This may not have made national news, but a large hackberry tree fell on a group of prospective students touring at Vanderbilt today. 10 hurt, 4 in hospital, but none seriously (from what I’ve heard so far.) I’m curious as to what the university may (or may not) try to do for these kids. It was an “act of God” I guess, but they have got to be sweating in the Admissions Department right now. I remember during our tour last year how they were very proud of their arboretum - and rightly so; many fine large trees on campus. Not sure what my question is here, just thought it was an interesting, weird, sad thing that happened, and I’m glad none of the students was hurt badly.
Glad nobody was seriously hurt. Odd!
Yikes!
I would think a “why Vanderbilt” essay that went something like “even though I ended up in the hospital I still want to attend” might have some sway!
Yikes! I’m not trying to make light of this, but at least they were close to a world class medical center. Vandy does proudly promote their status as a national arboretum and many students get the spring allergies to prove it. Until I read this, I thought that was the worst outcome of life in the “Vandy bubble.” Hope those hospitalized are dismissed soon.
Bad omen… Better go to Harvard!
I’d totally take that as a sign that Vanderbilt is not for me if I were one of the prospective students 
I live just outside of Nashville and I didn’t hear anything about this.
Yeah, I was surprised it didn’t get more coverage. I saw it on the local news, but there was a lot of competition for news stories. Such as “how to eat healthy during the holidays,” and “which toy is popular this year.”
Wow. Hope they are all okay. I’m not a superstitious person, but I’m with @MotherOfDragons on this. I might also think that perhaps I should attend a different college.
Oh, man. I was touring this January, and I totally would have taken this as a sign. It was bad enough that I got the flu on the way there and was sneezing throughout the tour.
Ah. I found it at the bottom of page 4A of The Tennessean. It was only about 5 paragraphs, maybe the university was trying to cover it up more?
^^^ If I were in PR at Vandy I really think I’d rather there be extensive coverage of the dangerous trees than of the upcoming re-trial of the football players accused of rape. Just sayin’
^^^ True.
May be a bit early, but did any pre-meds in the group could get an early look at the medical school from an unorthodox perspective?
What’s to cover up? Maybe they can’t say much because all information about injuries and conditions are confidential. There’s not much they can say other than what they already have – the tree’s roots weren’t dead, the pictures published of the tree (it was on my phone news app, so I don’t know if it was the Tennessean or one of the wire services) show that it was not rotting, there’s been a ton of rain, and the tree was big and heavy. At least 2 of the local news stations appear to have filmed extensive footage of the tree while they were clearing it away. It was huge; it’s fortunate that no one was killed.
@nerdyparent: ROFL
The Tennessean didn’t have any pictures. It did say that the tree was in good condition, and the rain we’ve been having caused it to tip.
Didn’t mean to make light of the accident, by the way. There was a similar incident during a pre-school year camping/orientation trip some 15 years ago involving one of our local prep schools that resulted in two kids being seriously injured – and they were off in a remote area with, as I recall, no cell phone coverage so a couple of older ones had to hike out to find a signal. All well now, as far as I know. But, I still thought nerdyparent’s scenario was hilarious!