Iowa State alumna reflects on NIU shooting

By Pat Shaver

“Don’t go to class,” read a text message.

Elissa Stowell, Northern Illinois Univeristy teaching assistant in political science and Iowa State alumna, started her car to go on campus around 3:20 p.m. on Thursday February, 14, when she got the text message from a friend.

“Why?” she replied.

No response.

A few minutes later, her roommate came home from work. She said something was happening on campus, people were running and there were police everywhere.They turned on the TV, and didn’t see anything.

Stowall got on the NIU Web site and saw the campus alert that said there was a reported gunman on campus. The site told students who were on campus to go somewhere safe and for off-campus students to stay away.

The university also sent out e-mails to all students, faculty and staff. Stowall got both the faculty e-mail and the student e-mail. She said the e-mail into her T.A. account came in around 3:20 p.m. and the e-mail into her student account didn’t get to her until 4 p.m.

Stowall and her roommate spent the rest of the afternoon watching the news and calling and texting friends.

“It took a while, but we were able to get ahold of everyone,” Stowall said.
Stowall is a teaching assistant for political science 100.

On Fridays, she leads discussions with a smaller group of about 50 students from a much larger class.

“I have to stand up in a class. It is kind of hard for me, what if something like that happens to me,” Stowall said.

Stowall said she normally arrives on campus at noon or 1 p.m., but she stayed up late the night before working on a paper and decided to sleep in on Thursday.

“You can’t believe it happened on your campus,” Stowall said. “I think everyone is in complete shock. Everyone is trying to figure out how to deal with it and move forward.”

She said she can understand how people on campus may feel unsafe for a long time. Everytime a door opens in a classroom, students will be thinking about what happened, she said.

“I think it is going to be a while before things will be normal,” she said. “I think it is going to be a healing process. The whole point of carrying on is so that the people who did this don’t win.”

Stowall said she thinks a situation like this is unpreventable, and she doesn’t feel unsafe.

“I feel safe because the campus response was so quick,” she said.