Virginia Tech Massacre: One Year Later (VIDEO)

On the morning of April 16, 2007, the campus of Virginia Tech experienced acts of horror so unspeakable and unimaginable that, even now, our minds cannot fully grasp them.

Photo courtesy: Virginia Tech University

(BLACKSBURG, Va.) - On Wednesday, the Virginia Tech Day of Remembrance will be held in honor of those lost a year ago.

Classes will not be held, but the university will be open. Many departments’ essential services must still be supported. Employees are expected to report as scheduled.

However, departments have been urged to give employees as much flexibility as possible to attend the remembrance events on our campuses. Time spent at those events will count as regular work hours.

The university has scheduled two official remembrance ceremonies, both on the Drillfield. Gov. Tim Kaine and Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger will speak at the University Commemoration, which will also feature the reading of statements about each of the 32 students and faculty members who lost their lives. That event is from 10:30 AM to noon. A student-organized Candlelight Vigil will begin at 8:15 PM. Both ceremonies are rain or shine and will be broadcast on local cable channels 2-4.

Numerous other remembrance-themed events will take place elsewhere on campus throughout the day.

Excerpted from a letter by Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger '69:

On the morning of April 16, 2007, the campus of Virginia Tech experienced acts of horror so unspeakable and unimaginable that, even now, our minds cannot fully grasp them. The shooting tragedy that occurred has nonetheless irrevocably changed both our university and our nation.

Equally hard to imagine are the depths of profound and limitless sorrow felt by all members of the university community, particularly the families, friends, colleagues, and classmates of those who died here that day. They have lost sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, spouses, friends, classmates, and professors in a sudden and senseless act of horrific violence, and they must learn to live with agonizing absences that will never be filled. As a part of the larger Hokie family, we grieve alongside them, our hearts filled with sadness and sympathy.

In the aftermath of such tragedy, it is difficult to determine when it will be time to move ahead and how we will do so. Yet even as I write, I see that our campus sidewalks are crowded with those who have come to mourn and those who are here to learn. Students and faculty are back in their classrooms and their studies are important because teaching and learning are at the heart of this university and will be the foundation of its recovery.

We at Virginia Tech form a special family, one defined not by a single tragic event but by our storied past, a community not frozen in the present but poised to invent our future. The events of April 16 have changed us, to be sure, but they have not--and will not--set us back. Today, we are pressing ahead with a renewed commitment to the university, a deeper understanding of the quality and depth of its character, and a steadfast resolve to excel so that we may honor the memory of those we have lost.

We will prevail. We are Virginia Tech.

The 32 students and faculty members who lost their lives:

Ross A. Alameddine

Christopher James Bishop

Brian R. Bluhm

Ryan Christopher Clark

Austin Michelle Cloyd

Jocelyne Couture-Nowak

Daniel Alejandro Perez Cueva

Kevin P. Granata

Matthew Gregory Gwaltney

Caitlin Millar Hammaren

Jeremy Michael Herbstritt

Rachael Elizabeth Hill

Emily Jane Hilscher

Jarrett Lee Lane

Matthew Joseph La Porte

Henry J. Lee

Liviu Librescu

G.V. Loganathan

Partahi Mamora Halomoan Lumbantoruan

Lauren Ashley McCain

Daniel Patrick O’Neil

Juan Ramon Ortiz-Ortiz

Minal Hiralal Panchal

Erin Nicole Peterson

Michael Steven Pohle, Jr.

Julia Kathleen Pryde

Mary Karen Read

Reema Joseph Samaha

Waleed Mohamed Shaalan

Leslie Geraldine Sherman

Maxine Shelly Turner

Nicole Regina White

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