One year after UNLV Dec. 6 shooting, campus finds ways to heal

UNLV holds vigil to honor slain professors on one-year anniversary and features murals, 4,000 origami cranes, and memorial scholarships to pay tribute.

One year after a tragic shooting at UNLV claimed the lives of three professors, the university is hosting a vigil on Friday to pay tribute to their legacies and unite students, faculty, and staff in remembrance. 

Professors Jerry Cha-Jan Chang, Patricia Navarro Velez, and Naoko Takemaru were killed on Dec. 6, 2023 when a shooter entered the faculty floor of the Lee Business School. 

The anniversary vigil will feature words from UNLV President Keith Whitfield, along with testimonies from faculty, students, and recent alumni who will share their stories. The event will also include performances by fine arts students. It will be held at UNLV’s Alumni Amphitheater on Friday, Dec. 6, at 11 a.m.

In the year since the shooting, UNLV has found meaningful ways to honor the professors’ memory. Last week, six murals were painted on the columns leading up to the entrance of Beam Hall, the building housing the Lee Business School, that depict perseverance. 

Two of Takemaru’s former students also spearheaded a project aimed at inspiring hope and healing within Beam Hall. The project features 4,000 origami cranes, each symbolizing peace and resilience. More than 200 people participated in crane-folding sessions in Las Vegas’ Chinatown, the Discovery Children’s Museum, the Honors College, and supporters who sent cranes from as far away as Japan. 

This year, UNLV has also established three memorial scholarships for UNLV students to further commemorate the lives and service of Navarro Velez, Chang, and Takemaru. The scholarships were funded by private donations exceeding $264,000 that poured in after the tragic day. 

The campus shooting came six years after the  Oct. 1 Route 91 Festival massacre, which rocked the city as the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history: 58 people were killed and hundreds were injured.

UNLV psychology professor Stephen Benning, who leads the university’s Psychophysiology of Emotion and Personality laboratory, has led research aimed at understanding trauma and the aftermath and effects of the Oct. 1 shooting and recently launched a research project to also examine the emotional effects of the Dec. 6 shooting on campus.