Virginia Tech: 32 stones memorial to shooting victims
Updated: 2008-04-01 11:19
BLACKSBURG, Virginia -- A semicircle of 32 stones in front of Virginia Tech's administration building will stand as the school's permanent memorial to the victims of last April's campus killings, the school's president told its governing board.
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School officials had discussed building a memorial at another site to the 32 students and faculty members killed April 16 during a shooting spree by student Seung-Hui Cho, but those plans have been dropped, University President Charles Steger said.
Steger and other administrators updated the Board of Visitors on the progress of changes made on campus and plans for marking the anniversary of the campus shootings.
The school plans to establish a peace center in the classroom building where Cho killed 30 victims and himself, provost Mark McNamee told the board on Monday. Renovation of the second-floor classrooms could begin this summer, he said.
Steger stressed to the board the importance of garnering broad support for new initiatives.
"No matter what we implement, it's not going to be successful if it does not have the support of the university community," he said.
The school already has implemented an emergency alert system involving text messages, e-mails and online messages, and Steger said Monday that each general purpose classroom also will have an electronic banner that will broadcast emergencies.
The school is also considering installing surveillance cameras outside the student center and possibly some dormitories, Steger said.
"You don't want to turn this into Big Brother or '1984,"' he said.
Steger said he expected all the recommendations received from a panel appointed by Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and from internal reviews to be implemented by next fall.
Kaine will speak at a ceremony April 16, the one-year anniversary of the shootings, at which the names of the victims will be read, the board was told.
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