Students console one another Tuesday at Virginia Tech's Lane Stadium. Matthew Cavanaugh / EPA
Most Saturday afternoons in the fall, Virginia Tech’s Lane Stadium is filled with Hokie football fans. On Tuesday, though, it was flooded with students, staff, faculty and community members who came to watch the convocation service on the stadium Jumbotron.
As early arrivals watched the service in the university’s basketball arena, the overflow crowd packed into the football stadium -- almost every one of them wearing the school colors of orange and maroon.
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Link to thisIn a tragedy where much attention has been paid to new technology such as text messaging and cell phone videos, what is sometimes considered “old media” is providing "a forum to communicate so healing can begin.”
WXLK-FM, better known as K-92 Roanoke, is covering the news following the horrific shooting at Virginia Tech and providing information on topics such as the availability of counseling services and the location of public memorials. But its most important role may be giving locals a much-needed opportunity to talk about the still-unfathomable incident.
Discuss (4 comments) Email this | Link to thisAmong those reading at Tuesday’s convocation is Anat Elazari, a graduate student in industrial engineering recruited for her ability to speak Hebrew.
Elazari was to read from Ecclesiastes, or the Kohelet in Hebrew, in honor of Liviu Librescu, 76, an Israeli citizen originally from Romania. The engineering science and mathematics lecturer was shot to death as he attempted to prevent the gunman from entering his classroom.
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Military cadets walk up the aisle in the Catholic chapel at Virginia Tech Matthew. Cavanaugh / EPA
Military cadets at Virginia Tech experienced a sad role reversal late Monday when they began taking condolence calls from alumnae serving in Iraq.
The calls started coming in as word spread that Matthew La Port, a sophomore Air Force cadet from Dumont, N.J., was among those killed in the shooting at Norris Hall, said David Wheeler, 22, a senior in the Corps of Cadets who was La Port’s platoon leader last year.
Discuss (7 comments) Email this | Link to thisStudents are wearing everything in their wardrobes emblazoned with the Virginia Tech logo in what one student described as a “show of support” for the school.
“They love this school,” said Meredith Daly, a freshman from Danville, Va., who lives in Harper Hall, the same dorm as gunman Cho Seung-Hui. “It’s unbelievable how devoted people are to this school.”
Discuss (22 comments) Email this | Link to thisEven though school officials implored them not to, parents are pouring onto the Virginia Tech campus, doing everything possible to be here with their kids. Every flight from Dallas/Fort Worth airport late Monday was sold out and every hotel room within miles of the campus is booked.
And the students appear to need them. They may officially be adults, but there are times when even college students need mom or dad. An endless stream of tears and hugs is testament to that.
Discuss (96 comments) Email this | Link to thisAn Air Force fighter jet made several low-flying passes over the campus about 11:30 a.m., creating an awful din while tracing figure eights while flying as low as 1,000 feet.
The flyover, apparently a precursor to President Bush’s arrival, is the sort of thing guaranteed to unnerve people already rocked to their core by Monday’s tragedy.
Discuss (27 comments) Email this | Link to thisAfter Virginia Tech officials identified Cho Seung-Hui, 23, as the gunman who killed 32 others on Monday, reporters rushed to Harper Hall, the dormitory where he lived.
But the first students they found said they didn’t know Cho and don’t know anybody who did.
Discuss (4 comments) Email this | Link to thisCommuters getting coffee at a Dunkin Donuts near the Roanoke airport craned their necks to see what that terrible racket was.
The source of the roar was an Air Force C-130 cargo plane carrying presidential limousines for President Bush's visit to Virginia Tech. The president is expected to speak at the 2 p.m. convocation on campus.
Discuss (27 comments) Email this | Link to thisMurder on U.S. college campuses is rare – with about 15 a year on average – but that doesn’t mean they are immune to crime.
Virginia Tech, which has approximately 26,000 students, is no exception, as demonstrated by statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education.
Discuss (4 comments) Email this | Link to thisAs officials, students and families struggle to come to terms with the tragedy at Virginia Tech, a team of MSNBC.com reporters and editors and NBC News producers and correspondents is on the scene.
