8A
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, APRIL 23, 2007
>> ROAD TO RECOVERY
Virginia Tech students prepare to resume classes
Mary Altaffer/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Julie Huff, left, and Annie Ellis, both of Vienna, Va., and Vanessa Tumminia, right, of Hillsboro, N.J., carry their belongings into West Ambler Johnston Hall on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., on Sunday. Students are returning to the campus as classes will resume Monday.
BY JUSTIN POPE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BLACKSBURG, Va. — Still grieving and increasingly wary of the media spotlight, Virginia Tech students returned to their beleaguered campus Sunday, preparing to salvage the final weeks of a semester eclipsed by violence.
The scene on campus resembled move-in day in late summer, with parents helping their children carry suitcases into dormitories. There were tears and hugs. But instead of excitement for the year ahead, there was simply determination to endure and regroup in the fall.
When classes resume Monday, the university will give students three choices: They can continue through the end of the semester next week, take a grade based on what they have done so far, or withdraw from a course without penalty.
"I want to go back. It's just really strange to just stop going," said Paul Deylerle, a sophomore from Roanoke who was helping a friend move belongings from the dormitory where another close friend, Ryan
Clark, was among those killed in the worst shooting massacre in modern U.S. history.
A number of students living in West Ambler Johnston Hall have asked to be relocated elsewhere.
"I need to keep going back," Dyerle said, struggling for words. "It seems like every other facet of my life is different now, so I have to."
A number of students said they had been drawn to the comforts of home immediately after the shooting, but now were drawn back to the tight-knit Virginia Tech community.
"When we hit Route 460 and we could see the campus, we both started crying," said sophomore Aushleigh Shifflett, eating a picnic lunch with her sister Regan near memorials to the victims on campus. "I was happy to see my family, but I felt like I needed to be here, and when I came back here, it was like I'm home."
Virginia Tech officials say their top priority is the victims' families, who were given a private e-mail address and direct phone number for President Charles Steiger.
Administrators have canceled big events such as the spring football
game and postponed a fundraising campaign. The goal is to begin restarting academic life without pushing the university's 26,000 students too hard.
"I don't know what else you could do," said John Rossi, chairman of the math department. "A student, I don't know how much they're going to be able to learn at this point. Maybe some can. But I think some students are just not going to be able to come, so why would you penalize them? There's going to be some faculty dealing with that, too."
Students say they welcome the outpouring of support they have received, but they have grown noticeably weary of the news media. The Student Government Association asked reporters to leave by 5 a.m. Monday, before classes begin.
"Our students are ready to start moving forward, and the best we can do that is to get the campus back to normal," Liz Hart, director of public relations for the SGA, said in a telephone interview. Students don't want "anything external remind to us it will be a difficult road. We know that."
》 PLANE ACCIDENT
Navy Blue Angel pilot dies attempting stunt in air show
BY BRUCE SMITH ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEAUFORT, S.C. — A somber crowd watched as six jets flew overhead in formation at an air show where a Navy Blue Angel pilot died in a crash the day before.
Smoke streamed behind one of the jets as it peeled away from the others to complete the "missing man formation," the traditional salute for a lost military aviator.
Sunday's air show at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort began with a tribute to the Navy Blue Angel pilot whose aircraft plunged to the ground Saturday as the elite aviators were coming together for their final formation.
"The spirit of the pilot is in the arms of a loving God," said Rob Reider, a minister who was the announcer for the air show.
The Navy identified the pilot Sunday afternoon as Lt. Cmdr. Kevin
J. Davis, 32, of Pittsfield, Mass.
Witnesses said metal and plastic wreckage — some of it on fire — hit homes 35 miles northwest of Hilton Head Island. William Winn, the county emergency management director, said several homes were damaged. Eight people on the ground suffered injuries that were not life threatening, said Capt. Sarah Kansteiner of Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort.
LECTURE & DISCUSSION
William A. Barnett
Oswald Distinguished Professor of Macroeconomics
University of Kansas
Gerald Weaver/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Debris from a Navy Blue Angel jet lies in a wooded area in Burton, S.C., on Sunday. The aircraft crashed Saturday at the end of an air show at Marine Air Station Beaufort, S.C., killing the pilot, injuring eight on the ground and damaging several homes.
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An investigation has begun, but Kansteiner said Sunday that she could not say anything about the cause of the crash.
The crash took place in the final minutes of Saturday's air show, said Lt. Cmdr. Anthony Walley, a Blue Angel pilot. The pilots were doing a maneuver which involved all six planes joining from behind the crowd to form a triangle, said Lt. Cmdr. Garrett D. Kasper, spokesman for the Blue Angels. One plane did not rejoin the formation.
二、1.
A Navy statement said the pilot had been on the team for two years, but this was his first time to be a demonstration pilot.
"Our squadron and the entire U.S. Navy are grieving the loss of a great American, a great Naval officer and
a great friend," Walley said.
Kasper said all possible causes of the crash were under investigation, and it could take at least three weeks
for an official cause to be released.
John Sauls, who lives near the crash site, said the planes were banking back and forth before one disappeared and smoke shot up.
"It's one of those surreal moments when you go, 'No, I didn't just see what I saw,' Sauls said.
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