Getting Back to Normal

 Virginia Tech students defiantly swarmed their campus yesterday to begin classes anew as contributions to a memorial fund rocketed to $1 million in less than a week.

As many as 85 percent of the school's approximately 26,000 students chose to return to Tech after the massacre of 32 students and faculty members on April 16, school officials said. They added that 75 percent of the students returned to class, even though they were given the option of ending their semester early.

As many as 85 percent of the school's approximately 26,000 students chose to return to Tech after the massacre of 32 students and faculty members on April 16, school officials said. They added that 75 percent of the students returned to class, even though they were given the option of ending their semester early.

"The same students who sit in the last row are still nodding off in class," said a delighted Tech Provost Mark McNamee. "The students are really helping us return to normalcy."

Thousands of students made their way to classes for the first time since the attack. School was canceled last week, and students were given a choice of completing their courses or accepting the grades they had already earned.

"Really, I wanted to be with all the Hokies," said Scott Cheatham, 21, of Richmond, who returned to classes yesterday. "This feels home to me."

School counselors and about 200 volunteer counselors, wearing purple armbands, scattered across campus to help students cope with the loss of their classmates and teachers.

Administrators described discussions in the classroom as somber but focused as professors dealt with grieving, angry and confused students.

"The students are just extraordinary," said Chris Flynn, head of the school's counseling service.

The Student Government Association asked reporters to leave campus, but school spokesman Larry Hincker thanked the media yesterday for telling the stories of the victims, which he said has led to an international show of support for the school.

The Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund has raised $1 million already, he said. The money will assist surviving victims -- 15 were wounded by bullets and two remain hospitalized -- and pay for memorials and grief counseling. Hincker said it's possible a permanent memorial will go up but added that it's too early to discuss details.

Also yesterday, Hincker said the school has sent out more than 12,800 acceptance letters to high school students and has received only five letters from applicants rejecting Tech specifically because of the shootings.

NASCAR Nextel Cup driver Ward Burton strolled across campus with his 14-year-old son, Jeb, who wants to attend Tech. Burton wanted to show his support for the Hokie Nation and, he said, to let the world know he's not afraid to enroll his boy at the school.

Thirty-two Hokie stones gray limestone -- were placed on the Drillfield last week to memorialize the victims, and mourners placed flowers and notes around them. At some point, a 33rd stone was added, for Cho.

The stone was later removed.

"It showed up, we don't know how," Hincker said. "It's gone, we don't know how."

A pile of notes remained heaped where the stone had been. "You have broken our hearts," read one of the notes to Cho, "but you have not broken our spirits."