Blacksburg, Va. — There are signs at Virginia Tech that today isn’t a normal day.

Many students are wearing Hokie orange and maroon. The Collegiate Times carries the front-page headline “Week of Strength Follows Day of Horror on Campus.” Signs on all the classroom buildings tell the news media to stay away.

But at lunchtime, the campus looks pretty much like any large campus on a brilliant spring day. Students spread out across the campus’s green spaces, sunning themselves. Couples in shorts walk by holding hands. Students chat on cellphones, arranging to meet their friends. They complain about their grades. They gossip.

Basically, they act like normal college students. They seem to be trying, at least, to move on.

Still, they are giving Norris Hall a wide berth. The crime-scene tape was moved last night, so students could stand about 30 feet from the classroom building where most of the killings took place. The students can now approach within shouting distance of the second-story windows that are still ajar.

But they’re keeping their distance.

Most students don’t even glance toward the building as they make their way to class. Police officers are the only ones keeping an eye on it. —Elyse Ashburn