"The entire NYU community grieves for our fellow New Yorkers killed and wounded in Buffalo. We are outraged at yet another mass killing fueled by the toxic draught of race hatred and guns. That the young racist who carried out this atrocity sought to broadcast it on social media only adds to inhumanity and incomprehensibility of it all.
"With each incident like the ones in Buffalo, Charleston, El Paso, Pittsburgh, New Zealand, or the recent shootings around Dallas that are suspected of being connected, we are left grasping for answers as we try to absorb—not even understand, but simply absorb—such ghastly acts. How can anything so utterly diabolical and condemnable recur so often?
"This is the time of year when our graduates set out to take their places in the world—in the professions, in graduate and professional schools, in communities across the world. This year, as they do, they carry more than our congratulations and pride; they leave with our hope that the values of our community—non-violence, discourse, diversity and inclusion, faith in the triumph of truth, and learning over ignorance—will lead to a more righteous, less violent, and less hate-filled world.
"The NYU community offers our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of those killed, our sympathies to those wounded in the attack, and our support to the people of Buffalo and all those who oppose racism, violence, and extremism."