BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) -- Students killed by a gunman at Virginia Tech this week will be awarded posthumous degrees in their field of study at the May 11 commencement.

Family photos

Victims Nicole White and Lauren McCain

Two women, Nicole White of Smithfield and Lauren McCain of Hampton, were among the 32 innocent victims of Cho Seung-Hui's murderous rampage on Monday.

Both women were studying International Studies.

Also at Thursday morning's briefings, University Provost Mark McNamee said school officials were outlining a way to let students complete their courses, possibly by allowing students to quit this semester and take their grades as they average out right now.

Classes were scheduled to continue at Virginia Tech on Monday.

NBC is playing more of the videos that gunman Cho Seung-Hui mailed to the network in the middle of the killings of 32 people at Virginia Tech. As in the videos released Wednesday night, he says again and again, saying the killings could have been prevented and that he was carrying out the shootings for "the weak and defenseless."

In one video he says "This is where it all ends. End of the road. What a life it was. Some life."

The barrage of words was in contrast to what students, professors, and even his suitemates said was usually near-complete silence from Cho.

The disturbing manifest and videos of Cho Seung-Hui delivering a snarling tirade about rich "brats" and their "hedonistic needs" had some marginal value to police, but they didn't add much that investigators didn't already know, officials said Thursday.

The self-made video and photos of Cho pointing guns as if he were imitating a movie poster were mailed to NBC on the morning of the Virginia Tech massacre.

A Postal Service time stamp reads 9:01 a.m. -- between the two attacks that left 33 people dead. University officials announced Thursday that Cho's victims would be awarded their degrees posthumously and that other students might have the option of ending their semester immediately.

In much of Cho's videotaped rants, the 23-year-old speaks in a harsh monotone, but it isn't clear to whom he is speaking.

"You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today," Cho says in one, with a snarl on his lips. "But you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off."

In another, he appears more melancholy, saying: "This is it. This is where it all ends. What a life it was. Some life."

NBC said the package contained a rambling and often incoherent 23-page written statement, 28 video clips and 43 photos.

It was given to State Police but contained little that they didn't already know, Col. Steve Flaherty said Thursday. Flaherty said he was disappointed that NBC decided to broadcast parts of it.

"I just hate that a lot of people not used to seeing that type of image had to see it," he said.

The package helped explain one mystery: where the gunman was and what he did during that two-hour window between the first burst of gunfire, at a high-rise dorm, and the second attack, at a classroom building.

"Your Mercedes wasn't enough, you brats," says Cho, a South Korean immigrant whose parents work at a dry cleaners in suburban Washington. "Your golden necklaces weren't enough, you snobs. Your trust funds wasn't enough. Your vodka and cognac wasn't enough. All your debaucheries weren't enough. Those weren't enough to fulfill your hedonistic needs. You had everything."

There has been some speculation, especially among online forums, that Cho may have been inspired by the South Korean movie "Oldboy," part of Chan-wook Park's "Vengeance Trilogy." One of the killer's mailed photos shows him brandishing a hammer -- the signature weapon of the protagonist -- and in a pose similar to one from the film.

The film won the Gran Prix prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2004. It was the second of Park's "Vengeance Trilogy" and is about a man unjustly imprisoned for 15 years. After escaping, he goes on a rampage against his captor.

The connection was spotted by Professor Paul Harris of Virginia Tech, who alerted the authorities, according to London's Evening Standard.

It has become commonplace for movies or music to be linked to especially violent killers. One blogger for the Huffington Post, filmmaker Bob Cesca, dismissed the connection as "the most ridiculous hypothesis yet."

Authorities on Thursday disclosed that more than a year before the massacre, Cho had been accused of sending unwanted messages to two women and was taken to a psychiatric hospital on a magistrate's orders and was pronounced a danger to himself. But he was released with orders to undergo outpatient treatment.

The disclosure added to the rapidly growing list of warning signs that appeared well before the student opened fire. Among other things, Cho's twisted, violence-filled writings and sullen, vacant-eyed demeanor had disturbed professors and students so much that he was removed from one English class and was repeatedly urged to get counseling.

Some of the pictures in the video package show him smiling; others show him frowning and snarling. Some depict him brandishing two weapons at a time, one in each hand. He wears a khaki-colored military-style vest, fingerless gloves, a black T-shirt, a backpack and a backward, black baseball cap. Another photo shows him swinging a hammer two-fisted. Another shows an angry-looking Cho holding a gun to his temple.

He refers to "martyrs like Eric and Dylan" -- a reference to the teenage killers in the Columbine High School massacre.