COLLEGIATETIMES
tuesday january 22, 2008 blacksburg, va.
www.collegiatetimes.com
news TECH BASEBALL TO HOST YANKEES Less than two months from now, members of the New York Yankees will step onto English Field to take on the Virginia Tech baseball team. In addition to a donation of $1 million to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund last year, the American League Wild Card Winners also made a commitment to come to Blacksburg and play the Hokies. The game will be played on March 18 at 3 p.m. on the renovated English Field. Ticket sales and other information will be available soon.
Angelou inspires sold-out crowd on Martin Luther King Day “In the worst of times we have a chance to come together and be courageous and loving,”
NEIL NAKAHODO/MCT CAMPUS
MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY AT VIRGINIA TECH 1996
- Maya Angelou
Virginia Tech first acknowledged the need to make accommodations for students observing the MLK Holiday
2002
SUPER TUESDAY MIGHT BE SUPER CONFUSING
Efforts to make Virginia Tech recognize the holiday with no classes were finally successful.
2003 Through the efforts of the Commission on Student Affairs and subsequent adoption by University Council, the Academic Calendar was changed in Spring 2003 to reflect no classes on the MLK observance beginning with the 2005-2006 school year.
2005 The DROP Alliance held protest teach-ins in the Black Cultural Center to express their discontent with classes being held on the MLK holiday. KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Feb. 5 will be the biggest presidential primary day in American history. More than 70 million registered voters in 24 states will choose more than 2,700 Democratic and Republican convention delegates on Super Tuesday, almost 10 times more than in all the primaries and caucuses so far. Before they do, they’ll be bombarded by TV ads, phone banks, campaign appearances and surrogates for at least eight major candidates, and by nonstop polling, punditry and predictions. “No one has ever seen anything like this,” said Jack Oliver, a top adviser to the Bush-Cheney campaigns in 2000 and 2004. “I just don’t know that we’ll know” the ultimate winners the next day.
weather P.M. SNOW AND RAIN high 40, low 24
corrections If you see something in today’s paper that needs to be corrected, please e-mail our public editor at publiceditor@collegiatetimes. com, or call 540.231.9865.
coming up TOMORROW’S CT On Wednesday we’ll have an interview with former Redskin Brig Owens, who now works with a sports management firm.
Check out video from Maya Angelou’s presentation last night in Burruss Auditorium.
index News.....................2 Features................3 0pinions................5
Classifieds..............8 Sports....................6 Sudoku..................8
An independent, student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903 105th year • issue 5
2006 The first year that no classes were held on MLK day at Virginia Tech and the start of the universitywide celebrations honoring Dr. King’s legacy. The Rev. Jesse Jackson served as the keynote speaker
PAUL PLATZ/SPPS
Maya Angelou spoke about April 16 during her performance last night, while also sharing her own life experience.
KATIE MCLAUGHLIN
ct staff writer
To fully celebrate the diversity of Martin Luther King Day, university officials decided to not charge students or the public for Angelou’s keynote speech. Ray Plaza, director of diversity initiatives, said the planning for Angelou to come for MLK Day started back in June. “We were very fortunate that she was available,” Plaza said. “It is often very hard for someone to come on the actual MLK date. A lot of schools do their celebrations a week before or a week later, but we have always done ours on the actual date itself.” The university, through the office of multicultural affairs, pays for MLK week. Sixty percent of the budget for MLK week goes to the keynote speaker, and Angelou’s speaking fee is approximately $43,000. A number of different university departments and outside groups were able to provide some funding, but Plaza says he hopes to expand that in the future. “This is a celebration that is not going to go away,” Plaza said. “In order for us bring these speakers, we have to be able to spend the money. With the outpouring of interest we have from Maya Angelou, we set the bar there. We also set the bar when we previously brought the Rev. Jesse Jackson. We have shown that we are going to bring these top-notch individuals to speak on our campus for this special day.” Other speakers for MLK week in the past include Jackson two years ago, and Yolanda King last year. Jackson show sold out, but
Yolanda King did not. “We think we did not sell out for Yolanda because a lot of students were traveling back to school after the winter break,” Plaza said. “Last year, MLK day was directly after winter break and then school started. We go back to the old situation in the next four years, where we have the winter break, then the holiday, then the start of school. So, it’s going to be very critical in the next four years that we highly publicize the speaker for MLK week in November.” Tickets for all MLK week performances are free, which was a deliberate decision on the part of the office of multicultural affairs. “We did not want money to be the reason why someone did not have the opportunity to see our speaker, or any of our speakers,” Plaza said. “Yes, it does take a budgetary hit, but it sends a message that diversity is not just about the color of one’s skin or gender, but that it is also about the socioeconomic part. I do not want to deny someone the opportunity to experience our visitor because they do not have the money to pay for a ticket. I never want that to be a barrier.” Plaza said that before deciding to bring Angelou, speakers Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were serious considerations. However, because of complications with the primaries and other issues, neither speaker was able to make the date. “I am really glad we got Maya Angelou,” Plaza said. “Maya really epitomizes that sense of community and we were looking for someone that could really transcend and that everyone could relate to.”
