Somber Start To Va. Tech School Year

A Virginia Tech campus still reeling from the deaths of 32 people at the hands of a student gunman last spring began its fall semester Monday amid another tragedy: A carbon monoxide leak at an off-campus apartment left five roommates hospitalized, two in critical condition.

Investigators think the carbon monoxide fumes came from a faulty gas water heater, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr.

The leak was discovered late Sunday morning after a neighbor complained of fumes, just as Virginia Tech was preparing to dedicate a memorial to the 27 students and five faculty members killed April 16 by Seung-Hui Cho. Fall semester classes begin Monday.

The two students critically sickened were at the University of Virginia Hospital in Charlottesville. Their three roommates, all 19-year-old sophomores, were in stable condition at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C.

Eighteen other people were treated at hospitals and released Sunday.

At a weekend ceremony there were 32 bells, 32 families, and 32 limestone markers honoring those students and faculty killed in the April rampage, adds Orr.

On campus Monday morning, the school routine was back as thousands of Virginia Tech students hustled off to their first classes of the semester.

Matt Rebholz of Pittsburgh said the shootings had brought students closer.

"It's a lot more of a family atmosphere," the sophomore electrical engineering student said as he munched on a granola bar on his way to class.

Tech enrolled a record freshman class of 5,200 for the fall, but university spokesman Mark Owczarski said officials won't know for a couple of weeks exactly how many of the 26,000 students returned this fall. Of those who withdrew before classes started, he said, only two reported they were doing so because of the shootings.

"There doesn't appear anything out of the ordinary," he said. "It's normal numbers."

One change is that no classes will be held in Norris Hall, where most of the killings took place. On Monday, flowers lay at entrance to the building, now being used exclusively for engineering laboratories and offices.

The building was closed entirely for nearly two months, delaying research for students in the engineering science and mechanics department. Graduation was delayed a semester for two students, department chairman Ishwar Puri said Sunday.

"Coming back to Norris Hall is not as simple as we expected," he said. "The challenge, really, is the emotional state of the group as a whole."

Two students so far have said they didn't want to return for laboratory work, and Puri said some support staff may leave.

However, most faculty, staff and students are moving forward, he said.

At West Ambler Johnston, the dormitory where Cho killed his first two victims, a sign welcomed students.

Freshman Kelsey Pope of Roanoke emerged from the dorm somewhat bleary-eyed but excited about her first day of class. She said she never considered changing her plan to attend Virginia Tech.

"I'm more excited than nervous because now I get to be a college student instead of a high school student," the 18-year-old said with a laugh.

They're moving forward under stepped-up security, CBS News correspondent Jeff Glor reports. Dorms will now be locked at all times. The campus has a new emergency alert system using text and e-mail messages.

Virginia Tech professor and poet Nikki Giovanni told The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith what it's like on campus right now.

"It's quite lovely here. The weather is really perfect. And I think that I share with everybody the excitement of a new year. We're looking forward to it," Giovanni said.

He added: "We are moving forward but we are carrying this baggage with us. This is not a suitcase we're going to drop on the sidewalk here. It will come with us. And I think that we accept that."

Replacements have been hired for the French and German instructors killed in Norris. But officials in the College of Engineering said searches must be conducted to fill the positions of its three tenured professors who were slain, and other faculty members are teaching their classes.

"The spirit and resilience of the Virginia Tech community have amazed the world," university president Charles Steger told more than 10,000 who gathered for the memorial dedication. "As the academic year begins, we must maintain that optimism."

The 32 stones engraved with the names of those killed replaced smaller stones that a student group placed in a semicircle in front of the administration building right after the killings. All are of locally mined gray limestone that also is used in many of the university's collegiate gothic buildings.

The 300-pound stones were laid in the same spot as the original stones, which were given to about 100 family members who attended the ceremony. After a bell rang 32 times at the end of the ceremony, relatives of the slain moved forward to visit the memorial.

In the original semicircle, a 33rd stone was added anonymously for Cho. University officials had said it would be offered to Cho's family, but it vanished before that could occur.

Zachary Baker of Richmond, who was a freshman last spring, said it felt good to be back at school.

"It's as normal as it can be," he said.