Amid the anguish, solidarity and resolve
BLACKSBURG, Va. -- Campus walkways ran orange and maroon.
Under a glorious midday sun, students at Virginia Tech clad in their school colors yesterday filed toward Cassel Coliseum, first coming in trickles along the paths weaving through this sprawling campus, then in a dense procession marked by eerie silence. They filed by Norris Hall, site of the slaughter, now cordoned off by yellow police tape. They filed by empty campus buildings papered with ominous new placards: "DO NOT allow people to follow you in."
By the time the students reached the site of the public convocation -- the first campus gathering after a fellow student's inexplicable killing rampage -- the line of Hokies stretched a mile long. There were tears and hugs aplenty, but smiles, too. Students appeared to take heart simply from the sight of so many of their own.
"Look around today," said Kristin Eden , a 22-year-old veterinary medicine student, gesturing at the crowd. "It's the closest community I've ever lived in. We are all Hokies, I guess."
The campus took tentative first steps toward rebounding from Monday's horrific events, receiving condolences from President Bush even as school administrators announced that classes would resume next week.
But one terrible uncertainty loomed over everything: The final list of victims had not been released, and students frantically traded rumors about who else Seung-Hui Cho might have killed.
"I just love you, OK? I love you," said Alexis Beckford, a student from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., as she held a weeping friend who had just learned a classmate would be on that dreaded list. "We're going to get through this."
A somber Bush conveyed the nation's prayers and thoughts to more than 5,000 students and faculty packed into the coliseum and thousands more watching via video hookup from the football stadium.
"Yesterday began like any other day. Students woke up, and they grabbed their backpacks and they headed for class," he said. "And soon the day took a dark turn, with students and faculty barricading themselves in classrooms and dormitories -- confused, terrified, and deeply worried."
"It's impossible to make sense of such violence and suffering," Bush said.
School officials provided a huge contingent of counselors to assist grieving students. After a series of subdued addresses, poet and faculty member Nikki Giovanni sought to bolster the crowd: "We are the Hokies! We will prevail!" The name Hokie derives from a 19th-century campus cheer.
The assembly responded with school spirit reminiscent of happier times. "Let's go, HO-kies! Let's go, HO-kies!" The name Hokie derives from a 19th century campus cheer.
But away from the crowds, students expressed a range of emotions and thoughts on what it would take to move forward, still trying to work through Monday morning's horrid events.
Ebenecia T. Baah , 20, an industrial and systems engineering major from Elmont, N.Y., had a 9 a.m. class in the engineering building where Cho allegedly killed most of his victims. But, "for reasons I'm still not sure about," she said, she decided to skip class.
"I thank God that I'm still alive," said Baah, adding that she would be uncomfortable entering Norris Hall again. "I can't imagine having class in a place where all those people were killed."
Virginia Tech officials said Norris Hall, which is just off the campus's central grassy quad, will be closed for at least the remainder of the semester.
Aside from the coliseum, the campus was a ghost town yesterday, with classes canceled and many students headed home at a time when the campus usually comes alive with the start of spring and the end of the academic year. The Hokies football team, central to Virginia Tech life, canceled a popular intrasquad game scheduled for Saturday, as well as spring practices.
The parking lot at the campus alumni center was filled with dozens of television trucks with protruding satellite dishes. Curious students watched the likes of Katie Couric and Geraldo Rivera report from the scene.
But the alumni center served another, more dour purpose as a greeting center for the families of victims. Off-campus, local police and forensics officials continued identifying many of the bodies, a task complicated by the fact that Cho apparently shot many in the head, disfiguring their faces. Some family members pushed for the immediate release of the bodies.
Superintendent W. Steven Flaherty of the Virginia State Police said it would be several days before the forensics work was completed and the bodies released.
Some Asian students worried that the shooter's ethnicity would lead to a backlash.
"I'm from South Korea, so I am a little bit scared," said Jiyoun Yoo , 24. "Maybe it will affect all South Korean students."
Xiang Yu , 29, a chemistry graduate student, slept in on Monday morning. When he awoke, he got a shock in his in box. The first e-mail mentioned a shooting, with the body count growing with each subsequent missive. Finally, he got word that the shooter was Asian. Xiang, who emigrated from China six years ago, said he worried that Chinese students would bear the brunt of student anger.
Though campus was closed, Xiang also worried about his research project on chemical polymers. He got into his lab yesterday and made sure that the experiment on which his doctorate depends would not be disrupted.
"I'll still come to the lab every day," he said. "They're not physically blocking the entrances to the buildings."
Governor Tim Kaine spoke at the convocation, then met privately with students and officials.
"I know this is a very strong community, a resilient community," he said.
Eden, the veterinary student, sat glumly on the ground watching students file into the coliseum. She knew victim Ryan Clark , a popular residence hall assistant. Eden attended Virginia Tech as an undergraduate and has committed to several more years there as a veterinary student. She came to think of the school as a haven where young people could be young.
"You used to be able to walk home completely plastered from a bar and feel safe," she said. "Now, I don't know.
"The magnitude of all this hasn't quite settled in yet." 