Photo by Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

Dr. Charles W. Steger, Virginia Tech's 15th president, pictured during an interview in his office at Burress Hall on the campus of Virginia Tech.

BLACKSBURG -- Virginia Tech President Charles Steger is two months into the most trying period of his career.

The 60-year-old former professor has faced questions, criticism and a death threat in the aftermath of the April 16 shootings that left 33 people dead on Tech's campus.

A Tech graduate, Steger has received support from students and alumni from all over the world, and admiration from university officials who have lauded his calm demeanor during the crisis and continued energy after it. But, sitting in his office Thursday, Steger explained that the university is still in a state of shock and there will be a good deal of hard work and healing over the next months and years as Tech looks to overcome the tragedy.

Can you recall just a few moments from that day that really have stayed with you, for good or bad?

Charles Steger: When we were sitting in the boardroom here worrying about managing the issue of the two people being shot. ... That's bad enough. ... We heard gunshots sitting in the boardroom, and then we saw people, policemen, running down the sidewalks with weapons drawn. It's almost surreal. You know it's happening and you don't know what is happening. And that's the tough part. ... We got on the police radio. ... That's when it came across. It said there's been fatalities at Norris Hall. I remember that like it just happened five minutes ago.

On several occasions since the shootings, you've described the university as being in a state of shock. Would you say that's still true, and where do you see it headed?

CS: I would say to some extent we are still in a state of shock. ... You think about it as this awful dream in that you keep hoping you're going to wake up and it's going to be over. But you really know it's not going to be over. ... We talked to the people at Columbine. We have, coming in Monday, the person that handled the 9/11 fund. We've had all kinds of experts because these are complicated situations.

It's important that individually and collectively we go through the process of grieving. It's difficult because people do it at different rates. You have different perspectives, you have different personalities and, of course, we have responsibilities that have to be carried out at the same time even though we're certainly not -- there's no way I can relate to what these families have gone through -- but we are all suffering. ... The next stage, if you read the textbook, is anger and whatever else. And we're seeing some of that happening. ... You've got this next wave of problems to manage.

We've managed the first phase pretty well, but the second phase is different. ... We've had enormous volunteer support. Take the example of the family liaisons. We had one of our staff assigned to each family to do everything we possibly can for them. But after you get beyond taking care of the hotel bills and making sure everything is done, there are complicated legal problems that some of these families have. We want to provide them with as much support as we can, but ... there are laws that constrain what we can do.

Perhaps one of the most important things is, we do not want to create taxable events for these families. I'll give you one example of that, and this has not been made public yet, but our intention is to fund the college education of each of the children of the faculty that are lost. ... Anything like this is about 20 times more complicated than you expect.

The mantra we've heard over and over again from people in the university community is, "We will not be defined by this." How do you balance that with never forgetting what happened?

CS: It will never go back to what it was before. There's a kind of new normal that's there. But the example I would use is, for each of the people that were lost, we've set up a scholarship fund, $100,000 in each account, and some have had more added to them. ... Every student we help -- and this is funded in perpetuity, it's an endowed thing -- every young person we help is, in a way, a tribute to the people that we lost. So it helps us to move forward, provide access to higher education to young people, and at the same time it helps preserve the memory of the wonderful young men and women that were killed.

A lot was made about the writings of the shooter before the shooting happened. How do you balance the fears that some people have of something like this happening again with the academic freedom and openness that's inherent on a college campus?

CS: That's a tough one because we have to be open, and society historically has benefited from people who challenged the existing order and challenged ideas. One of the roles of the university ... is to be a social critic. And often the most valuable critique is the one you dislike the most.

Now where is that line? ... I don't know, but I do think we need to look carefully at these silos of shared information. ... But I think we've all been frustrated about our inability to have known.

I had no idea, I'd never heard of Mr. [Seung-Hui] Cho before. ... I think in every instance that we knew about, everybody did what they were able to do.

Can you describe your interaction with the families of the victims so far? Are there common frustrations or questions that you hear a lot from all of them?

CS: I was out quite a few nights and afternoons visiting families in hospitals. ... It was therapeutic, I think, for all of us. ... The families who've lost students, I've met with a number of them individually. I've met with larger numbers collectively at different stages, and I sent a letter to them all last week. I have another letter that I think is on my desk and is going to go out tomorrow, and I've invited them to call me or send me a note or something. Some have written to me, and I'm going to write them back or I'm going to call them. ... There are some who do not want any contact with the university, and I respect that.

Everybody has to deal with this. ... I remember in the first week or so ... I attended eight funerals and I talked to families. You can't describe how terrible it is.

When the shooting happened, the university was planning a major capital campaign, talking about campus expansion, nearly doubling research by 2012. How did the shootings really affect all of that and how do you get back on track?

CS: Obviously when the shooting occurred, we stopped all the fundraising. We just thought it was inappropriate to be going out and doing that. We rescheduled the campaign kickoff for late October. ... The basic objectives and strategy of the institution haven't changed at all. ... We were a great university on April 15 and we're a great university now. And I think one of the things that was really communicated ... is the enormous base of support that's out there.

You're about to turn 60 and you've been in higher education for more than 30 years now. Any thoughts on when you might decide to retire?

CS: There are two dimensions to that, you know. One is my decision and the other is the board's [Virginia Tech Board of Visitors]. ... I've got to finish this campaign and things like that. Well, put it this way, I'm not going to be here when I'm 70. ... You want to contribute as long as you can where you really are making progress. And the moment I see I'm not doing that, I won't be here.

... The reality of the job, I remember when I first started ... one is the physical stamina that it takes to do it. And second is ... learning how to cope with an almost total loss of privacy. ... And that's good and bad.

... I'll give you one more little anecdote which, I must say really affected me emotionally and in a very positive way. This was in the first couple of days when Time magazine had suggested I should resign, and some of the news-show people were not displaying -- they were not the epitome of Southern graciousness. ... But the students sent me a poster, and I don't know how many of them signed it. But the note was, it said, "We've got your back."