Tuesday’s tragedy affected many aspects of university life, including telecommunications traffic.

NIU’s main switchboard, at 753-1000, and the university’s number dealing with opening and closing of campus, 753-OPEN (6736), received thousands of calls from students and faculty inquiring about whether or not classes would be held.

Steve Thiel, a switchboard supervisor, estimated over 4,000 calls were made to NIU’s main switchboard, up from the 2,500 they get on a normal day.

Nearly 80 percent of the calls were from students and faculty inquiring whether or not classes would be in session, said Cindy Phillips, director of Telecommunication Services for NIU. Phillips added that despite all of the calls, information technology services didn’t have any blockage or traffic issues.

A pre-recorded message on 753-OPEN said all NIU campuses were open and classes were being held as scheduled.

NIU President John Peters made the decision to remain open early in the day, addressing all NIU students, faculty and staff.

“First and foremost, we are committed to maintaining as high a degree of normalcy on our campus as is possible under the circumstances,” Peters said. “Classes are being held and all other normal university operations are proceeding as scheduled.”

Peters also urged all faculty and supervisors to be sensitive to the needs and concerns of students and staff.

On his way to a meeting with Peters, University Police Chief Donald Grady (who has experience dealing with terrorism in Bosnia and Kosovo) told the Northern Star that the police

department is doing everything it can to assure that students, faculty and staff are as safe as possible.

“Any time an attack on American soil is made, we have to be concerned,” Grady said. “It’s not just some random act, but it’s a serious breech on American soil.”

His terrorist experience overseas prepared him, in a sense, for what happened Tuesday.

“We don’t anticipate anything, but we are prepared,” Grady said. “I don’t believe NIU is part of the plan. What we are doing is to assure that this campus will be safe if any conflict should arise.”

William Chomos, a 2nd Lt. U.S. officer who is part of NIU’s ROTC program, was shocked as he heard about what happened over the radio waves in his car.

“We are all very saddened by what has happened,” Chomos said. “We feel bad for the families of the victims and our prayers are with them.”

Chomos said it was business as usual at NIU on Tuesday, though.

“In a situation of war, we have no say or control in what would happen,” he said, adding that he didn’t know if NIU’s ROTC would be affected by Tuesday’s events.

Going along with NIU’s decision to remain open during the tragedy were Kishwaukee Community College, Illinois State University in Bloomington-Normal, Eastern Illinois University in Charleston and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

On the other end, colleges and universities in Chicago, including Columbia, DePaul, National Louis, Northeastern, Robert Morris, Roosevelt, UIC and Loyola’s Water Tower campus, canceled classes Tuesday. Western Illinois University in Macomb also canceled classes.