ANGELOU SPEAKS TO A DIVERSE CROWD IN BURRUSS AUDITORIUM Martin Luther King Day brought laughs and tears when one of America’s most influential writers came to speak to a soldout crowd. Best-selling author Maya Angelou spoke to 3,000 people in Burruss Hall, as well an additional 1,000 people in Squires Haymarket Theatre via overflow seating. This was the first Martin Luther King Day performance that offered overflow seating, where the audience watched Angelou’s lecture live on a projection screen.
JAMES BERKELEY/SPPS FILE PHOTO
2007
MLK DAY KEYNOTE SPEAKER COST: Maya Angelou’s speaking fee is approximately $43,000, which comprised 60 percent of the MLK Day Celebration budget. Costs were covered by the Office of Multicultural Affairs. ANNABELLE OMBAC/SPPS FILE PHOTO
Before her performance, Angelou met with young men and women who survived April 16. When she got on the stage, Angelou’s introduction started out as a song. She continued to incorporate the spiritual song with lyrics surrounding rainbows in the clouds all throughout her speech. “I realized that this university showed this country what a rainbow in the clouds really is, and in the worst of times we
The late Yolanda King served as the keynote speaker for the university’s second annual MLK Day Celebration. Other events of the week included a candlelight vigil, literary reading and community breakfast.
2008
see ANGELOU, page two
Maya Angelou spoke a sold-out crowd of 3,000 in Burruss Hall. Overflow seating was provided in Squires Commonwealth Ballroom where a live broadcast was shown over a projection screen. The lecture was also shown over the campus cable network.
Web site aims to find best textbook price for students CANDACE SIPOS
ct news reporter Students face the debate every semester over whether it’s really cheaper and more efficient to buy textbooks online or at one of the Virginia Tech bookstores. The latter provide convenience, as they are located within a mile or two of students and usually have the books that Tech students need. However, Web sites claim to be cheaper. “(Buying textbooks at the bookstore) was easier than hunting around on Amazon or eBay,” said Owen Puffenberger, freshman computer science major. “I didn’t think ahead to order (my textbooks) online,” said Allison Lewis, sophomore human nutrition foods and exercise major. Although online resources require additional planning to receive books on time and may leave students with less than the exact edition, they often have significantly cheaper prices. Among the constantly growing list of Web sites that boast such prices are Amazon, eBay, half.com, and Barnes & Noble. Hunting through the various sites to compare prices is another step students take when ordering books online.
Comparison Web sites have been around since the inception of the Internet, a way for users to compare prices of online products to find the best rates and prices. With the increase in textbook prices forcing many students to share books, hunt through libraries, and even nix buying the book altogether, these Web sites have found a new market for the college student looking for the cheapest textbook. Created in 2001, Bigwords.com sells nothing from its site. Instead, this web tool shows the customer which book-selling site would provide him or her with the least expensive books. New, used, international and electronic textbooks are covered, and the user can narrow down his or her search by excluding some of these categories. Although the site specializes in textbooks, it also compares prices for DVDs, music and games. “I think the reason that it is so successful and that students like it so much and talk about it so much is because we’re a totally unbiased resource for just being able to save the most money on books,” said Jeff Sherwood, creator and CEO of Bigwords. On average, the prices Bigwords finds are 16 to 45 percent cheaper than other retail stores, saving students an average of $132 per order. “Bigwords is like having all of half.com and all
of Amazon.com and all of 20 other Web sites all in one place,” Sherwood said. “If you think about it, if you have to buy three, four or five books, one’s going to be cheapest at one place, and another one’s going to be cheaper someplace else. So, by using Bigwords.com, we just sort through all that information for you and you save the most money.” Jerry Diffell, manager of Tech Bookstore, said that he is very aware of bookstore textbooks’ expensive rates and believes that his bookstore loses business to sites such as Bigwords. “You try and be competitive with every place, but unfortunately, when the publisher sets the price and students are swamping against each other, the bookstore might come out short,” Diffell said. He added that business has changed significantly due to the Internet, but Tech Bookstore is changing with the industry by buying and selling books online everyday. Steve Glosh, assistant director for Virginia Tech Services, said the University Bookstore hasn’t lost a lot of business to textbook retail JEFF SLOYER/SPPS Web sites in recent years. Alumnus Chris Pokrana and graduate “I think the opportunity for Web site price comparisons has been out there for student Tyrell McElroy compare prices
see PRICE, page two Monday at the Virginia Tech Bookstore.
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