Sadly, another shooting has taken place on a university campus. Thursday’s tragedy, the fourth school shooting this week, has left at least six dead, including the shooter, on Northern Illinois University’s campus.

Later, we will be forced to confront, once again, the ways a university can and must prevent these horrible events from happening. Time will tell whether we have taken appropriate heed following the Virginia Tech tragedy, and whether Northern Illinois was fully prepared.

But today is not that day.

Today, we remember the fallen, those individuals whose identity and characters may not be known to us, but who shared with us a pride in themselves to learn and achieve. Our fellow students lost their lives, and we again, as we did in April, must mourn the victims of a senseless tragedy.

While far fewer deaths occurred yesterday than last April, we must push the comparisons from our minds — one life lost is one too many.

The instantaneous tragedy — unfortunately, all too familiar over the past decade — reflects the deepest fears of every student, every professor and every parent who cares deeply for others. Moreover, this type of fear reflects those who love life itself. The idea that in one moment everything can go so far astray, that a person can be standing before us — or learning on a campus a thousand miles away — and in the next, no longer stand among us, is terrifying, no matter the cause.

Before we look to the infrastructure that allowed the shooting, we must examine our own community and the process by which a person can become so filled with hate.

We lost fellow students Thursday. No matter which campus we’re on, we share so much with each other, and we cannot forget that. Our love for one another must be strengthened by this tragedy, so we can step forward together, always keeping the fallen in our hearts.