Of course, the story about the University of Georgia marketing professor who shot his ex-wife and two other people at a theater reunion this weekend was a popular topic of conversation at school today. I was in a meeting with three of our marketing professors, two of which knew him. Apparently another one of the profs at our school currently has an article in submission to a journal on which Zinkhan was a co-author (emphasis on was; the others have asked to have his name removed).
On Saturday, UGA still had his profile on their web site, which showed him to be the Coca-Cola Company Professor of Marketing. I'm sure the people at Coca-Cola are hoping that aspect of the case gets played up a lot. All publicity is good publicity...um? But it looks like he got fired over the weekend. I guess this gives one answer to the question: What does it take to lose tenure? I'm sure the dean of the business school is loving his job right now. I noticed that the UGA web site is quick to point out that this was an off-campus shooting; no Virginia Tech sort of stuff here, folks.
This all sounds really hard-hearted of me, but it's just too awful to imagine what the people who really care personally for Zinkhan, his ex-wife, their kids, or either of the other two murdered people are going through. I imagine it as a kind of implosion that seems like it should annihilate you, but instead, you keep living and experiencing and enduring it in an impossible-feeling way. I hope I never have to learn first-hand how short of the truth this description comes.
I had been wondering what they would do about his classes since we are quickly approaching finals, and one of the professors said she had heard that he had already told his students that they would not be taking the final. I have no idea whether this is accurate or not, so I pass it on as gossip that can be used to interpret his actions as perhaps a bit premeditated. Consider this my way of helping you be disqualified for sitting on the jury in the event he is found, taken into custody alive, and survives to be tried in court.
It's interesting that he at least had the presence of mind, or whatever, to drop his kids off at a neighbor's house before taking off, but it is pretty creepy that they were sitting in the car while he was inside shooting their mom. (Better than bringing them inside, of course, but still not a great thing.) And if the detail I've heard is true, that he afterwards explained the gunshot sounds to the kids as "firecrackers" - that's going to basically make every Fourth of July for the rest of their lives an extra-special reminder of this horrible experience. I wonder where those poor kids are right now.
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How awful for the children to realize that their father (whom they loved) killed their mother (whom they loved). And, I am imagining guilt setting in because they were in the car and thinking now that they could have stopped him somehow.
That is really horrible. As a student, that would be a very strange way for the semester to end as well. (I do realize that the plight of his students is somewhat trivial in the overall picture, but still.)
Mom, you're right about the guilt issue. Not good.
Tam, for obvious reasons, I was wondering if he had any PhD students. Time to find a new advisor and hope that hiring committees don't shy away from your application in the future (perhaps without even recognizing why or believing that they wouldn't let such a thing affect their decisions).
Tam, you might appreciate this: At least one of his classes was supposed to be doing class project presentations this week.
Daaaamn, Robert. If my prof goes on a killing spree before I get to present I am gonna be pissed.
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