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.