Student Government voted on a bill to reinstitute office hours for all of the senators, discussed funding bills and heard an update on the Memorial Union feasibility study at the weekly Senate meeting Wednesday night. Corey Williamson, interim director of the Memorial Union and Student Government adviser, gave an update on a feasibility study that has been done to see how space in the Memorial Union could be better used to meet student needs. They have received feedback from more than 550 students. “This building is very important to the fabric of Iowa State University, and we wanted comprehensive feedback,” Williamson said. A proposed addition to the northeast corner of the Memorial Union is included in the latest version of the study. This would increase office and workspace, as well as provide a better entrance to the first floor from the parking ramp. “[The addition] would give us an opportunity to showcase what Iowa State is all about — that student experience,” Williamson said. The Senate voted on a bill that would reinstate office hours for senators each week, which passed by a vote of 32 to 1. Office hours had been required

Kennedy DeRaedt/Iowa State Daily

Student Government members listen to a presentation at its March 2 meeting in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union.

for senators in past years but they were not successful, due in part to a requirement that half of those office hours must be spent out of office on campus, where student participation was minimal. This bill would also allow senators to speak with each other about legislation and policy. “This is one of the better initiatives that has hit the floor, in my opinion,” said Sen. Zackary Reece, junior in political science. Sen. Peter Myers said this bill is not necessary because the Senate cannot even talk to its constituents and that is the real problem. “This is one way we can engage students,” said Sen. Danielle Nygard. “We can train new members [of the Senate] in the right way to do it.” Funding bills for the women’s lacrosse club and Cyclone Market were read and will be voted on next week.


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