COLLEGIATETIMES
tuesday september 4, 2007 blacksburg, va.
www.collegiatetimes.com
bulletin board PICK UP CONCERT TICKETS IN SQUIRES Tickets for the Virginia Tech benefit concert must be picked up by 8 p.m. Wednesday. Students, staff and faculty who reserved tickets can pick them up in Squires Commonwealth Ballroom. A valid ID must be presented to receive a ticket; students are also urged to bring a copy of the confirmation e-mail they received, though it is not required.
Hokies celebrate, heal on game day Biker’s broken brakes bust window T. REES SHAPIRO
ct sports reporter
BSA TO HOST MOVIE SCREENING TONIGHT The Black Student Alliance will host a screening of Tyler Perry’s “Daddy’s Little Girls” at 7 p.m. in Squires Colonial Hall today. Doors will open at 6:30. SHAOZHUO CUI/SPPS
sports MEN’S SOCCER TEAM BEATS ADELPHI UNIVERSITY 5-1 The Hokies men’s soccer team defeated Adelphi University 5-1 on Sunday at the Nike/Alltel classic in Richmond. All-American forward Patrick Nyarko scored his first goal of the season, helping Tech draw to 1-1 on the season. Tech also lost to Virginia Commonwealth University 4-0 during the tournament.
WOMEN’S SOCCER TEAM FALLS TO JMU OVER WEEKEND The Tech women’s team fell to 1-1 on the season with a weekend loss to James Madison University. The Hokies were defeated in Harrisonburg Sunday 2-0 despite outshooting the Dukes, recording five shots on goal.
BASKETBALL TEAM WINS IN CANADA The men’s basketball team went undefeated this weekend in a tournament in Canada. page eight
weather SUNNY high 90, low 56
coming up TOMORROW’S CT Are freshmen spending too much time on Facebook? A recent survey says yes. Read the story tomorrow.
ON THE WEB Chris Fowler gave a special greeting to Virginia Tech students, watch the video on our website.
index News.....................2 Features................3 0pinions................5
Sports....................7 Classifieds..............9 Sudoku..................9
An independent, student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903 104th year • issue 129
Students cheer during ESPN’s GameDay Saturday morning on the soccer/lacrosse practice field. Students and alumni alike came out to the set before Saturday’s football game to thank the support Virgini a Tech received following April 16. The Hokies went on to beat the ECU Pirates 17-7. Turn to page seven for full coverage of the game.
Internships offer real world experience STUDENTS USE SUMMER INTERNSHIPS TO GAIN KNOWLEDGE, REAL WORLD EXPERIENCE AND ON-SITE TRAINING THAT THEY WOULD NOT GET IN THE CLASSROOM ASHLEY OLIVER
ct staff writer Studying for four years or more in college is not always enough to prepare students for a job in the real world. Internships are opportunities that can provide on-the-job training and experience that most common summer employment does not offer. Junior environmental science major Andrea Harvey realized how important her internship as an ambient air monitor was to her career path. “All the things I experienced this summer I had learned about in classes,” Harvey said. “But until I saw it in person, it hadn’t sunk in.” She spent every workweek working at an office for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, where she performed quality checks on monitoring stations and measured ozone particulate matter.
“With my field, you really need this kind of personal experience to a get a decent job out of college,” Harvey said. Another beneficial aspect of interning is developing a contact base. Graduate student and communication major Scotty Fitch learned this after he spent the summer before his junior year interning at 93.3 WFLS, the No. 1 country radio station in Virginia. “It was a great place to network with the people who already work there,” Fitch said. “And I knew I stood a good chance of having a job waiting for me when I finished college.” Fitch spent the summer doing some on-air and production work with the station to find out what his job would really be like after college. Like Fitch, many students are often steered in the right direction as they dig deeper into their field of study. “(My internship) gave me the chance to see if that was the focus
I really wanted for my communication career,” Fitch said. At some internships, students can end up doing the less involved work that actual employees don’t have time to do. These serve as jobs where interns can watch and learn, make connections and
“All the things I experienced this summer I had learned about in classes. But until I saw it in person, it hadn’t sunk in.” - ANDREA HARVEY JUNIOR, ENVIORNMENTAL STUDIES build their resume. When senior finance major Scott Reina was internship hunting, he found a hands-on job to apply for at the GE Healthcare headquarters in Milwaukee. “I heard really good things about the internship,” Reina said. “Like it was challenging and I wouldn’t just be getting coffee and making copies all day.” GE recruits many Financial Management Program (FMP) interns, many of whom are
finance majors, and help them sort out their possible career paths. Reina spent his days as an intern solving the problems and inefficiencies of the way the manufacturing plant tracked its assets. This includes the things people use to build machinery, such as X-rays and MRIs. “I hope to be part of a rotational corporate finance program at a multi-national company,” Reina said, “and since my internship, I’m now competitive for one of those finance programs.” At Virginia Tech, most departmental websites provide plenty of information for students interested in an internship of their study and it’s even possible to receive class credit if done through the college. The Xtern Program within the School of Architecture and Design and the Pamplin School of Business Management Internship Program are two examples of internships available through different colleges of the university. Career Services also provides huge opportunities for any students interested in an internship. All of this information can be found at www.career.vt.edu.
