Collegiate Times

Josh Son/Collegiate Times

The third anniversary of the April 16, 2007 shootings on the Virginia Tech campus will be oriented toward commemorating the victims’ dedication to scholarship and learning, according to plans released by the university on Wednesday.

The plans for the upcoming "Day of Commemoration" on April 16 this year closely follows that of the previous year, with a midnight ceremonial candle lighting, the 3.2-mile-long run at 8 a.m. and candlelight vigil later in the evening. However, the official commemoration ceremony has been moved into the evening, with a community picnic on the Drillfield from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., the university will hold a number of “Expressions of Remembrance” events across campus celebrating student accomplishments, including musical performances and a panel discussion on “A Story of Community Resilience.” 

“The committee wanted to make sure the academic nature of our community was not forgotten,” said Mark Owczarski, university spokesman. “The desire is to do things like lectures, seminars, brown bag types of things ... any type of learning activity that can take place outside the classroom.”

Although many of those ideas are still being formulated, the events are collectively intended to reflect the scholarly dedication of the April 16 victims.

With increasing numbers of students currently who were not enrolled at Tech in 2007, the university must also convey the essence of the tragedy to those who did not live through April 16 and its aftermath, said Brandon Carroll, SGA president.

“It’s like when you have two war veterans talking about their experience, and you try to interject,” Carroll said. “They’ll tell you, ‘You could only know about it if you were there.’ It’s not expressible in words.”

Despite the subtle change in focus, the memory of April 16 will be preserved, Owczarski said.

“We’ll do everything so that those memories are not forgotten,” he said. “Students come and time passes, but we don’t want to forget. That’s why we have these activities.

“Institutionally, Virginia Tech will never forget what happened or the people that were lost. That was the commitment from day one.”

A version of this article appeared in the Feb 18 issue of the Collegiate Times.