2022-23 YEAR IN REVIEW | LASTING EFFECTS ‘An abundance of caution’: Hydrology department looks to the future amidst eerie reminders of October shooting

BY BAILEY EKSTROM @EkstromBailey

As the 2022-23 school year comes to an end, the Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences department continues to grapple with the aftermath of the Oct. 5 murder of beloved faculty member Thomas Meixner. Justin Headley — a graduate student and teacher’s assistant within the Hydrology Department — came forward about his and his peers’ experience looking back on the year.

Headley was sitting in on Meixner’s course, “Fundamentals of Water Quality,” on the day of the shooting.

“I had taken the class before, but I was intentionally sitting in on [professor Meixner’s] lectures again because I admired him so much as a teacher,” Headley explained.

After the lab, Meixner and those enrolled in the course left the room where the lab took place and went downstairs. Headley, who had stayed behind to clean up after the lab, heard gunshots minutes later. Headley noted that the HAS department has been “really great, accommodating and understanding” of the fact that “whether they are students or staff, nobody this past year is operating at 100 percent.”

“For a lot of people on campus, it was one incident that happened one day in October and then every day since then has gotten a bit better[ …]. For all of us in HAS, it’s been this weight on us […], this wound that heals a little bit but then opens back up,” Headley said.

Despite the traumatic nature of the incident, HAS leadership has taken on the task of paving the way to a safer campus.

Interim HAS department head Christopher Castro emphasized the department “has a vital role to play in re-imagining safety at the University of Arizona,” and is organizing an “HAS town hall to focus on this topic,” in a letter to the community.

There is also debate regarding the role that the Harshbarger building — a site of trauma for many HAS students and faculty — will play in the future of the department.

Castro stated, “The intermediate option could possibly involve a re-entry plan to Harshbarger, with due accommodation for those that would prefer to be physically located elsewhere. The longer term option would either be relocation to a completely renovated building or construction of a new building,” emphasizing that the decision has not been made.

Headley expressed the feeling that while “there is a sincere effort being made by some people to at least want to make things safer,” he doesn’t “think the effort has been made to actually make things safer.”

Headley specifically mentioned UAPD Chief Paula Balafas, feeling that she “owes the Meixners and the entire community an apology for first, letting [the shooting] happen in the first place, and second, misleading the community with what she said during her press conference.”

The press conference in question occurred in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. Balafas used the phrase “see something, say something,” when addressing the university community. This theme continued when the university held a class entitled “Recognizing and Responding to Concerning or Threatening Behaviors” on Feb. 21.

Headley, who chose not to attend the class, explained that multiple department members felt that the class was in poor taste.

“We did see something and we did say something […]. They are trying to make it seem like it’s our fault […] like we didn’t recognize things or we didn’t say enough,” Headley said. “I don’t think these wounds that the university has can ever truly heal unless the UAPD […] admits that they failed.”

Headley also cited concerns about the school’s response to an alleged “threat” against the James E. Rogers College of Law.

As previously reported by the Daily Wildcat, an email was sent to PSY 378 students by professor Tammi Walker on April 10 claiming that “there is a threat at the law school” and that “they have canceled all law school classes and meetings for the afternoon and evening.”

Headley feels that the law school incident and the university’s response are glaringly similar to the debriefing HAS students received about Murad Dervish eight months before the shooting.

“This incident with the law school is so eerie. It’s legitimately scaring students in the HAS department because it is the exact same playbook that was used on us. You send an internal email to just this one small group and then you refuse to elaborate on whether there is an actual threat. You just say, ‘out of an abundance of caution we’re canceling classes’ — those are the exact words that were used on us,” Headley said.

Headley’s observation rings true.

The February email to HAS students that Headley referred to stated, “We do want to stress that this is out of an abundance of caution.”

The email sent by professor Walker on April 10 read, “As far as I know, this is just out of an abundance of caution.”

An email the following day sent to law students and faculty by members of the senior leadership team at the James E. Rogers College of Law claimed that they “made [the decision to cancel classes] out of an abundance of caution.”

As of April 27, no further details have been given about why classes were canceled in the first place. Robbins did email the UA community to announce campus safety officials believe there is no “credible threat to our community at this time,” but he also said all law classes would remain online for the remainder of the semester.