Campus life goes on

Although the search for the sus­pect involved in an early morn­ing shoot­ing near Ferris State University con­tin­ued, an ele­vated police pres­ence on cam­pus appeared to alle­vi­ate fears.

At 4:15 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 1, Ferris and Big Rapids DPS responded to a reported shoot­ing at Venlo Place Apartments. The vic­tim, a Ferris stu­dent, was hospitalized and released with minor injuries.

Around noon, Ferris stu­dents milled around the Rock Café as usual. The mood was calm, even light. Students in one cor­ner laughed and slapped each other on the backs as though it was just another nor­mal day in Big Rapids.

“No, it’s the same as nor­mal,” Ferris sup­ply chain man­age­ment freshman Leanne Leuthard said.

A Ferris DPS offi­cer was posted at the Rock entrance and declined com­ment mul­ti­ple times as per DPS pol­icy. He did not know how long he would be remain­ing on guard at the Rock.

Students took to social media to reach friends that live in Venlo apart­ments and share news with fel­low students.

“I actu­ally got up early and heard my room­mate on the phone talk­ing about it,” Ferris health care sys­tems admin­is­tra­tion sophomore Lauren O’Brien said. “So, my imme­di­ate reac­tion was to Google it, and I found it on the Torch website.”

Ferris crim­i­nal jus­tice sophomore Abbey Jensen said she received a cam­pus emer­gency alert text mes­sage at 7:16 a.m., three hours after the shooting.

Ferris head foot­ball coach Tony Annese, as well as assis­tant coaches Lou Esposito and Rob Zeitman, walked around greet­ing recruits for a pre-signing day visit.

Men’s head bas­ket­ball coach Andy Bronkema, clad in his crim­son team gear, sat at the island counter eat­ing on what was sup­posed to be a home game day against Saginaw Valley State University.

The bas­ket­ball and hockey games, as well as all other cam­pus events, were can­celled for Feb. 1. The Rock Café and FLITE Library remained open, and the Student Recreational Center opened at noon for nor­mal hours.

Ferris is pro­vid­ing coun­sel­ing ser­vices for stu­dents impacted by the incident.

Merrill Hall res­i­dent adviser Remmil Duldulao has worked with the uni­ver­sity to ensure the safety of his residents.

“All we had to do is, if any­one came to the desk, let them know, and let every­one know in the res­i­dence hall if they didn’t get the text mes­sage or the alert,” Duldulao said. “Everyone was a lit­tle wor­ried. They were afraid to walk around cam­pus. There are still peo­ple doing that, though.”

Another RA from Ward Hall was wary but less con­cerned about the situation.

“It’s one of those things where you see it hap­pen­ing at other cam­puses,” Ferris mar­ket­ing sophomore Andrea Steenwyk said. “You never think it’s going to hap­pen here, but the fact that it hap­pened off cam­pus makes it a lit­tle bit of a dif­fer­ent situation.”

Ferris music indus­try man­age­ment sophomore Neal Cortright was return­ing from a night out around the time of the shoot­ing but felt com­pletely at ease.

“We were just get­ting back around that time to our dorm,” Cortright said. “I feel safe on campus.”