Colleges

USF's grief expressed in online community

"I will never forget your kind heart my brother. You were always in a good mood and I never met a person with your character. RIP and I will join you in Heaven when the time comes."

By GREG AUMAN
Published January 20, 2007

"I will never forget your kind heart my brother. You were always in a good mood and I never met a person with your character. RIP and I will join you in Heaven when the time comes."

A posting in a Keeley Dorsey memorial group on Facebook. com

TAMPA - Within hours of the stunning news Wednesday afternoon that USF freshman football player Keeley Dorsey had collapsed and died, a humble vigil started online.

That night, as word spread across campus, hundreds of students flocked to the online center of their social world, Facebook.com, joining memorial groups remembering the 19-year-old running back.

By Friday, three large memorial groups at Facebook combined for more than 1,200 people, many of which had changed their personal image from a smiling shot of themselves to a picture of Dorsey as a tribute to a fallen friend.

It's a change in the way young people can grieve, but USF administrators say sites such as Facebook and Myspace.com give students a chance to express themselves and commiserate with others sharing their loss.

"Because online communication has become such a tremendous part of the way our students operate today, it's no surprise to us that they're expressing that grief through Facebook," said Jennifer Meningall, USF's vice president for student affairs. "It's a natural outlet for them. We want them to go through the grieving process that's most natural for them."

And Dorsey's death reaches to other colleges that his classmates from Tallahassee Lincoln High are now attending.

Many posts are addressed directly to Dorsey, things friends wished they had the chance to say before his death Wednesday during a workout with teammates at the athletic facility on USF's campus.

"I don't like to talk about things like this much, but this gives everyone an opportunity to get their emotions out, to say all the things they want to say," said Bryan Kendricks, Dorsey's teammate at Lincoln who just finished his freshman season as a safety at Mississippi.

USF set up a 24-hour hotline for students and invited students to stop by the athletic facility and sign a book.

"They get an opportunity to get together, in a bit of public face but yet with anonymity online," Meningall said of sites such as Facebook.

The site has practical purposes, too, such as letting hundreds of friends know the details of Dorsey's viewing and funeral, set for next weekend in Tallahassee.

Kendricks, who will be a pallbearer at Dorsey's funeral, remembers how the two worked out together every day the summer after his senior year, how Dorsey would come over to his house for breakfast, how they were close enough that Dorsey simply called Kendricks' mother "Mom."

"I've talked to so many people in the last two days, and none of us can believe it happened to him," Kendricks said. "The kid was unbelievable, the way he went through so much and never once complained."Facebook.com.

[Last modified January 19, 2007, 23:51:15]