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‘A Regular Day’ at Tech

August 21, 2007

By Rex Bowman

BLACKSBURG — Virginia Tech put tragedy and grief behind it yesterday as thousands of students poured across campus on the fall semester's first day of classes.

Parking lots were jammed, dining halls hummed with activity and sidewalks were crowded with students chattering and laughing as they hurried to classes.

The return to textbooks and homework marks a major milestone in the university's effort to move beyond the April shooting massacre of 32 students and teachers on campus and focus its attention once more on education.

"It's a regular day," Robert Palmer, an 18-year-old sophomore from Chantilly, said as he came out of his 8 a.m. psychology class and headed toward his next class, also in psychology. "I couldn't wait to get back into it."

Yesterday's hot, sunny weather was in perfect contrast to April 16, a cold, gray and blustery day. After the killing rampage by student Seung-Hui Cho, Tech essentially cut the spring semester short.

Yesterday, when there was a noticeable presence of state and campus police, some students took time to drop by the new memorial, dedicated Sunday, to Cho's 32 victims. The students walked slowly past the 32 gray Hokie stones placed in an arc in front of Burruss Hall and read the names on the limestone blocks.

Cho killed 30 of his victims in the second-floor classrooms of Norris Hall. Classes will no longer be held in the building, which now houses administrative offices.

Syeda Kutub, a 20-year-old psychology major from Sterling, said no one seemed to be dwelling on the massacre. Walking out of her first class, "Morality and Justice," she said no one brought up the killings in the classroom and the professor launched into the academic material without commenting on the tragedy.

"For the first day, he just wanted to know us," Kutub said. "It was great."

Kutub said the administration has sent out various e-mails to students in the past two weeks, and they too referred to April 16 only briefly.

"They were really welcoming," Kutub said of the e-mails. "And I really appreciated them."

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