Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

Incoming Virginia Tech freshmman Liz Anderson of Baltimore loks over her summer registration guide while sitting in her West Ambler Johnston Hall dorm room.

BLACKSBURG -- Liz Anderson lounged in a wooden chair in her third-floor room at West Ambler Johnston Hall.

She and her mom, Jill, left the beds unmade and waited. Soon Anderson's roommate for the night would filter in, and the group would head to a night of new student activities.

Anderson, an aspiring interior designer who's coming to Virginia Tech from Maryland, is one of more than 5,000 soon-to-be Hokies who this week and next will stay in the coed dorm that was home to the first two shootings on April 16. An additional 31 people died that day in a shooting massacre at Norris Hall.

Orientation director Rick Sparks said he expected to have questions about why students in the two-day orientation sessions would be staying in the dorm.

The only reason is tradition, he said.

But most students, including Anderson, said the orientation quarters didn't bother them. She would be staying only one night, she said, and she didn't even know the dorm's infamy.

Orientation leaders said they want to keep it that way, if possible.

"It's just really the best dorm to use," said fifth-year senior Mary Beth Starkey.

The former West Ambler Johnston resident said staying in the 895-student residence hall her freshman year helped her make new friends quickly.

Now, she is helping lead a new group of students through their visits to Tech.

"I think a lot of people come to college and have misconceptions," she said Monday. "They think that all the dorms are air-conditioned and suite-style, and this really gives them a good idea."

That theory works for Anderson, who noted the cramped, drab beige and brown room. Others parents toted portable fans through the narrow halls during the two-hour move-in time on Monday.

A few people murmured under their breaths about the shootings, but most seemed more concerned about navigating than safety.

"I figure it's probably the safest dorm there is," said Patricia Jussen, a mother from Centerfield. Her daughter Kerry stayed in the dorm on April 15, and said the shootings didn't make her feel any less safe on campus.

No one complained to Sparks, but a few parents were curious about the decision as they walked through a maze of orientation-related displays.

Students have always stayed in West Ambler Johnston during orientation, Sparks said. "Quite frankly, there's really no other dorm we could use with all the conferences" on campus, he said.

Even if other spaces were available, it wouldn't have mattered anyway.

Many of the students will be staying in West Ambler Johnston during the fall as well.

The dorm was never closed after the shootings, and it will be continued to be used. Room 4040, where the two shootings occurred, will not be used during orientation or throughout the year.

"We wanted to do what is normal, what's going to be done in the fall," Sparks said.