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Processing Grief and Preserving Community Response to Tragedy

APRIL 17, 2025 MEMORIAL AND REMEMBRANCE COLLECTION

Taylor Henning, taylor.henning@fsu.edu

Society of Florida Archivists Annual Meeting

May 14, 2026

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Content warning: I will be discussing a mass shooting on a university campus. There will be no graphic images. I will describe the collecting of memorial items and a subsequent volunteer project. If you need to step away at any time, please do.

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Close to 12 PM, an FSU student entered the area surrounding the FSU Student Union and opened fire, killing two people: Robert Morales and Tiru Chabba. The gunman shot five additional surviving victims. The shooter himself was shot by police but survived, and awaits trial in custody.

APRIL 17, 2025

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VIGIL - APRIL 18, 2025

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MEMORIALS

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MEMORIALS

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APRIL 17, 2025 MEMORIAL AND REMEMBRANCE COLLECTION

    • Memorial materials at multiple locations surrounding the Student Union and at the Stadium where the vigil was held
    • Materials:
      • Signs
      • Stones
      • Notes and envelopes
      • Flowers and plants
      • Candles
      • Stuffed animals
      • Balloons
      • Treats and food items
      • Notebooks full of heartfelt notes
      • Bibles
      • Artwork
      • Artificial flowers

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EDUCATING THE PUBLIC AND VOLUNTEERS

    • Statement sent out to FSU community day before collecting, approved by President’s Office and Student Council, written by Associate Dean of SCA, Katie McCormick:

Dear Students, Faculty and Staff,

As we reflect on last week’s tragic events on our campus, there is no greater testament to the unconquered spirit of this university than how we come together to support one another in the hardest of times. This support from the Florida State University community has been a powerful reminder of the compassion and unity that defines us.

We are so appreciative of the outpouring of kindness and love from our students, faculty, staff, alumni, community and friends from far and wide. This compassion is evident throughout our campus as our community has shared heart-felt displays of sympathy and support, spanning from our vigil at the Unconquered Statue on Langford Green to Legacy Walk leading to the Student Union.

We plan to take great measures to preserve this moment as it demonstrates our resilience and unity. As a part of our community process of mourning our losses and healing, a cross-campus team is working to formally document and preserve the memorials across campus beginning Friday, April 25. Preserving memorial objects is a step toward ensuring the memory of the victims and the testimony of the love and support of our community remain a part of the history of FSU.

University Libraries Special Collections & Archives will be archiving cards, notes, banners and memorial objects shared over the past days. In addition, flowers, plants, and other organic materials will be collected and preserved for future potential memorial activities. Photos of flowers placed at the vigil and memorials will also be a part of these archives so we can document and reflect on this outpouring of support.

The Special Collections & Archives team is working on additional ways people can contribute their photos, stories, and commemorations to University Archives. More information on this will be available soon as we continue to keep our campus community apprised of our work on our archival efforts.

Thank you for your support and compassion. Remember, we are here for you, always.

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EDUCATING THE PUBLIC AND VOLUNTEERS

Not cleaning up a mess

Our Associate Dean emphasized that we were not cleaning up a mess. We were not there to make the campus tidy. Outside of dead plants and flowers, not much was thrown out. Vases were repurposed. Surviving flowers and plants were either taken back to greenhouses or composted for a potential future memorial site.

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Items going into Archives to be preserved and used

We clearly communicated that these items were not being thrown out or being put in a storage closet never to be seen again. We were collecting to 1) preserve the materials for perpetuity and 2) for the materials to be used however the community needs or wants.

Memorialization continues

This collecting process was not the end of the memorialization. After collecting from each site, we returned a selection of material to each memorial site so that each location could continue as a memorial. Near the Student Union, people were actively leaving material and mourning at memorial sites. For this reason, we decided to leave two of the larger memorials as is and collect those materials at a later time.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DI6bZycOZcY/

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    • Organized into two sessions: morning at the Stadium and afternoon at the Union
    • Worked with volunteers from Facilities, the Center for Leadership and Service, and the Division of Student Affairs
    • Volunteers brought materials from memorials to tables where SCA staff boxed them
    • Material was sorted into the following groups: paper materials, objects, candles, and flowers and plants
    • In the end we acquired 46 boxes of material that day, plus an XL plush dog

COLLECTING PROCESS

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COLLECTING PROCESS

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COLLECTING PROCESS

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ADDITIONAL COLLECTING AND WET SALVAGE

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APRIL 17, 2025 MEMORIAL AND REMEMBRANCE COLLECTION

    • Photos of memorials
    • Memorial material
    • Emails (FSU Alerts)
    • Websites (FSU Response)
    • Photographs and videos
    • News articles

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ENGAGE TLH SERVICE PROJECT

    • Continued to work with volunteers through Center for Leadership and Service (EngageTLH)
    • Volunteers conducted item-level inventory and condition assessment of materials
    • Sessions were 1½ hours every other week for Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 semesters, about an hour for work and 15 minutes for discussion each session
    • Breaks for everyone as needed for any reason, staff available to walk students to CAPS
    • Goals:
      • Promoting understanding among participants of the events of April 17 and their impact
      • Promoting healing among participants for whom the events were traumatizing and for whom understanding is emotionally beneficial
      • Promoting understanding of archival work and processes among participants
      • Refining the Libraries inventory of the collection, providing greater opportunities for public access to the collection and further archival work by the Libraries

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ENGAGE TLH SERVICE PROJECT

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ENGAGE TLH SERVICE PROJECT

    • Outcomes:
      • Successful project
      • Healing and processing, “calming”
      • Better understanding of Archives and archival work amongst participants
      • Finished inventorying the collection during the last session
      • Able to identify and locate collection highlights to share with media and community surrounding April 17 one-year mark

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    • Revise and review for consistency and accuracy
    • Upload finding aid into ArchivesSpace
    • Open up the collection to the public
    • Clean and rehouse objects
    • Deselect some items, like candles and vases
    • Better share the collection with the greater community
    • Continue to collect at annual remembrance events

NEXT AND FUTURE STEPS

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Thank You

Taylor Henning, taylor.henning@fsu.edu

Society of Florida Archivists Annual Meeting

May 14, 2026