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Your right I wasn’t the one to speak to the students. I did not understand what the elephants have to do with that speech. But then again I am not as intelligent as her I guess. I thought elephants and armies had nothing to do with how anyone felt other then spuming an agenda during a very sorrowful event. It is my opinion and from the posts in here a lot of people agree with me. My opinion, maybe she got cheers but then again I do not understand the rest of the speech. A lot of people in here think it was shades of the Well stone agenda, read their posts also./

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but the convocation was held for the students, their families and the faculty. Here is the reaction from Frank Beamer, the Hokie's famous football coach.

"As the service was winding down, English professor Nikki Giovanni led the crowd in a chant of "Let's go Hokies," the crowd's volume increasing with each verse.

"I think what took place at the end of the ceremony, people wanted to let it out and say, `Hey, this one guy's not going to beat us,"' Beamer said. "We're hurt, but this one guy's not going to dictate how we're going to act."

"The service ended on an upbeat tone, as professor and poet Nikki Giovanni stirred her listeners' spirits with a poem. "

"We are sad today and we will be sad for quite a while. We are not moving on. We are embracing our mourning. We are Virginia Tech. We are strong enough to stand tall fearlessly, we are brave enough to bend and cry, and sad enough to know we must laugh again," Giovanni told the audience.

"We will prevail! We will prevail! We will prevail! We are Virginia Tech!" Giovanni said, to thunderous applause.

At the football stadium, her words inspired a standing ovation. Students cheered and clapped, then started a football chant from better days. Fists rose into the air. In time the chant sounded in both the basketball arena and the stadium: "Let's go, Hokies! Let's go!"

I will let the folks at VA Tech decide on what was and was not proper.