DSC_5875

Norris Hall

Photo taken April 21, 2007.

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Photo courtesy of Brian Sewell.

Original Source: <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/briansewell/469429967/in/set-72157600112219193/">
http://flickr.com/photos/briansewell/469429967/in/set-72157600112219193/</a>

Brian Sewell

2007-11-14

Haeyong Chung

eng

[Untitled]

View of Norris Hall, cordoned off with police tape, and with flowers and other mementos in the foreground. Photo taken April 20.

Photo courtesy of Ivan V. Morozov

Ivan V. Morozov

2007-09-13

Haeyong Chung

eng

Provost Update September 10, 2007

Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2007 08:50:15 -0400
From: Provost@vt.edu
To: Multiple recipients <LISTSERV@LISTSERV.VT.EDU>
Subject: Provost Update September 10, 2007

Monday, September 10, 2007

Colleagues,

On behalf of President Charles Steger, I have convened and will chair an ad hoc task force to develop recommendations for the future use of the seven former classrooms on the second floor front wing of Norris Hall. The task force membership includes faculty, staff, students, and administrators who represent broad university interests and are sensitive to the impact of the April 16 tragedy. The charge to the task force is to seek input regarding potential uses of the specified space in Norris Hall, review proposals, and to make recommendations.

The task force is advisory to President Steger as he prepares to finalize a decision about the allocation of space in Norris Hall.

The amount of assignable space is approximately 4,500 sq. ft. The remainder of Norris Hall (approximately 35,000 sq. ft.) is occupied by the College of Engineering programs, and includes academic and administrative offices, laboratories, storage and support facilities, and computer rooms. The specified rooms will not be reassigned to their former use, nor will they be a site for a public memorial or museum commemorating the April 16 tragedy. The task force will consider issues of scope, cost, impact, programmic relationships, the strategic plan, long-term vision, access, security, etc. in considering proposals. Because the rooms under consideration are contiguous with the other spaces, the infrastructure issues and potential uses must take the impact on the entire building into account.

I am pleased to announce that the task force is accepting pre-proposals at this time (one to two pages with an emphasis on ideas and concepts). We welcome and encourage all ideas and proposals. Fully developed proposals (i.e., architectural renderings, cost estimates, etc.) will be requested selectively after initial reviews. When submitting a pre-proposal, please:

* Provide the scope and programmatic relationships of the project;
* Include a single contact person and contact information (e-mail, phone, address).

Submissions must be postmarked or hand-delivered by September 30, 2007. We have already received a number of informal suggestions and we will contact everyone who has already offered ideas. We will also be sending letters to the families of victims. Fax or e-mail submissions will not be accepted. Please mail submissions to:

Office of the Provost
Virginia Tech
210 Burruss Hall (0132)
Blacksburg, VA 24061
Attention: Norris Hall Task Force

Thank you,

Mark G. McNamee
University Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

Mark G. McNamee

2007-09-10

Brent Jesiek

eng

Haiyan Cheng in an interview

Haiyan Cheng,who experienced the shooting with her students in the Norris Hall on April 16 was talking with the journalist.

Original Source: xmnext.com

<a href="http://news.xmnext.com/world/shehui/2007/04/18/304206.html">http://news.xmnext.com/world/shehui/2007/04/18/304206.html</a>

新民网

2007-08-15

Na Mi

eng

Let&#39;s Remember Them

The week after the shooting, people placed bunches of flowers in front of the Norris Hall to express their sadness.

Na Mi

2007-08-06

Na Mi

eng

[Untitled]

Norris Hall has been sealed off as the police conduct its investigation.

Photo Courtesy of Dana Burman

Dana Burman

2007-07-02

Chad Newswander

Permission:
Dana Burman
dana74@dwburman.com

eng

No one deserves a tragedy

Tape that surrounds Norris (where the second shooting took place at VT). Burruss (another building on campus) is in the background. I still can&#39;t believe this happened at my school and that now one of the buildings I pass every day is a crime scene...words can&#39;t even describe

Stay strong my fellow Hokies.

Original source: <ahref=" http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/53758307/"> http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/53758307/</a>

Photo Courtesy of Kristina Cummins

Kristina Cummins

2007-07-02

Chad Newswander

Permission:
Kristina Cummins
cumminsk@vt.edu

eng

Norris Hall reopening is one step toward healing

<b>A student perspective</b>

By: Bryan Schamus


(June 6) I will admit that I once uttered the statement, "There is no way any student should have to walk through that building again."

Norris Hall being "that building" - the site on campus at Virginia Tech where 31 of the 33 people killed on April 16 were shot.

But now, almost two months later, I just don&#39;t feel that way anymore.

When the university announced Tuesday in a press release that Norris will reopen on June 18, I was surprised. But after the initial shock wore off (about five minutes), I was not only OK with it, I realized that I am very glad.

A lot of fellow students agree.

"I think it&#39;s a good decision," said Caitlin Czeh, a 2005 graduate who has lived and worked in Blacksburg for the past two years. "It seemed like it just the right amount of time. A decision now will give students and professors who will be working in that building time to acclimate themselves and prepare themselves for being in there. And it gives those students who won&#39;t be in there some closure."

As announced, the building will open for office and laboratory use only. It once accounted for 5 percent of the classrooms on campus but will never be used for classes again.

I understand that not every student will be ready to return to that now-infamous building. But once again, the university is bending over backward to take care of students; other arrangements will be made for those not wanting to return there.

