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Archive for the ‘Virginia Tech’ Category

The year in review

Friday, December 29th, 2006

It's been a busy year in higher education in Southwest Virginia. Below are links to some stories covering the big events and issues of 2006, in chronological order. Next week I'll take a look at some important dates and themes to keep in mind for 2007.

Jesse Jackson comes to Blacksburg and speaks at Virginia Tech on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

House Bill 1572, limiting gun control measures on campus at public universities in Virginia is proposed. It dies in subcommittee.

Virginia Tech unveils a new tagline and spruced up logo. Alas, it's not the only school to proclaim it's inventing the future.

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Task force on race at Virginia Tech meets with students

Friday, September 29th, 2006

Thursday night's meeting between Virginia Tech's newly formed Taskforce on Race and the Institution and students was devoid of the contentiousness of the meeting last spring that led to its creation.

Members of the task force posed questions about the racial climate on campus during a two-hour session. Students discussed everything from social isolation to classroom segregation created by some professors to the way they felt when seeing few minorities during campus tours.

One criticism of the task force came from Tech student Devin Stone, who asked for transparency from the task force and questioned if its meetings would be open to the public. Wayne Scales, a Tech engineering professor who is chair of the task force said the meetings would not be open to the public, insisting he wasn't trying to hide anything.

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Princeton Review gives high marks for Virginia Tech food

Thursday, August 24th, 2006

Yes, it's ANOTHER set of college rankings

Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker doesn't think much about The Princeton Review's college rankings.

Based on random surveys of students, the rankings are "almost a child's game" and "really not worth anything other than good cocktail conversation," Hincker said in an interview for a story I wrote on college rankings published last week.

Well Larry, the latest rankings came out Tuesday. Here's some good cocktail conversation for you.

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Returning to normal?

Monday, August 21st, 2006

Police arrested William Morva at 3:40 p.m. Monday

Classes and business at Virginia Tech should return to normal Tuesday, now that escaped inmate and double homicide suspect William Morva has been taken into police custody.

But I'm curious about how students are feeling now. Do Blacksburg and the campus seem as safe as they did before? Is there something that the community and university could learn from this trying and tragic day?

And what about parents out there? Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said he had received calls from parents concerned about their children. I suspect many of those parents were of freshmen who would have attended their first college classes today. Have your fears been assuaged?

Let us know what you think.

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Tech campus locked down after fatal shootings

Monday, August 21st, 2006

Two law officers have been shot to death near the Virginia Tech campus, and the manhunt is on. Keep up with developments on roanoke.com.

We'll continue to update this story when news becomes available.

UPDATE: Virginia Tech has posted a press release on the closing, as well as a podcast by Vice President Kurt Krause.

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Overcrowded dorm situation getting better at Tech

Wednesday, August 16th, 2006

I received an email today from Ed Spencer, associate vice president for student affairs at Virginia Tech. He had an update on Virginia Tech's on-campus overcrowding problem.

It seems the overflow of 225 students reported at the beginning of August has shrunk to about 121 as students have taken advantage of an offer of Hokie dining dollars if they agreed to move off campus.

Sixty-three of the remaining "extra" students will be temporary roomates to resident advisors and 58 will live in converted study lounges. Spencer credited Ken Belcher, associate director for occupancy management, with dealing with the problem and said he expects the number to continue to drop in the coming weeks.

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Tech response to Mumbai bombings

Wednesday, July 12th, 2006

I'd like to say thanks to the folks at Virginia Tech's Cranwell International Center for helping me get in touch with so many of the nearly 500 Indian students at Virginia Tech yesterday afternoon.

My charge was to get some reaction from local people with ties to India in the wake of yesterday's attacks in Mumbai.

For those of you confused about the name of the Indian city, Bombay is its colonial name, recently changed to the regional name of Mumbai.

We ran a short story on local reaction, but there simply wasn't enough space to even scratch the surface of the local reaction.

I sent out my request for responses at 2:20 p.m. Tuesday and the emails and phone calls of Indians concerned, saddened and angered about what was going on in their country began to pour in around 5 p.m. I received about 20 responses and I'll share a few with you below.

If you'd still like to comment on the attacks, please respond to this blog to share your thoughts and feelings.

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Virginia colleges tops for graduating students

Monday, May 15th, 2006

Virginia Tech and Radford seniors have already donned the cap and gown and the University of Virginia's class of 2006 is about to follow. Seems like a good time to take a look at how Virginia public colleges compare to other institutions when it comes to getting students into those caps and gowns in a timely manner.

The New York Times published the rates of the top schools last month. It shows that UVa. is first in the nation when it comes to public schools, not a surprise to a colleague of mine who graduated from there in 2001.

He recalls hearing something early on in his college career along the lines of, "don't overstay your welcome." He graduated in four years.

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Race and enrollment figures at Virginia Tech

Monday, April 24th, 2006

As the old saying goes; "There are three types of lies - lies, damn lies and statistics.

While I don't think the administration or the protestors who took part in Wednesday's events at Virginia Tech were trying to deceive, the fact that both groups used similar numbers to support their points shows how, when it comes to numbers, it's often all about how you look at them.

On their march from the political science department where Christopher Clement, teaches, students chanted "3 percent is not enough" in reference to the percentage of black, tenure or tenure-track professors at Tech.

Hours later, Provost Mark McNamee, speaking to many of the same people who were chanting, pointed out that the percentage of black professors has increased from 2 to 3 percent from 1998 to 2005 (it actually jumped from 2.4 to 3.2 percent - a total of 11 additional professors for a school that lost 15 tenure and tenure track positions).

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Archive for the ‘Virginia Tech’ Category

The year in review

Task force on race at Virginia Tech meets with students

Princeton Review gives high marks for Virginia Tech food

Returning to normal?

Tech campus locked down after fatal shootings

Overcrowded dorm situation getting better at Tech

Tech response to Mumbai bombings

Virginia colleges tops for graduating students

Race and enrollment figures at Virginia Tech

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