NASCAR driver to visit Parking will change Tech for Wood Week on Thursday WARD BURTON TO BE ON THE DRILLFIELD THURSDAY AS PART OF CAREER FAIR MEG MILLER
ct campus life editor NASCAR driver Ward Burton will be visiting Virginia Tech on Thursday to participate in the Wood Week career fair being held on the Drillfield. Burton will be on the Drillfield to meet the public on Thursday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. alongside the No. 4 State Water Heater Chevrolet he currently drives for Morgan-McClure Motorsports. Burton is a strong environmentalist and proponent of the environment, said Paul Winistorfer, head of the wood science and forest products department. The wood science department is sponsoring the event. Burton, a native of South Boston, Virginia, contributes to multiple causes related to environmental protection. His philanthropy in that field ranges from K-12 education to helping ensure awareness of environmental federal stewardship programs for landowners. Burton also established the Ward Burton Wildlife Foundation in 1996, which manages a 2000acre wildlife refuge system of protected land, a project that served as a national model for conservation. The Wood Week Career Fair, held on the Drillfield from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., is part of Wood Week 2007. The purpose of the fair is to provide opportunity for careers and internships and bring about awareness of the wood science major at Virginia Tech, which is currently the leading program of
WOOD WEEK TODAY: Keynote speaker Asa Christiana, editor of Fine Woodworking magazine TOMORROW: Wood magic show FRIDAY: Student scholarship and recognition reception; Center for Forest Products marketing and management advisory board meeting ON THE WEB: www.woodscience.vt.edu/ woodweek its kind in North America. There will be nearly 50 displays of different companies in the wood industry in the large tent that will be set up on the Drillfield. These industries are in need of employees from all different majors, Winistorfer said. “We have companies coming from all over the country as we are trying to bring awareness to the industry,” Winistorfer said. “They are in need of students from all different disciplines.” The department of wood science and forest products, which currently has 100 students in total, has a 100 percent job placement rate, Winistorfer said. They are trying to promote job opportunities in the industry to the rest of the university because the industry also needs students majoring in engineering, architecture and marketing, as well as many others. “It is a huge industry,” Winistorfer said. “There is a huge global issue and concern and opportunity in terms of using wood materials.” Although the fair has been held two years previously, this is the first year that it has been held on the Drillfield.
