BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) – There’s a small, makeshift memorial to Michelle Gardner-Quinn next to the fountain on the University of Vermont green, but few students lounging outside on a warm fall day this week paused to notice the images of the student who was killed a year ago this weekend.

No one has forgotten Gardner-Quinn, or her violent, tragic death. The things the 21-year-old Arlington, Va., woman held dear are being commemorated with a week of activities and remembrances, there’s been a focus on student safety and a number of practical measures have been taken to protect students. But the campus is moving on.

The university is making it possible for people to commemorate Gardner-Quinn’s death in their own way.

Meanwhile, Brian Rooney, the 37-year-old Richmond man charged with sexually assaulting and then killing Gardner-Quinn after he loaned her his cell phone on Burlington’s Main Street, is awaiting trial, possibly before the end of the year.

Rooney is charged with aggravated murder. He is also is facing unrelated aggravated sexual assault charges that grew out of the search for Gardner-Quinn. If convicted of aggravated murder, Rooney will be sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.

Gardner-Quinn was reported missing last Oct. 7 after she didn’t return to her dorm following a night out with friends in downtown Burlington.

After a high-profile search and police investigation, Gardner-Quinn’s body was found Oct. 13 next to the Huntington Gorge in Richmond. Police say she had been sexually assaulted and died of blunt force trauma and strangulation.

“As with anything else, (we’re) really taking a true tragedy and such a loss and trying to be reflective and intentional about not only carrying on Michelle’s legacy, but also really doing all that we can do to make UVM as safe as possible for our students,” said Annie Stevens, UVM assistant vice president for student life.

The first event, a raffle to raise money for a scholarship in Michelle’s memory, was held on Friday. This coming Wednesday, there will be a night of remembrance. On Friday there will be a candlelight march from downtown Burlington to the campus, the same route Gardner-Quinn was to have taken the night she disappeared.

Next Saturday there will be what is being called the First Annual Michelle Gardner-Quinn Memorial Hike. It will be also be used as a fundraiser, for the Michelle Gardner-Quinn Memorial Fund for Environmental Studies.

On a practical level, Gardner-Quinn’s death has prompted a series of changes in the way UVM and local police prepare for and react to possible abductions.

“We are very progressive in terms of our safety. We’ve had a police department for years, we’ve had blue lights, we installed camera systems, we’re not trailing anyone,” said UVM Police Chief Gary Margolis.

“When something as tragic as Michelle happens, you’ve got to stop and look again and ask yourself, ‘what are we not doing that we could be doing?” he said.

Partly as a result of Gardner-Quinn’s death and the April shootings at Virginia Tech that left 32 people dead, UVM installed a new campus-wide emergency notification system, due to be rolled out later this month, Margolis said.

UVM has made a deal with local taxi companies to allow students to pay for a ride with the campus ID and debit card, Margolis said.

Across campus, students have been looking for unlocked doors or unlighted areas, said Ben Porter, a 20-year-old senior from Burlington and member of the student government.

“I think this has really changed the way people think about safety,” Porter said.

Gardner-Quinn, a committed environmentalist, was a senior, but she was in her first year at UVM. She transferred so she could join the environmental studies program.

A surveillance camera on a downtown jewelry store recorded Gardner-Quinn and Rooney walking together up Main Street toward the UVM campus.

Gardner-Quinn’s death and her commitment to the environment has reached across the world.

In a YouTube video, singer Sheryl Crow, actress Meg Ryan and Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, are pictured holding a portrait Gardner-Quinn and reciting parts of an essay Gardner-Quinn submitted to a class two days before her death.

“And I believe that my daughter can still change the world,” Gardner-Quinn’s mother, Diane Quinn, said in the video.

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