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Tech To Replace First Memorial For Victims

June 8, 2007

By Carlos Santos

Virginia Tech will build an intermediate memorial this summer to replace the impromptu one students erected on the campus Drillfield immediately after the April 16 slaying of 32 students and faculty.

"It seems appropriate that we continue this tradition with something more substantive while we begin the process of looking elsewhere on campus" to build a permanent memorial, said Tech President Charles W. Steger.

That students' temporary memorial consists of a small gray Hokie stone representing each victim. The stones are arranged in a semicircle in the grass on the area of the Drillfield immediately in front of Burruss Hall. Norris Hall, where most of the victims were killed, is adjacent to Burruss Hall.

Grieving students and friends of the victims have placed mementos and flowers in front of the stones marked with the names of the slain 27 students and five faculty members murdered by Seung-Hui Cho. Cho, who committed suicide after his killing rampage, was a mentally unbalanced 23-year-old Tech student from Centreville.

The Hokie stones from the temporary memorial will be offered to the families of the victims after the completion of the intermediate memorial, Tech officials said.

The intermediate memorial will consist of Hokie stones etched with the names of the deceased embedded in an arc of crushed gravel and surrounded by a walking path for viewing. Construction is to begin immediately and will be completed before students return in the fall, officials said.

Steger said the university will eventually build the permanent memorial to "honor the memory and lives of our fallen students and faculty."

Tech plans to build the permanent memorial several years from now possibly on the west end of the Drillfield between Davidson and Price halls.

Contact staff writer Carlos Santos at csantos@timesdispatch.com or (434) 295-9542 .