Last Thursday, five students at Northern Illinois University were killed by a former student who also killed himself. Sixteen others were hospitalized, and the university is still recovering from the tragedy.

We would like to acknowledge the tremendous efforts of the Northern Star, the Northern Illinois University student newspaper, and their dedication to the student body. Not only were staff members covering the aftermath of the shootings, but were also dealing with a national media blitz.

It's often easy to forget about the role of student press, especially considering that the students killed were peers and friends. One member of the newspaper staff, Daniel Parmenter, was killed, and yet the staff was able to produce an eight-page paper the next day fully dedicated to coverage of the shootings.

With updates on their Web site all throughout the weekend, the staff of the Northern Star has shown incredible fortitude in times of immense trial, and we would like to express our support for the work that they do.

We also would like to applaud the efforts of editor in chief John Puterbaugh, who responded to the tragedy Friday morning by writing a heartfelt column addressing the need for NIU to come together as a community. We want to lift up the staff of the Northern Star for their courage in dealing with such a horrific event. We can only imagine what stresses must loom over the newsroom at such a difficult hour.

We fully support the Northern Star, and want to encourage them in this incredibly difficult hour. The nature of journalism requires that the public be aware of what happens in times of tragedy. It's a hard task, especially for student journalists who most likely have never encountered such a terrible situation.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Puterbaugh, the family and friends of Parmenter, the rest of the Northern Star staff and Northern Illinois University.