COLLEGIATETIMES
thursday september 13, 2007 blacksburg, va.
www.collegiatetimes.com
features A BRIEF HISTORY OF DOWNTOWN A look back at the changing faces of the restaurant scene in the center of Blacksburg. page two
sports IS TYROD READY? Frank Beamer has announced that Tyrod Taylor will start Saturday against Ohio, but is the true freshman truly prepared? page eight
news TECH PROFESSOR ON STATE ENERGY BOARD Governor Tim Kaine appointed Irene Leech, Associate professor of apparel, housing, and resource management as a member of his Energy Policy Advisory Council. Leech is also the president of the Virginia Citizen’s Consumer Council. The Virginia Energy Plan was unveiled yesterday and has the objective of making Virginia energy efficient.
JON STEWART TO HOST OSCARS NEXT FEBURARY Comedian Jon Stewart will host the Academy Awards for the second time of his career. The Daily Show veteran first hosted the Oscars two years ago. The 2007 show was hosted by Ellen DeGeneres; the 2008 Oscars will be held at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles on February 24. Stewart took over the Daily Show gig after Craig Kilborne left in 1999. He has won nine Emmy’s for his work on the show, and won a Grammy in 2005 for Best Comedy Album for his “America (The Audio Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction.”
bulletin board INTERNATIONAL CHOCOLATE DAY Celebrate International Chocolate Day from 5 to 7 p.m. at D2 and Shultz Dining Centers tonight
weather PARTLY SUNNY high 83, low 62
coming up William Morva, accused of killing two people last September, is going to trial next Monday. Catch up with the case in tomorrow’s paper.
ON THE WEB ‘What’s Tech Saying?’ has hit the web. Check out what students are saying about the disappearance of “Stick It In” at football games.
index Features................2 News.....................4 0pinions................5
Sports....................6 Classifieds..............7 Sudoku..................7
An independent, student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903 104th year • issue 134
University told to cut budgets by state MICHELLE RIVERA
Virginia Tech. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Hincker said it’s too early to know Larry Hincker, associate vice presi- $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ exactly where the reduced funds will dent for university relations, said that $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ come from. Reductions are still in the planning phase. However, he did the university sent in very high level Cut from Virginia Tech’s main budget: $967 million explain that the president said that an plans and guidelines on Sept. 10. He across-the-board hiring freeze won’t stressed that the budget reductions Total amount cut: $14.8 million be implemented. will not be taken from the university’s Gov. Kaine spoke to the General total budget, but rather from funds Instructional division cut 7.5 percent for $12.3 million Assembly money committees in contributed by the state government. August and told them to expect a Tech’s annual budget for the 2007revenue shortfall, so the university 2008 fiscal year is approximately $967 Agency 229 cut five percent for $2.5 million expected that something was going million, and the state contributes to to happen, Hincker said. two separate funding streams: the Tech received instructions soon instructional division, in which the BEN MACDONALD/COLLEGIATE TIMES after to develop high level plans for university has been ordered to plan for a 7.5 percent reduction, and There will be about a $14.8 million ter to the university’s deans and vice reductions, and now that the plans have been sent in, they await further presidents. Agency 229, in which they must plan cut in costs. After the events of April 16, the instructions from the university’s “The governor has asked us to for a five percent reduction. Agency 229 is two organizations prepare plans to target a return of university has incurred $8 million in finance department on what the rolled into one funding stream: the 7.5 percent of our ‘general fund’ expenses. “This will tax the universi- next step is in terms of implementaVa. cooperative extension and the appropriation for the instructional ty’s ability to maintain all programs tion. “Because of the timeframe, the uniVa. agricultural experiment station. division budget (about $12.3 million) with consistent quality,” Steger said. The state contributes approximately and 5 percent of our Agency 229 GF “Thus, I will be giving deans and vice versity is just now beginning to look $183 million and $ 68.4 million to appropriation (about $2.5 million),” presidents wide latitude in imple- at how to implement these high level plans,” Hincker said. each funding stream respectively. Tech President Steger stated in a let- menting reduction strategies.”
Budget Cuts
ct news reporter After the $641 million shortfall in the state’s two-year budget at the end of the fiscal year on June 30, all Va. state agencies have been instructed to reduce spending. “It’s a two stage process,” said Tom Morris, secretary of education for Gov. Kaine. “All state agencies and education institutions in light of the budget shortfall for the last fiscal year and this fiscal year were asked to submit budget reduction plans.” Most agencies have been given a target of five percent reductions. Plans were requested in the last few weeks and are coming in this week, Morris said. After review, the plans will then go on to Gov. Kaine. From there, the implementation process may begin. Among the state agencies and institutions ordered to reduce costs is
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After 32 years, Porter retires from university
Tech students help market new website
BIOLOGY PROFESSOR DUNCAN PORTER IS RETIRING FROM TECH, PLANS TO WRITE A BIOLOGICAL BIOGRAPHY
KYLIE STURGEON
ct staff writer A marketing team of 40 Virginia Tech students launched Qlique on Sept. 10, the latest addition to the social networking trend. Qlique, a project by the venture capital-funded media company, Entermedia Corporation, provides new ways of interacting among college students through social entertainment and creative interaction. Tech, along with the University of South Carolina, Duke University and Georgia Tech, was chosen by Entermedia to assist in promoting the launch of Qlique. Though there are some similarities between Qlique and its competitors, Facebook and MySpace, Qlique campus president Brian Tajo said that Qlique’s differences will set it apart in the months to come. Tajo, a senior business information technology major said, “Qlique is more robust and more innovative (than Facebook and Myspace). It’s more so a combination of the two and it also provides real time interaction.” Unlike the static pages of Myspace and Facebook, Qlique has taken the world of social networking to a new level. Beyond the ability to socialize with friends, Qlique uses online gaming, icebreakers and a college-wide instant messenger to enhance the online experience. Campus manager and communication major, Monica Raugitinane, was a coworker with the promotional angle of the Qlique launch. “I was really surprised the first time I signed in,” said Raugitinane. “The program is downloadable, which is really different. Also, the aesthetics are much more futuristic and the additions of widgets are more interactive.” With group games like Survey Says, The Mixer and the Opinionator, Qlique combines advanced networking with collaborative entertainment. Qlique also offers students the ability to set up teams in order to compete in friendly College Rivalry games like poker and college trivia. With the
Professor’s toy released again for 25th anniversary
BEN J. BYNARD
ct staff writer
growing concern of Internet privacy, some students may appreciate the lack of high school students they’ll find on Qlique. Marketing team leader Jerry Hudak feels that the exclusivity of Qlique is one that many college students will find refreshing. “High school kids already know who their friends are and see them everyday,” Hudak said. “In college you don’t get to interact with people on a daily basis. (With Qlique) you’re able to communicate with friends you don’t
see all the time.” In today’s technological age, it’s not a surprise that social networking systems have been met with much enthusiasm. The ability to connect with friends, make new ones and stay updated with campus events are just a few advantages to the social networking scene. The site is up to 3,000 members a few days after the launch with hopes of one day being recognized on the national level.
