CEDAR FALLS - The first ambulance passed by Guy Sims as he headed to his office in the Squires Student Center on the Virginia Tech campus.

He thought nothing of it until answering the phone at 8:30 a.m. An administrative assistant in the vice president's office was calling to tell him there was "another incident" on campus. His first thought was that someone had issued another bomb threat, but the woman on the phone quickly spelled out the facts she knew about the first shooting.

Sims, the former associate director for Maucker Union on the University of Northern Iowa campus, is now assistant vice president for student affairs at Virginia Tech.

Though worried about the first shooting, Sims continued on with his morning and a 10 a.m. meeting. Sims said his office is about the distance from Maucker Union to the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center from the academic building where Cho Seung-Hui killed most of his victims. Sims heard nothing out of the ordinary from his office.

However, before the 10 a.m. meeting started a feeling in his gut pulled him to the hallway to check his e-mail. It was there he saw the message.

"It said 'There is a gunman on campus. Stay in your building,'" he said. "Anyone who knows me knows I have a hard time following orders. So I went back to my building and everyone there was already in action."

The building remained in lockdown until about 12:30 p.m. but in the meantime students who had escaped from Norris were being led to the student center by their professors. Sims found them a private place to gather where they had access to counselors - and representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigations had access to them.

Through it all, Sims kept busy. Students and staff were transfixed by the news reports, but Sims said he did his best to tune them out.

"I didn't want to walk around with pieces of information. It wasn't until I started meeting with other officers on campus that I finally got more accurate information," he said.

Sims and other administrators worked well into the night and early Tuesday morning.

Their work continues today.

Classes at the university have been canceled this week, but university staff, faculty and administrators are still planning and working to make students feel as comfortable as possible upon their return.

Sims said the outpouring of support from other schools, businesses and people across the nation has been overwhelming. His family continues to get calls from friends here in Iowa and messages like those on the UNI home page which offer support and condolences are much appreciated, Sims said.

"We are doing our best in a horrific situation," he said. "The finest thing we are receiving is words of comfort."

Contact Emily Christensen at (319) 291-1520 or emily.christensen@wcfcourier.com.