Two days after the murder of Meleia Willis-Starbuck '07, the Dartmouth community is struggling to come to terms with her death. Willis-Starbuck was gunned down while standing outside her apartment in Berkeley, Ca., early Sunday morning. She was 19 years old.
Berkeley police said they are unsure what provoked the incident and are currently searching for the gunman. In an interview with The Dartmouth, Dean of Upperclass Students Sylvia Langford described the killing as "senseless."
"People all over the country have been shocked and very saddened by this tragic death," Langford said. "I think we are all really in a state of shock at the moment."
Langford said she has been in contact with the family in the aftermath of the shooting.
"They were doing as well as could be expected under the circumstances," she said. "They too are in shock. It is a very difficult time, but the family was rallying together to support one another."
The shooting has caused an outpouring of grief by Willis-Starbuck's close friends at the College and stunned the wider Dartmouth community.
"I'm still kind of in a state of denial. The most important thing is remembering the happy times. That was my friend -- that was more than my friend -- that was my sister," Jonathan Lesesne '07 said.
Friends of Willis-Starbuck, a sociology and African-American studies double major, remembered her as passionate about social activism. While in high school, she participated in a class trip to Cuba and visited Vietnam. At Dartmouth, she volunteered with the Dartmouth Alliance for Children of Color to help minority youth in the Upper Valley and was a member of the Dartmouth College Greens.
Willis-Starbuck was spending her summer volunteering at the Women's Daytime Drop-in Center at Berkeley. According to the organization's website, the center provides support for homeless women and children. Representatives of the Berkeley Center could not be reached for comment.
Friends at Dartmouth said that her work in Berkeley was part of Willis-Starbuck's overall desire to influence her community through service.
"She had been planning this since late winter, and she was just saying the way to start to help people is to start in your community; that's where she grew up," Lesesne said. "She felt that her mission was to solve the problems in the world, one step at a time, to right the wrongs."
The internship was organized through the Dartmouth Partners for Community Service program, associated with the Tucker Foundation.
"She worked though our office to organize the program," Tucker Foundation Dean Stuart Lord said. "It's unfortunate that this happened to someone who desired to go and serve, and do good and help people."
Langford expressed a desire for others to examine the causes Willis-Starbuck held dear during her own life. "Meleia was someone who was an activist, she wanted to make a difference. I think she would want us to take the baton that she has now given to us to look forward and work toward positive change," Langford said.
Friends described Meleia as a "free spirit" who inspired all those she met. "Meleia was a wonderful human being. She was someone that her friends could always run to for whatever because we all felt that she would always understand," Jordan Page '07 said. "Meleia has helped me, and a lot of our friends through some hard times, as we've helped her. She had a carefree and vivacious way about her that could never be duplicated."
Craig Massey '06 echoed many students' sentiments of Willis-Starbuck.
"Everytime I spoke with her, I left smiling and laughing and just feeling better about life," he said. "This is a very tragic loss for the people close to her, and also to the Dartmouth community and the world as a whole."
In a statement issued by the Office of Public Affairs, President James Wright offered his condolences to the Willis-Starbuck family.
"We at Dartmouth College are deeply saddened by the death of Meleia Willis-Starbuck," Wright wrote. "Her loss is a terrible tragedy that leaves our community shocked, saddened and distressed."
College community members gathered at a candle-light vigil Monday night to honor the life and memory of Willis-Starbuck. The vigil was organized by her friends in the Afro-American Society and began at Cutter-Shabazz Hall, leading to a congregation on the Green.
Willis-Starbuck is survived by her parents, two half-brothers and one half-sister.
