Virginia Tech will award posthumous degrees to the students killed by Cho Seung-Hui in Monday’s shootings.

Mark G. McNamee, the university’s provost, said at a news briefing this morning that the degrees would be awarded during regular commencement exercises.

Mr. McNamee also said that students at the university would be given options for completing this semester’s course work. He and the university’s eight college deans and the dean of the graduate school are still working on the options, he said, but they may include determining that whatever work students have completed so far is sufficient for the courses, he said.

“We have decided among ourselves that we are going to focus on the students first,” said Mr. McNamee. —Paula Wasley