Just under 20 students gathered at Cutter Shabazz, the African-American house, Monday night to remember Meleia Willis-Starbuck '07, the Dartmouth junior who was shot and killed exactly one year earlier in her hometown of Berkeley, Calif.
In addition to hosting the event, held in the same residence hall where Willis-Starbuck lived during her sophomore year, the Afro-American Society also distributed ribbons in Willis-Starbuck's favorite color, purple, for students to wear throughout the day in Willis-Starbuck's memory.
Willis-Starbuck was shot in July 2005 by close friend Christopher Hollis, who is currently awaiting a homicide trial set to start in September.
Simon Trabelsi '08, who attended high school with Willis-Starbuck, said at the memorial that many of Willis-Starbuck's Dartmouth friends are not following the trial.
"The details are real painful, so it's not really something that one might want to follow," he said.
Willis-Starbuck left behind a legacy of social change, Trabelsi said.
"She inspired everyone to move and do something," he said, citing the social justice award given to her posthumously by the College's Martin Luther King Celebration Committee in January.
At the memorial, guests were near silent, sitting among candles, either reflecting or dropping handwritten messages to Willis-Starbuck in a box.
"We thought of many people who don't want to speak but may want to write something privately," said memorial organizer Ashley Henry '08.
For Zainep Mahmoud '08, who also set up the memorial, Monday evening was about closure. Mahmoud said she "cried for weeks" after hearing about Willis-Starbuck's death, even though "this is a girl that I only had minimal contact with."
Mahmoud said she met Willis-Starbuck before she was admitted to the College.
"She was the one to speak and always reach out, always," Mahmoud said.
Besides the memorial inside Cutter Shabazz, Henry said there are plans to get a memorial tree planted.
"We want to have something more permanent there," Henry said.
But planting a tree isn't as simple as meets the eye, Henry said, because the College would charge the Afro-American society about $2,500 to plant and take care of the tree for the next 15 years.
"It's very discouraging because they won't even allow us to plant flowers," she said.
The Afro-American society is raising funds for the project and hopes to have a tree in the ground by Willis-Starbuck's Oct. 10 birthday.
"I think it'll take a lot, but people are so willing," Henry said.
