NIU shooting victims to receive degrees at commencement
On Saturday, more than 2,500 graduates will walk across a stage, receive their diplomas and shake hands with Northern Illinois University President John Peters.
Five students will never make that walk.
Gayle Dubowski, Catalina Garcia, Julianna Gehant, Ryanne Mace and Dan Parmenter were killed when a gunman opened fire on their class on Valentine's Day.
The five will be present, in a way, and remembered at Saturday's commencement.
The university will present posthumous degrees to the families of three of the victims -- Dubowski, Garcia and Gehant -- while the other two families will receive the honor at a later date.
University officials said the awarding of the posthumous degrees and a moment of silence to mark Feb. 14 at the beginning of the ceremony will be the only interruptions in an otherwise routine commencement.
"Everybody wants to compare us to Virginia Tech," NIU's Vice Provost Gip Seaver said. "Their commencement was a memorial service and a celebration."
"(Because) we've had this separation of time and had our memorial service, we wanted to make sure that this is a celebration of commencement and a celebration of students who are getting their degrees."
But the awarding of the posthumous degrees will be a solemn reminder of the difficult year NIU's Class of 2008 has endured.
Dubowski was from Carol Stream and a 2006 graduate of Glenbard North High School. Mace, of Carpentersville, was a 2006 graduate of Dundee-Crown High. Parmenter was a Westchester native, while Garcia was from Cicero and Gehant from Mendota in LaSalle County.
Granting the honorary degrees was first proposed by NIU's professors, Seaver said.
Although posthumous degrees typically are awarded to students who were near the end of their academic careers, the colleges in which the victims were enrolled showed overwhelming support for the gesture.
The idea was well-received by the victims' families, all of which accepted the honor.
"They were all very appreciative and honored that the university was doing this," said Scott Peska, director of NIU's Office of Support and Advocacy.
Gail Dubowski's father, Joe, said the posthumous degree was a nice gesture to honor his daughter, who was on track to graduate in 2010 with a bachelor's degree in anthropology.
Joe Dubowski said he and his wife now wish they had waited until 2010 -- when she would have graduated -- to accept their daughter's degree, like at least one other family of a Feb. 14 victim chose to do.
"It's going to be more difficult for us to get the diploma this year," Dubowski said.
Like the wider university community, which is still reviewing plans for a campus memorial, the Dubowski family has only just begun its recovery from the loss it suffered on Feb. 14.
Joe Dubowski said in the three months since the date, he and his wife have come to terms with his daughter's death by degrees, "but we've got a long road ahead of us."