Rich Holly's Percussion Place

About Me

Location: Illinois, United States

Rich Holly is the Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Northern Illinois University. Holding the position of President of the Percussive Arts Society (www.pas.org) during 2005 and 2006, he currently serves PAS as a member of the Council of Past Presidents and as a member of the Board of Directors. His appearances are sponsored in part by the gracious folks at Yamaha, Sabian, Innovative Percussion and LP. You can see more on MySpace: www.myspace.com/richhollypercussion and the NIU Percussion area webpages at www.percussion.niu.edu

Thursday, February 14, 2008

TRAGEDY STRIKES NIU CAMPUS

FBI agents during their initial investigation of the crime scene

At about 3:00 this afternoon a gunman walked onto the stage of a large lecture hall in Cole Hall of the Northern Illinois University campus and opened fire on the 150 or so students sitting in the room. He killed 5 students, injured another 16 or 17 (including the instructor of the course), and then killed himself.

For more complete details you can find a great deal of information on the CNN website or the Chicago Tribune website.

I've been a faculty member and administrator at NIU for nearly 25 years and absolutely love it here. I am in shock and deeply saddened, and I can't even imagine what the parents of the deceased are going through. My thoughts and prayers go out to all the victims and their loved ones.