The memorial

WHAT

Hokies United puts 32 chunks of Hokie stone on the Drillfield on April 17, creating a memorial that became one of the icons of the shootings. A student puts down a 33rd stone for Seung-Hui Cho, which would disappear and reappear.

JUNE 7

Tech announces plans for an intermediate memorial that includes 32 new stones and a walkway for visitors on the Drillfield. A stone for Cho will not be included.

TODAY

Tech President Charles Steger will dedicate the memorial to the victims. The ceremony begins at noon.

WHAT'S NEXT?

A group will convene to look at designs and sites of a permanent memorial, which could take years to finalize.

ELSEWHERE

The university is amassing an archive, with the help of experts such as the Library of Congress, for the physical and online tributes it has received.

The Duck Pond

WHAT

Witnesses told police they saw Cho at the pond between 8:10 and 8:20 a.m. April 16, leading to speculation that he may have thrown something, such as his computer's hard drive, into the water.

JUNE 25

Tech begins draining the Duck Pond to allow Virginia State Police to search it for evidence.

JUNE 26

About a dozen search-and-rescue divers begin wading through the partially drained pond and the resulting waist-high muck. They will work for about a week.

JUNE 30

Finding nothing, state police say they have eliminated the Virginia Tech Duck Pond from the list of places to hunt for evidence.

Campus safety

JUNE

Tech changes its system for locking residence halls -- instead of being locked from 10 p.m. to 10 a.m., they will be locked 24 hours a day -- and begins reconfiguring building entrances to prevent people from chaining doors shut.

JULY 2

Students begin registering for a multi-method emergency alert system. Alerts can be sent to their phones, e-mail and instant-message addresses.

AUG. 17

Steger announces that Tech will have an increased number of police officers and mental health counselors on campus as classes resume Monday.

Virginia Tech Incident Review Panel

WHAT

An eight-member panel appointed by Gov. Tim Kaine just after the shootings to examine all aspects of the incident, including how university and police officials responded to the emergency and how Cho was handled by the university, the courts and the mental health system.

MAY 10

The panel holds its first public meeting in Richmond. Throughout the summer, the group will also meet in Blacksburg, Charlottesville and Fairfax County.

JUNE 14

Cho's family allows Virginia Tech to release his university mental health records to the panel, a development that was seen as a way to help answer some key questions about the April shootings and the troubled student who committed them.

WHAT'S NEXT?

The panel will release the report of its findings Friday.

Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund

WHAT

The fund raised more than $7.6 million for the victims of the shootings.

JULY 5

Tech announces that Kenneth Feinberg, the man who helped regulate compensation to victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, will do the same with the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund. Feinberg will work pro bono.

AUG 1.

Tech changes its mind about a plan to formally close the fund, pending a decision on how the money will be distributed.

WEDNESDAY

Plans are announced for distributing the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund. Families of those killed will have a choice of receiving a $180,000 payment or dividing that amount between a cash payment and either an endowed or partially endowed scholarship. Injured victims, as well as those who were in Norris Hall that day, will also be compensated.

Norris Hall

WHAT

The scene of the second shooting, where Cho killed 30 people on the second floor before turning the gun on himself.

JUNE 18

Tech reopens Norris to the university community. It will house research, laboratory and administrative work but not classrooms. Access is limited to those with Tech identification.

WHAT'S NEXT

The university will complete a feasibility study to decide what to do with classroom space.

WHAT'S NEXT?

Feinberg expects all money to be disbursed by Oct. 31.

Feeling overwhelmed?

For student counseling support, contact Cook Counseling Center at 231-6557 or www.ucc.vt.edu.

Residents can find support through the Mental Health Association of the New River Valley at 951-4990 or the New River Valley Community Services Board at 961-8421.