With evening vigil, counseling session, admin honors Anne Ryan's memory

University officials are continuing to help the Penn community cope with the death of College sophomore Anne Ryan.

At a Penn community gathering yesterday afternoon, about 15 administrators milled around Houston Hall's Bodek Lounge, nibbling at trays of fruit and cookies and waiting to help any students that needed them.

Sunday night's remembrance vigil was "so beautiful and so profoundly powerful that it [already] gave a lot of comfort to people," said Vice Provost for University Life Valarie Swain-Cade McCoullum, speculating on the low student turnout.

Ryan's friends have chosen not to comment on Ryan at this time, and The Daily Pennsylvanian did not immediately contact the Ryan family.

McCoullum said she has been struck by "how well loved . Anne was by her family and friends and how devastated friends felt at her loss."

The University has put together a response team - VPUL, Student Health Services, Counseling and Psychological Services, Office of the University Chaplain and Penn Police Special Services - to deal with the situation.

The University has also displayed a wide range of alternative methods of counseling and comfort, both to the Ryan family and the Penn community.

Penn faculty returned to campus over the weekend to provide support, from picking up family members from the airport to providing mobile counseling sessions around campus.

University officials were quick to provide the campus with information about Anne's death and to identify an informational Web site about meningitis - www.upenn.edu/about/meningitis_info.php - and about where students may receive emotional help.

Tributes to Ryan are surfacing among various members of the Penn community.

College Dean Dennis DeTurck wrote in an e-mail to College students that Ryan "studied Arabic, a language new to her, and impressed her professors and advisors with her wide interests and willingness to try many new things, ranging from fashion design to international development."

"In a lot of ways, she was the quintessential College student," DeTurck added in an interview.

In the coming weeks, administrators hope to guide students through the process of recovery.

Associate Chaplain Charles Howard said the University will "try to get the school year back on track and not to move on . but to make us stronger and more sensitive to each other."

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