Kennison State University
Description
Affiliated Characters
Event Involvements
Events with structured involvement data
Kennison State University is the institutional source of the bombing tragedy named in the speech; the organization is invoked to provide concrete victims and heroes, giving the President's words specificity and moral weight while prompting national attention and sympathy.
Represented indirectly through named victims, student-heroes, and the President's description of events rather than by a university spokesman in this scene.
The university is depicted as a victimized institution lacking agency in the immediate moment; it is placed under the moral authority and protective narrative of the federal leadership.
The university's tragedy forces national political leaders to address campus safety and communal grief, potentially shaping policy priorities and public expectations for institutional support.
Implied crisis management and mourning within the university: immediate emergency response, care for survivors, and dealing with public scrutiny and needs of bereaved families.
Kennison State University’s identity as an institution is the referent for the President’s eulogy: the university’s losses are named and mourned, making the organization the story’s immediate moral center and the reason for national attention.
Represented indirectly through the President’s naming of victims and the narrative details about students and staff who died or acted heroically.
Here the university occupies the role of a powerless victim to national tragedy; the administration exercises moral and political authority in response, offering consolation and the promise of action.
The university’s tragedy forces national political speech and frames administration action; it strengthens calls for policy and resource responses while humanizing abstract political stakes.
Implied grieving and trauma within the campus community; potential internal pressure to seek answers and support from government and media, though not explored in the scene.
Kennison State University is the locus of the tragedy described in the briefing; it is the moral center of the news — the victims' community whose loss makes any campaign mentions fraught.
Through references to the pipe-bombing, the memorial invitation, and the President's planned attendance.
A victimized institution whose needs and grief constrain political maneuvering; commands moral rather than political authority in this context.
Forces the administration to prioritize commemoration and investigation over raw political advantage.
Stressed leadership coordinating with federal authorities and the President's office under difficult circumstances.
Kennison State University is the site of the earlier pipe-bombing referenced as the tragedy tying the Johnson County suspects to a larger act of domestic terror; it looms as the political and emotional backdrop that justifies extraordinary measures.
Referenced through intelligence links and Bartlet's invocation of the dead students to morally ground his position.
A victim institution whose tragedy pressures the Presidency to prioritize security response and moral retribution over process.
The university's tragedy supplies the moral impetus and public expectation that constrains legalistic caution and fuels executive resolve.
Not present in-scene; functions externally as a source of moral pressure on decision-makers.
Kennison State University (KSU) is the referent trauma—the pipe-bombing that killed 44 students—used by Bartlet to morally justify urgent, even extralegal, responses and the elimination of Shareef.
Mentioned by Bartlet as the site of the atrocity that underwrites the administration's stress and urgency.
Serves as moral leverage in the political argument, amplifying pressure on the Presidency to act decisively.
Demonstrates how public tragedies compress time for policy deliberation and justify exceptional measures under the guise of national security.
Not an active bureaucracy in the scene; used symbolically by staff and the President.
Related Events
Events mentioning this organization
C.J. opens what should be a routine nightly briefing with a jokey aside and logistical notes about the President's upcoming remarks — a deliberate effort …
A routine press lid collapses into crisis when C.J. is pulled back to the podium to announce a deadly bombing at Kennison State University. She …
While Leo tries to claim a quiet, comforting ritual—turning on a cooking show with Margaret—the TV cuts to C.J.'s tense press briefing announcing unconfirmed reports …
At a DNC fundraiser, President Bartlet transforms the raw shock of the Kennison State University bombing into a unifying call to courage. Naming the victims …