On Thursday, 27 year old Stephen P. Kazmierczak, with at least two handguns under his coat and a guitar case in his hand, entered Cole Hall on the campus of Northern Illinois University, walked onto the stage of a classroom there, took a shoot gun from the guitar case, and shot 22 people. Seven died.

Kazmierczak took his own life after the shooting. It was the worst campus violence since the Virginia Tech tragedy exactly 10 months earlier.

The campus was closed on December 10 while police investigated washroom graffiti on campus that referred to the Virginia Tech massacre.

The News Blog at the Chronicle of Higher Education has become one of the best sources for news on the shootings at NIU. Their original story, Gunman Shoots 5 to Death at Northern Illinois U. Before Killing Himself, was published on the day of the shooting.

Since then the Chronicle's News Blog has published no less than 11 stories or posts on the events surrounding the shooting.

• Extra Equipment Boosts Cellphone Service at Northern Illinois U. After Shooting
• Mental-Health Professionals Rally Behind Colleagues at Northern Illinois U.
• Online Gun Dealer Sold to Both Northern Illinois and Virginia Tech Killers
• After Shooting, Students Connect Through Facebook
• Profiles of the Victims
• Northern Illinois U. Had No System for Sending Emergency Messages to Cellphones
• U. of Illinois Chancellor Offers Condolences
• Shooter at Northern Illinois U. Had Stopped Taking His Medication, Authorities Say
• Northern Illinois U. Shooter Was Graduate Student at U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Death Toll in Northern Illinois U. Shooting Rises to 7
• Classes to Resume on Feb. 25 at Northern Illinois - Students will return to campus on February 25.

The Chronicle's News Blog is an excellent place to keep up with the story as NIU mourns and considers any administrative responses to the shooting.