Virginia Tech Prepares To Honor 32 Victims At Commencement

Tuesday, May 8th 2007, 7:32 am

By: News On 6

BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) _ With less than a month passed since the devastating shooting on their campus, Virginia Tech officials are planning a weekend commencement that will honor the victims without forgetting the accomplishment of the graduates.

About 4,000 graduating seniors will be honored at a joint observance Friday night before they receive diplomas Saturday at services for individual colleges.

``We want to keep the ceremony as celebratory as possible,'' said Ed Henneke, an engineering professor and chairman of the commencement committee.

The panel, which Henneke has overseen for 15 years, usually just adjusts aspects of the previous year's ceremony.

But this year they will cope with the memories of gunman Seung-Hui Cho killing himself and 32 others.

The panel has had two emergency meetings to rearrange the Friday night ceremony, which is expected to attract 25,000 people.

Posthumous degrees will be awarded to the slain undergraduates at the Friday night ceremony, while degrees for the graduate students who died will be awarded at the ceremony for about 500 master's and doctorate recipients Friday afternoon.

Photos of the 32 people Cho killed will be flashed on a giant screen at Lane Stadium, and class rings will be given to the students' families, who will sit in a special section.

The 25 people injured will be recognized at the Saturday ceremonies.

Henneke _ who was in Norris Hall, a classroom and office building, during the shootings there _ said there are no plans to mention Cho, who was a senior.