By Charles W. Steger

This op-ed piece was published Sunday, April 13, 2008 in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

It’s April in Blacksburg, and this year, for the first time, we’ll mark an anniversary that we would all prefer not to have to mark. For most, the remembrance of the events of last April still evokes some powerful emotions, and rightfully so.

But part of the great joy of being associated with any institution of higher education is the sense of perpetual renewal that permeates our enterprise. Every fall a new group of students flocks to campus, bringing with them the promise of untapped potential. And every spring, we send graduates out into the world — scholars and citizens who are determined to make their world — our world — a better place.

This sense of renewal has long sustained me, perhaps never more so than in the last year as I have watched a remarkable institution make remarkable progress.

Last April, for a brief time, it seemed as though everything at Virginia Tech stopped. Our forward progress, our momentum, our enthusiasm — all was suspended while, through shock and bottomless sorrow, we tried to comprehend the incomprehensible. Yet, almost immediately, with the help of supporters from around the world, we rose and began the hard work of recovery.

Buoyed by the resilience of our Hokie Spirit, we gathered in groups large and small, in venues official and unofficial, and marshaled our collective strengths. And those strengths have propelled us past our shock, our dismay, and our immediate grief. They have helped us support one another, as well as the families of the victims and survivors who have suffered the most…and still feel the pain everyday from the sudden and terrible loss of inspiring and vibrant lives .

And the world’s support and compassion has helped us get back to what we do best — teaching and learning, discovering and sharing.

Our recovery is a testament to our shared belief in this particular place and what it stands for. Indeed, for those who love this university as I do, there is something special about Virginia Tech, something that makes you feel as though we are members of small community, when, in fact, we are anything but small. The interests and disciplines represented in our classrooms and labs offer up a staggering array of diversity, innovative research, and scholarship. Yet, we are blessed to feel connected to one another in a way that belies the size of our community and the breadth of our operation. Virginia Tech may be the biggest ‘small’ university in America.

But our recovery is no less a testament to our collective belief in the importance of colleges and universities everywhere. Clearly, the academy, and its intrinsic values of open expression and discovery, holds a special place in our cultural landscape. Yet there can be little doubt that there are very real threats to this prized environment. What happened here could have happened anywhere. That is tragically happened again elsewhere offers a chilling illustration of those threats.

Yet, I believe that what the world has seen in the aftermath of our dreadful day ought to serve as a lesson in how to preserve what you treasure, how to draw together when you are under strain, and how to press ahead — resuming the important work inherent in one’s mission, and recognizing the profoundly different landscape in which you must do that work.

One very inspirational example of moving forward is the personal fortitude of twenty brave students who were injured in those classrooms in Norris Hall that day. Each of those Hokies returned to Virginia Tech to continue to learn and discover with commitment and intensity.

One important consequence of what happened here is a new and intense spotlight on the issue of campus safety. Around the world, schools are making careful and thorough assessments of how they can best protect their students, how they can communicate rapidly and effectively in an emergency, and — I hope — how they can sustain the kind of open and unrestricted environments in which learning, discovery, and engagement take root. For in order to achieve the greatest good, our campuses must not be cloistered citadels. They must not be locked gated communities.

In all, the university received about 400 recommendations from review panels in the aftermath of the shootings. Many of these recommendations have already been implemented, and more will be studied and implemented in the months ahead. But our deliberations must be tempered with our obligation to preserve and nurture the kind of environment that makes this university — any college or university — such a special place.

And so, it’s April again here in Blacksburg, and as in Aprils past, each day seems to hold a surprise. Today it’s sunny and warm. Tomorrow we may see frost. Such unpredictability is part and parcel of this particular month in this particular place. Indeed, it is part and parcel of all of our lives — wherever we may be. But such unpredictability need not give rise to anxiety or fear. Here at Virginia Tech, while we may have a heightened sense of that unpredictability, we also have a heightened sense of our capacity for renewal and recovery.