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New Year Signaled At Tech

July 10, 2007

By Rex Bowman

BLACKSBURG, Va. — Three months after tragedy, life blossomed anew at Virginia Tech yesterday as excited incoming freshmen accompanied by proud parents picked up paperwork, greeted their classmates and loped across campus.

For the students, it was an unnerving adventure into the new; for Tech, it was a comforting return to routine.

About 350 of the newest crop of Hokies had arrived on campus for the school's inaugural freshmen orientation session of the summer. The students, a small portion of the more than 5,200 freshmen expected at Tech by the first day of classes on Aug. 20, had few questions about the April 16 massacre of 32 students and teachers. Instead, they wanted to know where their dorm rooms are, who their roommates will be and how to enroll in classes.

"It's the same as every year, the same questions," said Tech employee Shirley Stone, who spent the day assisting befuddled students and parents. "The two most common questions are, 'When do I register for classes?' and 'Do I have to buy my books at the campus bookstore?'"

Parents, meanwhile, showed little worry that another shooting attack could occur on the Blacksburg campus. Instead, their concerns were their children's grades, the cost of books and the best method of making tuition payments.

"It was one of those random things that could have happened anywhere," Everette Taylor Sr. said of the shooting rampage. Taylor, a Richmond postal worker, accompanied his son, Everette Jr. "I'm not worried. I just hope he concentrates on the books and doesn't get caught up in the partying."

Yesterday's orientation, the first of 12 over the next three weeks, featured student and faculty speakers who admonished the fresh-faced high school graduates who make up the class of 2011 to spend their time at Tech wisely, to study, to become active in clubs and groups, to get plenty of sleep and to make sure to do their laundry.

During a morning session, the new students observed a moment of silence for those killed by gunman Seung-Hui Cho. It was one of the few times the shootings darkened the sun-soaked campus yesterday.

"Virginia Tech has been forever affected by the unthinkable tragedy of this spring," Zenobia Hikes, vice president for student affairs, told the students after the moment of silence. "But we are one of the nation's great universities, and we will hold our heads high."

Freshman Caitlin Harris, 17, of Crewe said the shootings didn't make her doubt her choice to attend Tech.

"After it happened, I knew it was going to be a safer place," Harris said. "And I've always wanted to come here. My dad came here. No second thoughts."

Harris said she has already signed up for Tech's new e-mail and text-messaging alert system.

Led by Tech students in maroon and orange, the new freshmen toured the campus throughout the hot afternoon, crisscrossing the Drillfield that had abandoned the green of spring for the brown hue of a parched summer. The new students walked by Norris Hall, where Cho killed 30 of his victims. They paused only briefly before moving on.

Contact Rex Bowman at RBowman@timesdispatch.com or (540) 344-3612.