On Monday, Michigan State University students and faculty returned to the East Lansing campus as the university resumed normal operations, only one week after a gunman shot and killed three students and injured five others.
The 50,000-student university’s campus remained relatively quiet on the first day back, with many professors allowing students to attend class virtually. Many students skipped class to attend an afternoon protest at the state Capitol in Lansing to call for gun control legislation.
All students at the university this semester will be given a credit/no credit option, which allows students to receive credit for all classes without it impacting their overall grade point average. University officials also asked teachers in an email Friday to “extend as much grace and flexibility as you are able with individual students, now and in the coming weeks.”
Brogan Kelley, a freshman at Michigan State, left East Lansing after last week’s shooting to return home to his family in west Michigan. But he drove back on Sunday so that he could attend class in person. He said he felt like it was important “to go back about my life.”
“For me, not going to class felt like I would have been letting the shooter win. I didn’t want this one tragedy to define the place I call home and the university that’s giving me my education,” Kelley said.
“Enough is enough. How many more students have to die until you can hear our cries?” Michigan State senior Kelsey Gruzin said outside the state Capitol.
In the days after the shooting, Michigan Democrats, who control all levels of the state government for the first time in decades, have promised to pass gun-safety measures. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has called for gun control legislation that includes universal background checks, safe storage laws, and “extreme risk protection orders.”
