Today

January 27, 2005

Dear Students:

The next few days are an opportunity for us to stand with the family and friends of Linda Trinh, to express our love for her and our support for them.

Visitation hours are scheduled today (Thursday) and tomorrow (Friday) in Silver Spring, Md., outside Washington, D.C. A funeral mass will be held there Saturday at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday. Details are at webapps.jhu.edu/jhuniverse/today/trinh2.cfm.

The university is chartering four buses for students wishing to attend Saturday's funeral. The buses will depart from the circle in front of Eisenhower Library. Students should arrive at 7:30 a.m. Saturday to board the buses and ensure that they arrive in Silver Spring on time. To reserve a seat, please call the Office of Student Development and Programming at 410-516-2224 during business hours on Thursday or before 2 p.m. on Friday. If demand for seats exceeds four buses and we know by early Friday afternoon, we can request additional buses. Sodexho is providing a boxed breakfast for anyone who would like one as they board the bus. We appreciate their generosity.

An on-campus memorial service will be held in the O'Connor Recreation Center on Wednesday, Feb. 2, beginning shortly after 10 a.m. Linda's family, including relatives from Vietnam, are expected to attend. Classes at Homewood are suspended that day from 10 a.m. until 12 noon.

Messages of condolence to the Trinh Family may be sent to the following address:

The Family of Linda Trinh
c/o Bunting-Meyerhoff Interfaith and Community Service Center
The Johns Hopkins University
3400 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, Md. 21218

We want also to let you know that President Brody is sending a message to your parents, both by e-mail (for those parents for whom we have an e-mail address) and by letter mail. The text of that message is now available online at webapps.jhu.edu/jhuniverse/today/trinh3.cfm.

Please feel free to forward that URL to your parents. We want to make sure that as many parents as possible see the message as soon as possible.

Additionally, I wanted to address the frustration that has been expressed by some students that they are learning information about the investigation of Linda's death from the news media rather than from the university. The truth is that the university simply isn't privy to some of this information, which has been provided to reporters by law enforcement sources for their own purposes and on a not-for-attribution basis. The information often has not been generally released, nor will the police do so if might hamper the investigation.

To the extent we can inform you of major developments, we will endeavor to do so, but you must understand that the news media may report on those developments before we are informed.

I want to thank you all for the solidarity you have shown with Linda's family and friends. I know that is a great consolation to them in their grief.

Sincerely,
Susan Boswell
Dean of Student Life