Virginia Tech Prepares to Re-Open Norris Hall

Norris Hall, the scene of a grisly 31 person murder rampage, will re open on June 18^th according to Virginia Tech officials. As the Associated Press reports, Virginia Tech will soon re open but only as laboratories and offices, never again will Norris Hall supplement classrooms to the Virginia Tech University. Norris Hall will still house engineering, science, mechanics, and environmental type labs and offices. The hall was known as an engineering building before the shootings took place and Tech has no plans to change that affiliation.

The brutal murders took place on April 16, 2007 when Seung-Hui Cho rampaged the Blacksburg campus killing 32 students and then turning the gun on himself. Barely two months later, Tech has decided to once again open the doors of what will know always be remembered as a tortured mausoleum. However Tech has stated that the second floor rooms, where the murders actually took place, will remain closed indefinitely.

There have been many suggestions brought to Tech officials about what should be done with the building. Some have suggested turning into a memorial for those lost, others have said that it should still be used as classrooms just as it was before, and still others have commented that it should be knocked down completely.

Charles Steger, president of Virginia Tech, has been public in his statements on the cause of keeping Norris Hall intact, stating that by keeping the hall intact Tech will be more apt to heal and move on.

There has been much controversy of Tech's decision about Norris hall, some people are pulling for the building to be eradicated while other believe that Tech has made the right decision in keeping the building erect. According to the Associated Press, Tech professor Bryan Cloyd, who had a daughter that was killed in the Tech shootings, is happy that the building is remaining on campus. He stands behind Tech's decision to have the building house things other than classrooms. Cloyd even had the chance to visit the second floor classroom where his daughter perished.

One aspect that may have effected Tech's overall decision to keep Norris Hall is that the hall contains some of the engineering programs most used laboratories, which cannot be moved or transported to another location. Va Tech has also made sure that there will be counseling and proper accommodation made for those students who have a hard time re-entering the building.

As the building will remain, there is now an online petition where students and others are fighting to have the building remained after Liviu Librescu. Librescu, a holocaust survivor, was the professor who barricaded the door at the time of the shootings so that his students would have a chance to escape.

Associated Press, "Virginia Tech to Reopen Building Where 30 People, Gunman Died."FOX NEWS. URL: (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,278118,00.html