Tech lacrosse players to attend Pohle funeral

About 15 to 18 players from the Virginia Tech men’s club lacrosse team plan to attend the funeral of Michael Pohle Jr. in New Jersey today, said Joel Nachlas, the team’s coach.

Pohle, 23, was a biological sciences major and played midfield for two seasons before leaving the team this year to focus on school and work.

He was one of the 33 who died in the shootings at Tech last week.

Kaine to meet with Korean community

Gov. Tim Kaine will meet privately with Korean-American community leaders in Northern Virginia today in a gesture of reconciliation following last week’s deadly shootings at Virginia Tech.

The South Korean ambassador to the United States, Lee Tae Shik, requested the meeting, said Kaine spokesman Kevin Hall.

South Korean officials expressed shock and sorrow over the shootings after learning that the gunman, Tech student Seung-Hui Cho, was a South Korean who moved to the U.S. with his family at the age of 8.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun sent a telegram of condolence to President Bush, and officials offered to donate candles for a vigil held on the Tech campus April 17.

Hall said the governor hopes to provide some comfort to the Korean-American community at the meeting. The governor’s office has heard no reports of a public backlash against the Korean-American community, Hall added.

Roanoke Times donates $50,000 to victims’ fund

The Roanoke Times, through the Landmark Communications Foundation, is donating $50,000 to the United in Caring Fund established by the United Way of Montgomery, Radford and Floyd.

The United in Caring Fund was created April 17 to cover expenses for victims of the Virginia Tech tragedy and their families, such as funeral and burial costs, transportation and mental health counseling.

Collected funds will also be used to help with expenses associated with long-term, community wide recovery, including mental health assessments and children’s programs to address school violence.

Roanoke company gets full spirit of Hokie effect

Last week, employees at Atlantic Credit and Finance in Northeast Roanoke showed their Hokie spirit by wearing Virginia Tech attire for most of the week.

And on Friday — Orange and Maroon Effect Day — “the office was overflowing with representation of VT colors,” said Ashley Ross, who works there.

“From shirts to shorts and from shoes to hair wraps. People wore ribbons and necklaces — whatever they could find to show their support.”

At noon, the office observed a moment of silence. A minute later, the sound of jingling keys filled the air. Ross said everyone then started chanting “Let’s Go Hokies! Let’s Go Hokies! ”

“I’ve never been more proud to work for a company before in my life,” Ross said.

Yale bans weaponry from theater offerings

In the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, Yale University has decided no weapons should be used or portrayed during theatrical productions — including metal swords and daggers.

According to Inside­highered.com, Betty Trachtenberg, dean of student affairs at Yale, told Sarah Holdren, director of a Yale University student production, that she couldn’t use the weapons planned for her Middle Ages production. Another student director was also told not to use a gun in her show.

Productions are allowed, however, to use weapons that are obviously fake.

Holdren has protested, citing concern for censorship of artistic expression.

Holdren’s show went on, however — with wooden swords.

South Koreans surprised at American response

South Koreans have been surprised that race is not at the center of U.S. response to the shootings at Virginia Tech, according to Foreign Policy, which is published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Soo Youn, an American journalist reporting from Seoul, wrote that when news began to trickle out from Blacksburg that the killer was a South Korean citizen named Seung-Hui Cho, Koreans soon lapsed into what CNN’s local broadcast termed “collective guilt.”

The morning papers in Seoul showed Koreans holding vigils on their knees in front of the American Embassy, apologizing for their countryman’s murderous rampage.

But the U.S. media have largely treated Cho as a local resident and, although they mention his race and his nationality, have focused on his individual actions and personal problems.

By Thursday, Youn wrote that Korea’s Internet chat rooms were dominated by discussions marveling that Cho was not being singled out by his race or nationality in his adopted land.

“That is really amazing for us,” a post by Kim Su Yeon said.