3 people die in shooting at the University of Alabama in Huntsville
 

CNN.com:

School spokesman: 3 people die in shooting at the University of Alabama in Huntsville; female suspect is in custody.

http://www.cnn.com/

They have a picture of the shooter on foxnews.com as they are putting her in the cop car. I think she looks disturbed.

According to the news I was watching (TXCN here) she was apparently a professor who was upset about not being tenured. Seriously? Dang, people nowadays.

That's what I heard. Her and a few other professors were meeting to discuss tenure, and they told her she didn't get it.

I saw on the news the tape from when the police were putting her into the car. The audio was a little hard to hear at first, but then someone clearly asks her, "What about the people who are dead?" and she replied, "They're still alive," in a rather monotone way.

I believe it was one of her co-workers who also said that she seemed cut off from reality.

And apparently she killed her brother back in 1986.....?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35372168...me_and_courts/

Maybe that's why she didn't get her tenure. I wonder if the faculty there is subject to background investigations, even though this may have not been on there due to the fact she wasn't fromally charged with killing her brother.

I would give an over/under on how long this would take to get to Law & Order...if there hadn't already been an episode with an almost identical story.

I really hope they open up the case concerning her brother again. The fact that she shot him and now all these years later has killed other people shows that she has a propensity towards violence. I suspect that there was something fishy about her brother's death and they just overlooked it at the time.

I also hope they don't try to use an insanity defense. She's not crazy. She is a selfish wench who has now caused unspeakable pain to others because SHE didn't get what SHE wanted. Times like this I really wish they would forego trials. They know she did killed these people. No sense in wasting a bunch of money on her.

she sent pipe bombs to her old boss at harvard, i read

Some colleges and universities have already implemented tougher background checks for faculty hires. Perhaps this will make them get even tougher.

Because you didn't get tenure? Crazy bitch was just a ticking time bomb. It didn't matter what her anger was about.

Methinks the profs at Hudson University would do well to look into term life plans...

We've been talking about this, and have a question: are professors always tenured after x amount of years? Is it that unusual not to receive tenure?

There has been discussion on another board I frequent about her having invented some sort of cell incubator, the patent to which the University forced her to turn over to them. If true (I haven't had time to do any digging), this could have been an exacerbating factor.

@honeychile: Not always, but people generally know what's up by year four or so (people generally apply for tenure around the fifth or sixth year--at least in my field). They know whether they are on track in terms of what they have to demonstrate/accomplish to be awarded tenure. They should also have a sense of whether they are up for a battle, because of politics, if they have been keeping their ear to the ground. All of this to say it is--in the majority of cases--not really a surprise when someone either does or does not receive tenure. I have known cases where folks who know, or have a strong feeling, that they are not going to receive tenure at their current institution have begun looking for a position elsewhere rather than even going through the process.

There are always exceptions though.

No. It is based on an annual review and a tenure review after a set number of years (depends on the school).

Unfortunately, not every university offers tenure. For the schools that have tenure, the tenure-track and longterm-contract-with-tenure-potential faculty qualify for tenure review.

Across academia it isn't uncommon for faculty who are up for tenure to not receive it the first and even the second time. For many departments it is rare for someone to be denied tenure if they've followed the formal and informal advice and procedures. It is an extremely frustrating political process. ("Frustrating" only translates to violence for those with a predisposition for it. )

Well, she should've seen it coming if she signed the "intellectual property" contract that faculty and graduate students have to sign at many schools.

Is it true that all this woman's victims were of color?

What? I haven't heard that. I hope not.

From what I saw the 3 fatally shot colleagues were racial and ethnic minorities. I have not seen a photo of all 6 colleagues.

That would be interesting but not shocking if she felt as many do, that she was denied advancements because of the advancements of minorities.

Also:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35404881...rts/?GT1=43001

And the plot thickens, DUN DUN DUN! Everyone jump to conclusions NOW!! We all know that whites are racist, and that women, in general, are mentally imbalanced and needy. Since she IS a white woman it's clearly evident that this was a PMS fueled hate crime.

Settle down, Beavis.

Hurry and pat yourself on the back for this attempt at sarcasm.

I saw their pictures on the news a few days ago and took note of the fact that all three were racial and ethnic minorities. However, I didn't want to jump to any conclusions about her motive in that regard.

I wasn't going for sarcasm, I was going for ridiculousness. Kind of like Senusret bringing up the fact that the victims may all be minorities, which is insinuating that this was RACIALLY MOTIVATED. Like I said, Lets all just jump to conclusions!

Which is unfortunate because you're the only one jumping to conclusions.

I didn't bring up any facts. I asked a question.

You made an insinuation.

Which is also true.

I think it's sad that we can't even, as ASTalumna06 said, make an observation without fear of how that observation may be perceived.

For what it's worth, a fb friend of mine mentioned it in one of his status messages, and it concerned him because he is also a young professor of color.

See, when you're a minority, you think about these things. When you're not, you usually don't have to, so you don't.

The facts apparently frightened PiKA2001. He's like any other person who gets a little scared with any mention of race. He overreacts and yells "oh shit! Run for cover!!!" The irony in that is funny.

Doesn't he know that I call the Race Wars around here?

I must have missed that thread :)

I care about this topic for a number of reasons so I did some low level Internet research.

As with most academic departments, the biological science department is predominently white: http://www.uah.edu/biology/faculty.html (you can click on each name to see a photo and bio)

So, it doesn't take mensa to beg the question of whether it is a coincidence that someone who opens fire at a faculty/departmental meeting shoots 6 faculty and ends up killing 3 racial and ethnic minorities on the department's faculty. We (other than PiKA2001) aren't going so far as to draw conclusions because that's what investigations are for.

I'm scared of racial discussions? Now you are the one insinuating.

No, it's still only you.

You are drawing conclusions, you just don't realize it. You talk about leaving it up to the investigation but you've already chalked this out to be racially motivated. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying thats not possible, it COULD very well based on race. We know that she killed her brother years ago and she seemed like she didn't realize that she had opened fire on her colleagues, which leads me to believe she is very f*cked up ( lack of better words). Did race play a factor? Maybe. Was it the motivating factor? Who knows.

My only conclusion is you don't read for comprehension or aren't accustomed to such discourse. You are going all around the world just to conclude what the rest of us are saying: It begs the question, there is a possibility, and we won't know until the investigation.

Now go play in traffic.

what were the ethnicities?

Look at the link I provided.

Its so rare for me to receive such pleasantries, thank you. :p

So do you think the investigation will look into a possible racial motive? Open source media is pretty adament on the idea that this was based on her not getting tenure, any evidence/theory of race being involved might end up being anecdotal. I'm interested to know where the victims were seated in regards to the shooter. I'd think that someone in the mindset to kill at random would hit the closest targets first, but if she had specific targets and skipped others to shoot them, that leads me to ask; Did these victims directly decide whether or not she received tenure, or did she believe that the victims "stole" her position? Also, does anyone know if the entire dept faculty was present at the time?

*snicker*

I love me some Jack McCoy.