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Slain students graduate
12/05/2007 07:43 - (SA)
Blacksburg, Virginia - Struggling to balance grief with a graduation celebration, Virginia Tech President Charles Steger handed out class rings on Friday night to the families of students slain during last month's shooting rampage.
As images of the slain students and faculty flashed on a huge screen at Lane Stadium, Steger and Provost Mark McNamee handed out the rings and got hugs from the victims' relatives.
"Please know that moving on - moving on is not the same as forgetting," Steger said. "We shall not forget. Yet, one senseless burst of violence - as horrible and hurtful as it is _ will not turn us from our essence."
The university planned to hand out diplomas to the slain students Saturday during ceremonies for individual colleges.
"Short was their stay on this mortal stage. Great was their impact," Steger said of the slain students in an address earlier Friday to about 600 of the nearly 1 200 graduate students who received master's degrees and doctorates.
Gunman Seung-Hui Cho killed the 27 fellow students, five faculty members and himself. His family will receive neither a ring nor a diploma, the university said.
In many ways, the evening ceremony for some 3 600 undergraduates seemed like most commencements. Grinning students jumped up and down and waved as their faces appeared on the stadium's giant screen while "Pomp and Circumstance" played and a faint drizzle fell.
Students chanted "Let's go, Hokies!" and the stadium's stands twinkled with constant camera flashes from the graduates' proud family members. Students decorated their mortarboards with "VT" and "Hi Mom."
But the speeches, while marked by hope, were also laced with sorrow.
"Rest assured, we will define ourselves by where we have been and where we will go," class historian Jennifer Weber said.
Survivors have a responsibility to realize the dreams and aspirations of the slain, said the keynote speaker, retired Army General John Abizaid, the former commander of US forces in Iraq.
"While we are saddened by the loss of those who cannot be here today, I believe that they would want this ceremony to commemorate both the tragedy of yesterday and the promise of tomorrow," he said. "I believe that they look down on this gathering with dignified pride."
Students, parents and faculty rose to their feet and cheered as Abizaid thanked Steger for "holding things together" in a time of tragedy.
During the graduate ceremonies, nine slain graduate students were awarded posthumous master's degrees or doctorates.
- AP
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