PARKING ON ALUMNI MALL, STADIUM LOT AND SPRING ROAD TO CHANGE DUE TO CONCERT KEVIN ANDERSON
ct nrv editor With the distribution of 52,000 tickets for this week’s A Concert for Virginia Tech, transportation and parking are going to become major logistic issues. However, they are not as complicated or restrictive as one may think. Virginia Tech’s parking services does not believe that there will be a large amount of people driving and parking for the concert because most of the viewers come from the student body and live on or near campus. Nevertheless, parking services is expecting between 7,000 and 9,000 viewers to park. “We don’t know what to expect because we’ve never done this before,” said Richard McCoy, manager of parking services at Virginia Tech. Parking for A Concert for Virginia Tech will not be nearly as restrictive as parking for a football game, McCoy said. The only major restriction is that viewers may not park in the Stadium Lot as it is being used for the production equipment and other concert necessities. In addition, McCoy stated that there will be no parking tickets or fees issued for parking during the concert. Visitors who do not have Virginia Tech parking permits will be directed to the turf area
of the Chicken Hill Parking Lot across from the Stadium near the South Recreational Fields. At 5 p.m. yesterday, according to an e-mail sent to all students, “All Virginia Tech parking lots, other than those designed as ‘24 hour’ lots, will become open for general use by the public.” While parking is opened to nearly everywhere, tailgating and the consumption of alcohol will not be permitted during or prior to the concert. Parking lots closed to Virginia Tech permit holders between the dates of September 2-8 include: the turf section of the Chicken Hill Lot, the Stadium Lot, the West Stadium Lot, the Track and Field House Lot and Spring Road. The parking meters along Alumni Mall will only be available for 30 minutes at a time for those who need to pick up their tickets. In addition, the Blacksburg Transit will be running its regular schedule on Thursday and will run free from 3 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Friday morning. Buses will line up in front of Cassell Coliseum between 10: 00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. and will be running their usual routes until 1:30 a.m. Finally, a shuttle will be run between Virginia Tech and Montgomery Executive Airport beginning at 3 p.m. and ending at 6 p.m. The Tech police will be direct traffic at all the major intersections and will block Spring Road to through traffic. Those with questions are encouraged to call parking services at 540-231-3200.
Last Friday around 8:30 p.m., a man smashed through a window at the future site of Moe’s Southwest Grill, on the corner of North Main and College Avenue, on his red bicycle. A witness stated that the man had been riding south on Main Street when his brakes failed and he smashed through the window. Joseph Tierney, a senior political science major, was with his family downtown when the accident happened. “We heard a crash and thought someone had thrown a bottle or something,” Tierney said. “And looked over and saw there was just a bike sitting there (underneath the window) and realized that the window was broken in, and saw people calling 911, and then realized someone had gone through the glass pane. We thought a car had hit him, but apparently he just couldn’t stop.” Tierney said many bystanders were on site and helped the man immediately, checking on his safety and locating authorities. “There was an unmarked state trooper car here 15 seconds afterwards,” Tierney said. “A minute later an ambulance was here … It was extremely quick.” As of Tuesday night, the window had been boarded up. Blacksburg volunteer rescue squad responded and provided medical assistance. Blacksburg Police assisted in crowd control. Capt. Bruce Bradberry of the Blacksburg Police department said yesterday that the files on the report were not in and no comment could be made. Bradberry did not know if the bicycle rider was a student or if he was still in the hospital.
KYLE SWANSON/SPPS
Yesterday afternoon, a biker rides past the scene of the bike crash.
Tech students start NABA chapter on campus BRITTNEY R. DAVIS
ct news reporter The Virginia Tech National Association of Black Accountants was registered officially as a student organization at the conclusion of last semester. The organization had 20 charter members, but with the help of recruiting efforts at the start of the school year, there have been more students who have expressed interest in joining. The NABA was created in 1969 to expand the influence of minority professionals in accounting and finance. Its goals lie in encouraging and assisting minority students entering the accounting profession and promoting and developing the professional skills of members. It also ensures long-term financial stability that provides adequate resources to implement chapter, regional and national programs, among others. It was this commitment to expansion that helped spearhead the introduction of the Tech chapter, which has been in development for a few years, said senior accounting information systems major and NABA president Veronica Gentry. “Students in the accounting department voiced the need to bring the organization to campus,” Gentry said. “With the help of Dr. Lynette Wood, assistant professor of accounting and information systems, we made it happen last semester.” The NABA provides various benefits for students who are looking into accounting as a profession, including corporate sponsors who have invested in the start of the Tech chapter, Gentry said. These companies have extended their expertise by sponsoring professional workshops. “Members will have the opportunity to attend our student regional and national conferences where they will participate in seminars, interview with corporations and network with students and professionals,” Gentry said. “I hope that NABA will provide opportunities for students to develop and exhibit their leadership skills.” NABA founding member and sophomore finance major Cameron Hart is looking forward to what NABA will offer him in the upcoming year. “I am pretty excited about the year,” said Hart. “We are currently planning for the regional conference in Philadelphia that will take place the first week in October, and last week we had a picnic with (Big Four public accounting firm) KPMG.” NABA members do not have to be accounting or finance majors, but should be majoring in business and need to attend bimonthly meetings in Pamplin Hall. Students interested should contact Veronica Gentry.