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Tech To Celebrate — And Reflect

May 11, 2007

By Jim Nolan

Hundreds of colleges across the nation will hold commencement exercises this weekend.

One will be different from the rest.

At Virginia Tech, where 35,000 people are expected to arrive for ceremonies today and tomorrow, officials face a daunting challenge:

How to honor 32 lives lost in a horrific act of on-campus violence less than one month ago, without turning the milestone joy of a graduation ceremony into a memorial service.

"It will be a day of celebration, but also a day of somber reflection on the lives of the students and faculty members that were lost on April 16," wrote Richard Benson, dean of Tech's College of Engineering, in a letter to the school's 2007 graduates.

"I am grateful that these good students will be with us in spirit, and that their loved ones will join with your loved ones to witness your graduation."

Over the next two days in Blacksburg, Tech will issue diplomas to about 5,000 students from its undergraduate and graduate programs. Among them will be posthumous degrees awarded to the 27 students who were killed in the shooting massacre on campus, many of whom were not graduating seniors.

"It is bittersweet," said senior Daniel Glass, who will graduate with a degree in architecture.

"A lot of people, it's going to be weighing on them throughout graduation," added Glass, 25, who knew Tech victim Michael Steven Pohle Jr. "They'll be just thinking of them and thinking about the good times they had with them."

It could not be determined yesterday how many family members of the students who were killed planned to attend the ceremonies. University officials said some of the degrees would be awarded in private.

Regardless, plans were in place to acknowledge the tragedy at the universitywide commencement exercise in Lane Stadium tonight, when retired Army Gen. Philip Abizaid, the former commander of U.S. Central Command operations in Iraq, is scheduled to speak. Tomorrow, Tech will hold 30 diploma-awarding ceremonies in its colleges and departmental convocations.

The Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures plans to start its ceremony by reading the names of the 15 students and two faculty members who died in the French and German classrooms the morning Tech senior Seung-Hui Cho entered and opened fire. Department Chairman Richard Shryock said families of the students would be awarded certificates declaring their loved ones' posthumous majors in the language course they were taking.

But like other department heads, Shryock said it is important that graduation day for the department's 50 seniors not be consumed by the grief of what happened April 16.

He said the acknowledgement of the event would take place at the beginning of the ceremony, then move on to the recognition of what the graduates have achieved during their four or five years at the university.

"We want students to be able to celebrate that achievement and not be totally deprived of it," Shryock said. "It's a memorable day for the students and their families — one of the most memorable days in their lives."