When all the pieces of another fall semester drop into place again Tuesday, the Penn State community will still be a little bit smaller than it might have been a year ago. During a school year when the nation as a whole remembered what it was like to mourn as one, this university lost several of its own, and continues the search for one more.

For freshmen arriving for the first time, it may seem strange to stop and learn about people they will never get to know. But even at a place that can feel so big sometimes, many would say it is important to know what has come before.

The sad news started hitting here long before that clear, bright September morning when nine people who used to call Penn State home were killed going about their daily routine.

In May 2001, rising Penn State sophomore Amy Fledderman decided to undergo cosmetic surgery. Doctors told her the liposuction procedure she had chosen was fairly routine, "textbook" even. But complications resulted in Amy's shocking death. Her story was first reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer in a major feature on the problems that can occur with the popular elective surgery.

A month later, the death of a Penn State student studying here for the summer heightened concerns about a disease to which college students are often prone: meningococcal meningitis. The flu-like symptoms that junior Michelle Bahn, of Wayne, were feeling early on a Monday in June turned deadly by midnight. Just a year earlier, a reporter at this newspaper had contracted meningitis, ignored the often-confused warning symptoms at first, but caught it in time and survived to write about the ordeal.

The effects of Michelle's death and others like it are being felt around the state this semester, as the state asks all university students living in dorms to be immunized against the disease, or otherwise to consider the shot and then opt out. Ironically, Michelle had received the vaccine that so many Penn State students now will be receiving. Doctors say some strains of the disease, unfortunately, are immune to the jab.

In August, at least three sleeping women were assaulted in their Mifflin Hall rooms early on a Saturday morning. Police arrested and charged Penn State freshman Timothy Kulp with the crimes, but two days later were shocked to find that he had hanged himself in his prison cell. The feelings of anger that many had felt about the assaults were suddenly mixed with a sense of sorrow at the loss of another student.

When the dust settled on Sept. 11, the Penn State Alumni Association announced that nine of the dead or presumed dead had attended this school at some point in their lives. Two of them were on American Airlines Flight 11 and the others were working in the World Trade Center that horrific day. The most recent alumnus was David Suarez, a 1999 graduate in industrial engineering. The oldest was Kermit Anderson, who finished in 1965 with a degree in the sciences.

Halloween night saw the beginning of perhaps the most-spoken-about case of recent time in State College: the search for 21-year-old Cindy Song. The details have a familiar ring for many by now, after dozens of windows in this town began to bear her picture on missing posters. Cindy was last seen returning to her Ferguson Township apartment early Nov. 1 after a party. She was wearing a short white skirt, a pink top, brown boots and a red hooded coat. This mystery remains unsolved.

As the search for Cindy was just gathering steam, a 23-year-old recent alumna was killed by an overdose of ecstasy at a rave party on College Avenue. Stephanie Yau had been living in Woodhaven, N.Y., since her graduation in 2000, but was returning for a visit. Her boyfriend at the time, a Penn State student, has since been charged with contributing to her death for supplying her with the drug.

In December, senior Shellie Smarowsky was killed on East Beaver Avenue near Garner Street as she was crossing the street. She was hit by an area school bus. Because Shellie was only a few credits short of a degree, the university agreed to award her a posthumous degree, and sent it to her family in West Chester.

Other Penn State deaths occurred on the roads as well. John Henry Cox, a junior, and Ron Dax, a senior, died in separate January car accidents. Michael Carter, a 19-year-old sophomore and member of the golf team, was killed the next month in an auto crash in northern New Jersey.

Kevin Dare's life ended doing something he loved: competing with Penn State's track and field team. At the Big Ten Championships in the University of Minnesota's field house, he fell while competing in the pole vault, and was pronounced dead shortly after. The Penn State team bowed out of its four remaining events that day, and the next day's meet was called off following a coaches meeting. Since then, Kevin's father, Ed, has said he hopes the sport can be revamped and the safety improved to prevent such accidents from happening again.

There were other deaths, of course: ones that didn't make headlines like these did. In April, the university said the number of students who died last year was 27. A Penn State spokesman said a tragic fact for a school as big as this one, with all its campuses, is that about 25 students each year never get a chance to finish their time here.

Those who knew the students, and even those who didn't, often yearn for some kind of memorial. This spring, it came in the form of a new red oak tree planted in one of the favorite places on campus, the HUB lawn. A plaque beside it reads: "In living memory of all Penn State University Park students who have died, we dedicate this tree. May it flourish in their names."