BLACKSBURG, Va. — Struggling to balance grief with a graduation celebration, Virginia Tech President Charles Steger handed out class rings 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 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 today 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.
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Gunman Seung-Hui Cho killed the 27 fellow students, five faculty members and himself. His family will receive neither a ring nor a diploma.
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.
Nine slain graduate students were awarded posthumous master's degrees or doctorates. Faculty members hugged the relatives who received them, some wiping away tears and all drawing long and loud applause from the crowd of several thousand.
