SALEM - From one community of college students to another, a quick hello and a message of condolence.

Close to 1,000 Salem State College students stood to form the letters VT on the Central Campus lawn yesterday in a message to Virginia Tech students that they are thinking of them in their time of need.

The April 16 massacre at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. - more than 700 miles from Salem - claimed the lives of five professors and 27 students, including Ross Alameddine, 20, of Saugus. Yesterday, Virginia Tech students returned to classes for the first time since the shooting.

"It could happen anywhere, to be frank," said Mike Mitchell, 23, of Wilbraham, Salem State's student government president who helped organize the event. "You can't prevent anything like this from happening."

Students donned T-shirts with the message "Today, we are all Hokies," and maneuvered quickly to beat the setting sun so a photographer on the college dormitory roof could snap a picture to send to Virginia Tech.

It was a gesture by the college's Student Government Association and the Resident Hall Association to show the college's support to the Hokies, as Virginia Tech's students are called in a nod to their mascot.

Salem State was closed for Patriots Day, the day of the Virginia Tech massacre, and most students were home for the long weekend.

However, once students got back to campus, they were spurred to action.

"The students said we can't just stand around and do nothing," Mitchell said.

Tiffany Chenault, 32, a sociology professor, spent six years at Virginia Tech earning her master's and doctorate. She still knows students and faculty members there and taught a class at Norris Hall, the classroom building at Virginia Tech where most of the killing occurred.

"Since I graduated and lived there, I believe in the (Virginia Tech) colors, but after seeing everyone (here) in their shirts and making the VT, I said, 'Yeah, you guys are Hokies,'" Chenault said.

College President Nancy Harrington, who spoke before the photo was taken, told students while she "hopes and prays this is a safe campus," she cannot promise a tragedy like the one at Virginia Tech will never occur.

"We need to learn as much as we can from the Virginia Tech disaster," Harrington said. She asked students "to think about people we are alienating."

Student Sarah Funk told residents to put an end to their differences with loved ones and friends because life's too short.

"We could be gone tomorrow," Funk said.