[kabar]

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.

[MinuteGal]

I heard, I listened, I barfed.

Yes, I HAVE decided....the political part of her moment in the sun WASN'T proper. I decided this the moment I heard it.

Is your screen name spelled backwards "Nikki"?

Leni

[betsyross1776]

They can. I wish them all well I think you know this. God bless all at VT and are hurting may God comfort their pain and keep them all in the palm of His hand. I just feel terrible about this and am a Conservative. The issues have just started, the issue of Cho being in a mental health facility. There are many more , if you have a mental problem you cannot get a gun. he stalked 2 women.I don’t like this liberal attitude towards mental health. I feel parents and people who care should be able to help these people before the heart break occurs.I think the Niki poem will if not now be on the back burner after this press conference.

[giobruno]

The problem I have with Ms. Giovanni, and the whole English Dept for that matter, is that they didn’t do what was the obvious thing to do: flunk him out. How you can read his unbelievably bad writing and pass him? It is indefensible. Their misguided idea that everyone belongs in college is exactly what permitted him to remain at VT.