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Hokie Fund Payouts Set

August 16, 2007

By Bill McKelway

WASHINGTON — Payouts to victims of the Virginia Tech tragedy will range from $180,000 for the families of those who died to free tuition for those who escaped injury in the killing rooms of Norris Hall.

In announcing that to reporters yesterday, Kenneth R. Feinberg, the chief architect of the plan, regretfully described the payouts as "small potatoes."

Feinberg is a Washington lawyer who helped distribute hundreds of millions of dollars to victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He said yesterday that he was hampered in this case by one insurmountable fact: The amount of money available was limited to private donations.

Feinberg said weeks of meetings with the families of victims and survivors had resulted in a payout plan that reserves most of the $7.7 million available in the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund to the 32 people killed in Seung-Hui Cho's April 16 attacks.

Most of the remaining $2.1 million would be for 27 physically injured students, with the length of their hospital stays determining payments of either $90,000 or $40,000.

But no money is specifically set aside for future therapy and rehabilitation of shooting victims who lived, or for students emotionally traumatized by the shootings who were not in Norris Hall, where Cho killed 30 people.

And Feinberg said Virginia Tech is barred by state law from boosting the total payout with its own funds.

Students in West Ambler Johnston Hall, a dormitory where Cho gunned down and killed his first two victims, will not be eligible for fund money.

While the payout plan says that psychologically traumatized students can receive counseling at Virginia Tech, Feinberg acknowledged that counseling is already available at no cost to all students. Some money may be available through a state program for crime victims, he said.

But Feinberg said no amount of money is likely to assuage the grief of families.

"Anyone who thinks this is a valid substitute for the losses vastly overestimates compensation as a surrogate" for losing a loved one, he said.

Clearly moved by the burden of doling out the limited stake of private funds that had been contributed, Feinberg said he had been stunned repeatedly by the unselfishness of families, especially those of wounded students who lived.

"The bulk of the money should go to the dead," he said, describing the sentiments expressed by some families with wounded but surviving children.

The payouts will not prevent possible litigation that families may bring, Feinberg said. He repeatedly praised the efforts of Virginia Tech and its president, Charles W. Steger, to move the payment plan forward.

But some families yesterday continued to stress that Virginia Tech must confront the issues that allowed Cho, a 23-year-old senior who had exhibited threatening behavior, to remain on the Virginia Tech campus.

Vincent Bove, a New Jersey security specialist who represents the families of seven victims, said many of the families can use financial help but that getting money has never been their priority.

"They've been devastated by this, financially and emotionally, and [money] does have its place," Bove said.

"But the families' focus has always been on accountability, truthfulness and consequences. They want the individuals and the administration who have displayed a lack of preparedness and made all the wrong decisions to be held accountable. They want there to be consequences."

A number of families have complained publicly about not being made part of the governor's panel investigating the shootings.

Most recently, the victims' families questioned the appropriateness of a concert planned at Virginia Tech to honor shooting victims. It was planned without family input.

Yesterday, Feinberg said families affected by the payout were given details before Feinberg's news conference. But Bove said families had received no specific information in a timely way about the news conference or about the plan's final details.

Feinberg yesterday spelled out changes that enhanced payouts after family members were consulted about a proposal made last month. He said every effort has been made to keep the families informed.

Steger, who was meeting with a group of about 20 Virginia Tech alumni yesterday in the same hotel office complex where Feinberg met with reporters, had no comment.

Contact Bill McKelway at (804) 649-6601 or bmckelway@timesdispatch.com.