Classes Suspended for Memorials for Murder Victims at U. of Iowa

Hundreds of faculty members and students at the University of Iowa attended funeral and memorial services Monday, two days after a vengeful former student went on a shooting spree.

Gang Lu, who received a Ph.D. in physics, killed three professors, an administrator and a student whose dissertation was honored over his last spring, then killed himself. A sixth victim was seriously wounded.

“We all truly feel the shock and dismay, as with the families, over the loss of our loved ones,” said Henry McGill, 20, an engineering student from Marion, S.C., who presided over a memorial ceremony on campus.

Flags were flown at half staff and classes were canceled for the day. More than 500 people attended the funeral of the administrator, T. Anne Cleary, and several hundred attended other memorial services.

“The injuries we have suffered are devastating. We cannot make sense of this; we are out of our depth,” said Hunter Rawlings, president of the 28,000-student university.

“Suddenly, without warning, in less than an hour last Friday afternoon the university was senselessly diminished,” he said.