Go speed racer
ANNIE MURPHEY
ct staff writer The 25th anniversary edition of the late Olivio Ferrari’s geometric toy, MASS, is now on the market. Ferrari was the director of the Virginia Tech Center for European Studies and Architecture in Switzerland as well as an architecture professor. Based on the traditional measuring stick used throughout Europe, MASS is a toy that can be twisted and transformed into multiple shapes and angles. Michael Hedgepeth, a former student of Ferrari’s and a local Blacksburg architect, helped work on the toy when it was first being created in the late 1970s. “I worked on some toy prototypes,” Hedgepeth said. “He would present me with a concept and I would figure out how it ought to go together.” Hedgepeth said his prototypes were made primarily out of wood and rivets, but that there was a certain degree of precision. “He was, I believe, an incredible educator. He never tried to put his styles or modes of thinking on to his students,” Hedgepeth said. “Working with him was a kind of self-realization. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.” T.A. Carter, professor of Architecture and Robert Dunay, director of Industrial Design,
see TOY, page four
JEFF SLOYER/SPPS
Kyle Busch, driving the no. 5 Frosted Flakes car, stops in pit row Saturday night at Richmond International Speedway. Busch finished 20th at the Chevy Rock & Roll 400, while Jimmie Johnson finished first.
Tech professor Duncan Porter is one of the premier research historians of Darwin’s life and work in the world. After 32 years, he’s retiring from teaching. “I think biologists, especially organismal biologists, have an intrinsic interest in Darwin,” Porter said. Porter first discovered an interest in Charles Darwin during graduate school while working on his biological sciences Ph.D. “I monographed a genus of plants for my Ph.D., and one of the species is found only in the Galapagos Islands,” he said. “I saw some Darwin collections that he had made in the Galapagos. That got me interested in Darwin.” That was the mid-1960s. In Porter 1973, Porter had the pleasure of spending some time in Cambridge after completing his post-doctorate. There he saw firsthand some of Darwin’s collections, which gave him the boost to get involved in his life and work. “I looked at about a dozen of them, and said to the curator, ‘Most of these aren’t identified.’ (The curator) answered, ‘No one here at Cambridge has ever been very much interested in flora of South America. Why don’t you identify them?’” Porter said. Three years later, armed with a grant from Virginia Tech, Porter returned to Cambridge to begin the identification process, culminating in a report to a meeting at the Natural History Museum of London. Afterward, three leading researchers of Darwin approached him from the meeting. “They said, ‘You need to identify the rest of Darwin’s collections from the Beagle Voyage,’” Porter said. “I decided to take their advice and got a grant from the National Geographic Society.” Porter then spent 10 months from 1980-1981 identifying the remaining plants. He finally finished that project this past summer. In between, Porter became a member of the U.S. Advisory Committee for the Darwin Correspondence Project, an international project attempting to make Darwin’s correspondence over his lifetime accessible to the public. He became an editor in 1991, then the director in 1997, before retiring last year. At the age of 70, after several decades of work and research, after 32 years teaching at Virginia Tech and after countless awards and books under his belt, Porter will finally retire at the end of this semester. “I’d actually planned on retiring last July, but at the beginning of the year I was asked to be the chair of an internal review community for the department of biological sciences,” he said, which kept him into this term. Once retired, Porter hopes to complete two unfinished books and numerous papers. “(He is) very knowledgeable,” said junior dairy science major Tyler Bray, who traveled with him to the Galapagos Islands. “He really knows a lot about what he’s doing. It’s kind of funny. He knows all the scientific names.” “He probably knows more about the plants of the Galapagos than anyone in the world,” said Ignacio Moore, a professor at the university who traveled with Porter to the island chain several times. Moore hopes that upon his retirement, Porter will continue to journey to the Galapagos every other year, knowing what a huge loss Porter’s withdrawal from that program would cause. Peter Graham, a close friend and colleague of Porter’s for many years, said, “He contributes in diverse ways. I think he’ll be very missed.” Graham and Porter have taught together, and edited several books and papers together. Graham said Porter is also involved in his community. “He is the senior warden of the vestry of the Episcopal Church. He’s a pillar of the church,” Graham said. “It’s very important to him, and he’s very important to it.” Graham hopes “he (Porter) will, from time to time, want to keep offering the University Honors Seminar.” The two plan to finish a scientific biography they have been working on for some time.