FIU President Mark B. Rosenberg sent the following message to the university community on Saturday, March 17, 2018.

Dear FIU family,

Our hearts break for the victims of the bridge collapse. Lives have been lost. Futures and families shattered.

I have met family members and friends of the victims. My heart goes out to them. There is nothing I can say to ease their pain but we are putting our arms around them and doing everything in our power to support them.

Even as we grieve, we all have an interest in getting to the bottom of what happened. This effort is being led by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in a full and comprehensive investigation. FIU is cooperating fully with this investigation and working closely with government authorities.

We are also forever grateful to the first responders – including some of our own doctors, students and others who rushed to the scene – and the dozens of others who came to assist. I am particularly moved by the men and women who have worked around the clock to recover the victims.

It will take time for our community to heal.

As a first step, on Monday, we will have a moment of silence at 1:47 p.m. Please join us wherever you are.

For the latest updates, please visit FIU News.