Listen in Audio from ceremonies this morning: A bell in front of Burruss Hall tolled 32 times, marking each victim in last week's shooting. Tech students chanting after the bell tolling. A brass band from Oakwood College in Huntsville, Ala. traveled overnight to play "America the Beautiful."

A message for Seung-Hui Cho

Dozens of makeshift memorials have appeared on the Virginia Tech campus in the last week. But the most prominent one sits near a limestone rostrum at the foot of Burruss Hall, where 33 stones form a semi-circle in honor of all who died in the April 16 shootings, including the gunman -- Seung-Hui Cho.

Some have left messages for Mr. Cho and his family.

"Cho, you greatly underestimated our strength, courage, and compassion," reads one. "You have broken our hearts but you have not broken our spirit. Now we are stronger than ever. I have never been more proud to be a Hokie. Love, in the end, will always prevail."

Another says: "To the family of Cho Seung Hui: We know that you are hurting too. May God's peace descend upon you."

Throughout the last several days, people have been lining up near this memorial and waiting patiently to view the letters, flowers, and photos that cover each rock.

The Drillfield, the vast lawn at the center of campus, is home to several other memorials, including wooden boards where people have been writing messages.

University officials said today that they likely will leave these memorials up at least until graduation ceremonies. Plans for a permanent memorial are already in the works -- a memorial fund so far has raised $1 million.

Hokie love unbounded

Francisco Cross and his fellow musicians left Huntsville, Ala. in a van yesterday at 6 p.m.

This morning -- after a 12-hour overnight drive -- they were performing "America the beautiful" on Virginia Tech's Drillfield.

"I look at these people as my brothers and sisters," said Mr. Cross, 24, a senior at Oakwood College in Alabama. "When 9/11 happened, we did the same thing. We said, 'you know, this could have been us.' "

Two members of the group held a banner: "Alabama loves VT Hokies."

Several Tech students walked up to Mr. Cross and hugged him.

The outpouring of support for Tech from colleges and universities comes from across the country, and the world. A display of flowers and a football from Penn State sits at the foot of Burruss Hall. A placard from New York University sits under a tent on Drillfield. Dozens of signed posters line the interior of the Squires Student Center, including one from the school's alumni groups in Latin America. It reads, "Somos Hokies." We are Hokies.

Students wear their school pride on their sleeve -- and most other parts of their bodies. Orange and maroon shirts, pants, hats, and bags are almost required attire throughout the school's 2,600-acre campus today.

The weather is beautiful -- a cloudless blue sky and temperatures in the upper 70s, a sharp contrast with last Monday, the cold, snowy day of Seung Hui Cho's shooting rampage.

The scars of the shooting are readily visible. A sidewalk near Norris Hall, where the gunman killed 30 people, still has faint blood stains. Some students have covered the spot with band aids.