Collegiate Times

The university built a permanent memorial in honor of the slain victims of April 16.

The dedication for the April 16 memorial was held on Aug. 19, the day before the 2007 fall semester started.

Other problems memorials often encounter are related to whom the memorial will honor. Two days after the temporary memorial was put together, Katelynn Johnson, who was then a senior sociology major, added a 33rd stone in memory of gunman Seung-Hui Cho to the arc.

Johnson wrote a letter to the Collegiate Times that spring, defending her decision to acknowledge Cho.

"Say what you want about Cho not being a part of this family..." Johnson wrote in her letter to the editor published April 25, 2007. "But ... I choose to accept all my fellow students, faculty and alumni as Hokies no matter what I think about their current problems or their past, their criminal history or their political or religious views and especially no matter their mental health status."

Johnson wrote the letter in response to the removal of Cho's stone the night before. In the letter, she disclosed she would continue to replace the stone each time it was removed. Tillar said the committee, however, decided to keep the original 32 stones, partly because that is how the memorial stood when they were making final decisions, but mostly because the committee felt it was a memorial remembering the victims.

"We consider the central in-ground stone (We Will Prevail, We Are Virginia Tech) to be in honor of all 57 victims," Tillar said.  "The 32 vertical stones replicate the number of stones first placed by the students of Hokies United on the evening of April 16, and are in the exact order of their original placement."

The memorial was not only a central place to share memories and feelings, but it also became a collecting ground for hundreds of items left behind by those mourning the victims. Tamara Kennelly, who works for the Special Collections part of the Virginia Tech library helped collect items left at the memorial along with the Office of Recovery and Support.

The original stones placed at the temporary memorial were also offered to each of the victim's families in a large wooden box.

"(The permanent memorial) gets compliments from everyone who comes. It's very in keeping with the surrounding area with the green grass and the grey stones," Tillar said. "It was very tastefully and very brilliantly designed as a memorial to the worst tragedy this university has ever had. I commend the students who had the courage to do it."

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