Personally, I feel very comfortable with this decision, especially since the engineering faculty themselves requested to move back in, according to the press release. Many of them had laboratory equipment and other materials necessary to do their research that would have been difficult to relocate or replace.

"As someone who was here [at Tech] on April 16, I don&#39;t know if I could go back into the building, especially so soon," said Jennie Tal, a 2007 graduate and a fellow BigLickU writer. "But on the other side, while this is a little soon, I think it is a good step in the direction of recovery."

Eventually, the empty classrooms will turn into more offices and labs. For now, many areas of the building have been repainted, and new lights have been installed.

Plans are under way for an official memorial somewhere else on campus.

Students and faculty will be able to enter the building using the Holden-Norris tunnel entrance. The building will be unlocked from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on weekdays, locked on weekends and accessible by key during off-hours.

The building will not be open to visitors.

I spent a good portion of today on campus at Tech and could not find one person in my travels who really opposed this decision. Like me, some were surprised, but then most talked of the healing that has already happened and needs to continue.

To me, closing Norris or knocking it down is just giving in to the evil that was perpetrated on this campus that day.

On June 14, four days before the scheduled reopening, the school will give tours of Norris in groups of 25 to the media. Dean Amy - our editor - and I will be on the first one at 10 a.m.

It will not be easy.

I&#39;m 21 years old, a senior at Virginia Tech. A close friend lost her best friend in that building in April.

But I am honored to be able to report to you the state this place is now in.

Look for our coverage on the walking tour of Norris Hall on June 14.

And to all those engineering students and faculty out there who will return to Norris on the 18th, good for you.

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Original Source: <a href=http://www.biglicku.com/blu/Stories/StoryDisplayPage.aspx?Title=Norris%20Hall%E2%80%99s%20reopening%20is%20one%20step%20toward%20healing&ID=355> Big Lick U - June 6, 2007</a>

Bryan Schamus

2007-06-28

Sara Hood

Chris Winston <Chris.Winston@biglicku.com>

eng

Norris Hall

Norris Hall is gated off and closed to the public.

Photo Courtesy of Garry Thompson

Garry Thompson

2007-06-28

Chad Newswander

Permission:
Garry Thompson
sthomp2813@aol.com

eng

Inside Norris Hall

<b>More than 20 news outlets toured the April 16 shootings site</b>

By: Amy L. Kovac


(June 14) The cinderblock walls of Norris Hall&#39;s second-floor classrooms and hallway are covered with a new coat of cream-colored paint. The classrooms stand bare, save for some newly installed white boards where blackboards previously hung. New doors replaced the ones on classrooms 204, 206, 207 and 211 that Seung-Hui Cho shot through in his violent fit almost two months ago.

But if it were not for the dozens of journalists, with their cameras and notepads, roaming the hallway, that second floor might have looked as sterile and uninhabited as any newly renovated building on Virginia Tech&#39;s campus.

The news media got their first post-April 16 look at this now-infamous building, starting at 10 this morning. Previously, journalists had been blocked from entering Norris.

"A horrendous and heinous and horrific crime occurred on our campus and on state property, and I owe it to you as members of the working press to see this," said Larry Hincker, the associate vice president for university relations.

"I simply did not want to subject families to images of Norris Hall at that time," he explained. "It was my decision, and I&#39;ll take the heat for closing the building at the time."

The university has offered each of the families of the victims - the murdered and the injured - the opportunity to tour the building to help in the healing process, Hincker said. So far, 18 families have walked through Norris Hall with university police escorts.

The building, where 30 of the 32 people were killed by Cho on April 16, houses several laboratories used by various engineering departments and will reopen to faculty, staff and students Monday. Three of those labs, including the university&#39;s only machine shop, were part of the media tour.

"Not being able to get in the building has basically shut down what many researchers on campus used," said David Simmons, the supervisor of the machine shop. "It was a big hindrance to not have it open. These students have been begging to get back in here."

The machine shop, which is also used by researchers at the Corporate Research Center, is the site where law enforcement officers entered Norris Hall on April 16. Cho had chained other entrances shut but not the doors to the shop. Officers shot through a lock on the shop&#39;s large doors and went up the stairs on the northwest side of the building. A 4-inch by 4-inch wooden block now covers that lock.

The four affected classrooms and the other general-use classrooms in the building will be converted into rooms for other uses by the Engineering Science and Mechanics department. See Big Lick U article: <a href=http://www.biglicku.com/blu/Stories/StoryDisplayPage.aspx?title=Tech%27s%20Norris%20Hall%20to%20begin%20phased%20reoccupation&id=350>Tech&#39;s Norris Hall to begin phased reoccupation</a>

None of the classrooms on the second floor are marked with room numbers anymore. Neither do they contain any desks or chairs or any other furniture besides the white boards.

The hallways on the second floor are also bare, in stark contrast to the first floor, where bulletin boards are covered with colorful flyers placed there before the shootings. One of them publicized an April 18 vigil for a National Day of Silence for those "who are forced into silence by violence and fear."

The renovations to Norris thus far have cost approximately $400,000, Hincker said, and included emergency clean-up and general remediation, such as asbestos removal.

The two wings of Norris Hall, named for a former dean of Tech&#39;s school of engineering, were built in the early 1960s and together cost $907,000.

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Original Source:<a href=http://www.biglicku.com/blu/Stories/StoryDisplayPage.aspx?Title=Inside%20Norris%20Hall&ID=370> Big Lick U - June 14, 2007</a>

Amy L. Kovac

2007-06-27

Sara Hood

Chris Winston <Chris.Winston@biglicku.com>

eng