Its English Department has received some attention after one of its seniors, [[Seung-Hui Cho]], massacred 32 students and faculty on April 16, 2007. Cho had written and submitted as coursework disturbing papers that, in hindsight, appear to reflect an unstable person obsessed with violence.
Virginia Tech was founded in 1872 as the Virginia Agricultural and Mining Mechanical College, with 132 students, a president and three professors: one each in English; natural philosophy and chemistry; and technical agriculture and mechanics. By 1895 the student body had grown to 400 and the name was changed to "The Virginia Polytechnic Institute."<ref>Heatwole, Cornelius Jacob (1916), ''A History of Education in Virginia,'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=BuscAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA204&dq=%22virginia+polytechnic+institute%22&as_brr=1#PPA207,M1 pp. 204-7]. Note: the Virginia Tech website says the name change was in 1896 and the new name was "Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College and Polytechnic Institute."</ref>
Military training has always been a feature of Virginia Tech, which is one of six designated ''senior military colleges'' in the United States.<ref>The others are Norwich University in Vermont, North Georgia College and State University, Texas A&M, The Citadel in Charleston, SC, and Virginia Military Institute.</ref> All students were cadets when it opened in 1872.<ref>[http://www.vtcc.vt.edu/About/History/ Tech Corps of Cadets: History]</ref> VPI is