Collegiate Times

The Virginia Tech community honored victims of the April 16 tragedy at a commemoration on the Drillfield today.

Starting at noon and aided by two cadets, President Steger and Provost McNamee first each laid a wreath at the April 16 memorial in remembrance of the victims, then addressed the community.

"We gather here, at the symbolic heart of this university, on the Drillfield, at this memorial, again hoping that we can offer comfort to one another as well as reflect," Steger said.  

"While the tragedy of April 16, 2007 touched us all, we know that 32 families continue to confront the deepest of losses: the loss of a loved one, the loss of a life well lived, and the loss of a bright and promising future," Steger said.

Steger noted that despite the continuing pain felt by those affected by the tragedy, progress has been made in gaining closure.  Norris Hall's second floor reopened last week, and the Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention will be based in some of the renovated space.

Tony Distler, alumni distinguished professor emeritus, read remembrances of each of the 32 victims, and Patricia Raun, department head of theatre arts, with selected quotes read by five students.

"We hope in our remembrance of these fallen members of our community," McNamee said, "that each of us will build a reinvigorated commitment to the scholarly enterprise in which our 32 departed classmates and colleagues were engaged, and that they so singularly embodied."