Coping a Topic in VT Classrooms

BLACKSBURG -- Jason Thweatt knew yesterday was going to be a difficult day to teach at Virginia Tech. Classes resumed a week after student Seung-Hui Cho fatally shot 32 students and faculty members before killing himself.

One of those who died was Liviu Librescu, one of Thweatt's professors when he was a student at the school.

Thweatt, a former teacher at L.C. Bird High in Chesterfield County, is now an instructor in Tech's Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.

"We talked about a lot of different things," Thweatt said after teaching his class yesterday. "I almost didn't make it through the class.

"The students helped me more than I helped them."

That's what administrators at Tech wanted yesterday -- everyone in the Tech community helping one another as the school tries to regain some sense of normal operations. Amid the numerous memorials displayed around the school's Drillfield yesterday was a welcome sight: students traversing the vast space to return to class.

An estimated 80 percent to 85 percent of enrolled students were on campus, and class attendance was about 75 percent, according to Edward Spencer, associate vice president of student affairs.

Members of the Tech community said they are committed to moving forward and healing.

"The teacher talked to us about what happened," said Allison Culley, a freshman sociology major from Fredericksburg, as she crossed the Drillfield after a morning psychology class. "She offered a lot of support and told us if we needed anything, we can come to her."

In other classes, professors such as those in freshman Eric Cahoon's geology and economics classes tried to get back to academic instruction, even if it was short-lived.

Other students said their professors focused on planning how classes would proceed during the remaining two weeks of the semester.

Lucas Brown, a junior human nutrition, food and exercise major from Forest, said readings on the topic of world peace will be the focus of his global ethics class for the rest of the semester.

"We decided we were going to concentrate on that . . . just to kind of give a positive outlook on things," he said.

Thweatt said he hasn't decided how he'll teach his classes for the rest of the year. He wants his students to have a voice in that decision. He said all of the roughly 30 students in his introduction to computer engineering class attended.

Thweatt said he said he spoke for the first 10 minutes of class and then gave students the option of leaving for the day.

A few did, but most remained to talk about how they're coping.

After his first two morning classes, Cahoon, a freshman business major, said it is important for classes to resume.

"I think it'll help a lot to get back into normalcy," he said after leaving his economics class. He expects his classes to return to the syllabus by the end of the week.

With classes resuming, university officials assembled a team of 200 counselors to assist grieving students and faculty who needed to talk to someone, said Chris Flynn, director of the Cook Counseling Center at Tech.

"The grieving process really is about connecting with others, sharing emotion . . . to take that step one day at a time," Flynn said. He expects the need for grief counselors to continue into next semester.

Spencer, the associate vice president for student affairs, said returning students are exhibiting "a lot of mixed reactions, very much like the individual reactions to death. We're seeing the resolute, the confused, the angry and the numb."

After leaving campus in the wake of the shooting rampage, many were back on campus yesterday even though they didn't have to be.

The university administration last week gave students academic options about how to finish the semester; they could accept the grades they had earned before the shootings or continue their coursework.

Spencer said the number of students who remain could change, but he and other faculty were heartened by the sight of thousands of students with their backpacks.

Many of those students stopped on the Drillfield to attend a memorial service for those who lost their lives.

Added Mark McNamee, university provost and vice president for academic affairs: "Our faculty and our students have really demonstrated their commitment to education. I can't tell you how exciting it is to see the students crossing the Drillfield to go to their classrooms."