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"Suddenly the entire place is just blanketed with more students than I’ve ever seen on UNC Charlotte’s campus ever. And people have kids, people had brought their parents, people had brought their dogs, people had brought signs….Eventually like it kind of clears in the center of the quad and [Kristine] Slade steps out and she doesn’t have a microphone, she doesn’t need a microphone. She just starts hollering out a speech. Everybody, I don't know if everybody heard her, but it feels like everybody felt her...Just watching Slade go at it and talking about how we would not let their memories die and how we would keep these folks’ memories alive in our communities. That was, I think, one of the most sincere expressions of sympathy, empathy, like, pain, rage all of it throughout the entire experience. And it just means a lot. I think Slade really carried the community through that difficult time. They didn’t need to but they did."
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"I was just moved when I got there, because when I got there, I actually, I saw people from ten years ago, people who I went to undergrad with who were coming back on campus as alumni just to participate in that. And it just showed how powerful...you know, the tragedy really brought people together. It's unfortunate that it was a tragedy but then it just showed this sense of resilience."
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"I think there's no question that the event brought the campus together. I felt that immediately. The day after the shooting, I think it was the next day, we had the vigil in the Student Activity Center and it was packed. And it was emotional. And it was meaningful. And there was just this sense of 'we are all in this together,' whether we were in the room or not. It was a shared experience. One that I wouldn't want to repeat, obviously, but one that I do think created a sense of community that was far more profound than what I had experienced on this campus before. I think it caused people to feel, ironically, kind of proud of being here and I think there was a lot of resolve that we were going to be strong and get through this. That we are going to look out for each other and this isn't going to define us, but it's going to change us."
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"I think the most interesting thing about it was seeing everybody inside of Halton, because Makala [Carrington] and I did not think that we were going to get all those people together in under 24 hours. We really just thought that it would only be like a couple hundred people, maybe like three or four hundred. And it turned out to be thousands. You know there [were] local officials there, a couple celebrities, but most importantly it was the Niner Nation community. And so that for me was like the first time that I think since hearing the news that I really had a deep solid cry and it was just more so the amount of love that was in that room. And the only way that I knew how to describe it for like weeks afterwards was that there was something beautiful in the tragedy, and it was seeing all of Niner Nation come together and not be in pain, per se, but just be uncertain with what was happening, but be uncertain together."
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Students handing out candles to mourners at campus vigil
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Crowd gathered outside Halton Arena at campus vigil
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Chancellor Dubois speaking at the Niner Nation Unites vigil
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Panoramic photo of crowd gathered to hear remarks after Niner Nation Unites vigil at Halton Arena
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Photo of crowd gathered to hear remarks after Niner Nation Unites vigil at Halton Arena
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Panoramic photo of the crowd in attendance at the Niner Nation Unites vigil at Halton Arena
