Reflections

Virginia Tech Tragedy: Fate of Norris Hall Decided

Posted by on May 8, 2007 | 3 Comments

In Blacksburg, Virginia, the people now are now left with the same dilemma as the one that faced the residents of New York, Oklahoma City, and
Littleton, Colorado after the massacres that occurred in their towns. This dilemma being what to do with the scene of the tragedy: the classrooms and halls of Norris Hall at Virginia Tech that was left littered with the bodies of 25 students and five professors on April 16, 2007 after a gunman opened fire there.

 

To date the university has made no plans beyond cleaning and repairing the structure which has remained under police guard since the incident but students are of the opinion that no one should be expected to attend classes there after seen so many of their friends die there. However, students and faculty have voiced several options for the Hall, one of more than 100 campus buildings, ranging from returning it to use as classrooms to making it a memorial or even knocking it down.

 

In Austin, Texas, where a sniper, Charles Whitman, opened fire on students in 1966 killing 16 and wounding 31 the University of Texas at Austin illuminates the 307-foot tower in memory to those killed there. While in Littleton, Colorado the scene of the 1999 ColumbineHigh School massacre that resulted in the deaths of 12 students and one-teacher officials chose to build an atrium on the site with a new library in memorial.

 

However, to date, Norris Hall is still surrounded by chain link fencing topped by yellow police tape, distinguishing it from the other buildings on campus. The ultimate decision of the buildings fate will be determined by Virginia Tech President, Charles Steger but with 20,000 signatures, an on-line petition supports renaming the building after Holocaust survivor and professor at Virginia Tech, Liviu Librescu, who blocked his classroom door with his own body until Cho shot him. To offer your suggestions to the petition you may visit the Virginia Tech website.

[tags]Virginia Tech, tragedy, Norris Hall, Columbine, Charles Steger, Liviu Librescu, Blacksbury VA, Charles Whitman,][/tags]

  • Trish H

    It is a hard decision. I don’t know that knocking the building down does anything more than let the murderer have one more victory. Perhaps the 2nd floor can be closed off from classes but used for storage. I doubt that many students would want to sit in those classrooms. I am sure that many urban legends are going to spring up too. Renaming the building seems like a good idea. Perhaps, once the students that were attending VT at the time of the shooting graduate, just like at Columbine, this horrible event will fade from memory. I don’t mean it should be forgotten; it can not be forgotten. I don’t know. I just feel having classes in those rooms again, or on that floor, does not seem right. Too much unspeakable carnage and sadness. This is a tough one.

  • norris hall

    Please check out the link to this blog in support of converting parts of Norris Hall into the Institute for Transformative Learning

    http://norrishall.blogspot.com/

  • Mitch Bartlett

    It’s clear to me that the organizers have let SXSW get way out of hand. The crowds that come there often just come to be seen and don’t have any real interest in learning or experiencing anything. They just come to act like idiots and show off in front of their douche-bag friends. I would’ve attended 3 years ago. Now I’ll never go.