NEWS
Campus feels collective relief over Seiler’s discovery
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Also by Abby Peterson:
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by Abby Peterson
Thursday, April 1, 2004
After days of seeing her face on campus doors and watching news broadcasts of her disappearance, the campus community gave a collective sigh of relief Wednesday afternoon when the news broke that Audrey Seiler was found alive.
“It spread like wildfire,” Austin Evans, ASM Student Council president, said. “People are very relieved she is alive and is doing well.”
Conversations about Seiler’s discovery buzzed throughout libraries and in classrooms across the university as students shared the news that their fellow student, who was missing for more than four days, was discovered in a Madison marsh. Relief over Seiler faded quickly, however, due to concerns about her kidnapper still being on the loose.
“I’m happy she’s been found, and I’m just hoping the assailant can be found,” said Jeevan Gnanam, a UW junior living next door to Seiler at the Regent.
For Regent residents, worries that the kidnapper could possibly have access to the apartment or even live at the Regent arose due to police officials’ discovery of a car marked with a Regent sticker near the site where Seiler was found.
“A lot of people feel it was a person from the Regent,” Gnanam said, adding, however, that any hard news about the identity of the kidnapper or details surrounding Seiler’s disappearance have been hard to come by. “It doesn’t help there wasn’t any news from the press conference.”
Throughout campus, some students are finding it hard to feel at ease again, even though Seiler has been found.
“It’s nerve-racking,” Amy Unti, a UW junior, said. “[You] aren’t getting any definite answers. Not having found out if this was an isolated incident and not knowing if it could happen again is really unsettling.”
Unti said the abduction of a fellow student hits close to home, personally making her more aware of potential safety dangers. Yet, although Seiler’s kidnapping has given UW a scare, Unti said it also brought about a sense of community on the large campus as students united over their shared concern for Seiler.
“I think this campus makes you subscribe to the idea that you are just another number. But seeing everyone come together shows you how close this campus can be,” Unti said.
More than 300 students volunteered to help find Seiler as part of ASM’s coordinated search effort with area police. Austin Evans said the enormous student outpouring of concern reveals how united the university can become.
“People are so concerned about one another. [This] was a big community-builder. It’s just unfortunate it took an abduction to do it,” Evans said.
UW Dean of Students Luoluo Hong agreed that the student response to the abduction was “amazing” as pockets of students became concerned with the safety of Seiler, recognizing her as “one of us.”
The university, which took charge in informing the student body about Seiler’s disappearance and beginning the campus lookout campaign for her whereabouts, has garnered a barrage of national media attention as the entire country followed the saga of the missing UW student. Hong said the story’s human-interest angle not only brought the campus together but also had people around the country worrying about the missing Madison 20-year-old.
“Folks have not had to be a part of the Madison campus or community to have a response and feel our anguish,” Hong said.
