COLLEGIATETIMES
friday february 1, 2008 blacksburg, va.
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news DESPITE RUMOR, CLASSES WILL NOT BE CANCELED Schiffert Health Center said yesterday that the rumor circulating campus that classes may be canceled because of to the large number of students diagnosed with influenza is false. Many students were saying that 9 percent of the student body had come down with the flu, and if that number increases to 10 percent, Tech will cancel classes. According to the Schiffert Web site, severe symptoms, including fever, often last for three to five days and symptoms such as cough, weakness and fatigue may persist for several weeks. An infected person is very contagious and continues to be infectious for three to four days after symptoms begin. If you have the flu, stay home and rest. Antibiotics are only used to treat bacterial infections and have no affect on the flu, which is a viral infection. Medicines such as Tylenol and Advil can help reduce fever, muscle aches and headaches.
CHRISTIANSBURG SCHOOLS ON LOCK DOWN YESTERDAY Christiansburg schools were put on lockdown yesterday because of a breaking-and-entering sexual assault suspect who is at large. The lockdown was lifted at 2:30 p.m. and police continued to search for the suspect for the remainder of the day. The suspect is described as a man about 6’1” and 170 to 180 pounds, with tightly braided, shoulder-length hair and wearing baggy, light-colored pants and a dark blue or black hooded sweatshirt. There was no indication that the man has a weapon. Police are using a bloodhound in their search. As of press time, Christiansburg police were still searching for the suspect. Christiansburg police said they received a report of breaking and entering and sexual assault in the off of Radford Road. The victim, was taken to the hospital. Montgomery County Public Schools had sent parents an e-mail — the alert said there was no threat within the schools and the lockdown was a “precautionary measure as a result of a potential issue within the community.”
Tech gathers for ‘Focus the Nation’ THE COMMUNITY GATHERED YESTERDAY TO DISCUSS GLOBAL WARMING ISSUES, INCLUDING DANGERS, IGNORANCE, LOOSE CONSUMPTION AND URBAN SPRAWL GORDON BLOCK
ct news reporter Students, faculty, and community members assembled Thursday evening at the Haymarket Theatre in Squires Student Center to discuss global warming issues and possible solutions for the problem as part of “Focus the Nation.” The panel for global warming consisted of students, faculty, administrators, business leaders, and government officials. The panel did not hesitate to recognize the dangers of global warming. “This is one of the biggest environmental, safety, and health issues in the history of mankind,” said Mary Anne Hitt, executive director of Appalachian Voices. The evening began with a general question session, and ended with a question and answer session. Throughout the evening the panel dispensed knowledge on how to best combat global warming. One of the most talked about ways in the fight against global warming was for people to become informed. “There is no reason for ignorance now on this issue,” said Dan Holmes, field officer for Piedmont Environmental Council of Virginia.
“We can do more, and we should do more. We call ourselves the greatest country in the world, but we really should act like the greatest country in the world.” - DAN HOLMES PHOTOS BY JEFF SLOYER/SPPS FIELD OFFICER, PIEDMONT ENVIORNMENTAL Students gathered on the Drillfield by the April 16 memorial for “Focus the Nation,” a supportive gathering for environmental sustainabiliCOUNCIL OF VIRGINIA ty and global warming solutions. The event includes speeches from members of the Environmental Coalition and invited guests and faculty. Others echoed these sentiments. “You have to go out and educate yourself on these issues,” said Angie De Soto, senior environmental policy and planning major. Learning one’s impact also was important in the fight against global warming. “If you don’t know anything else, you need to ask yourself, ‘Where does my trash go when I dispose it and where does my water come from?’” said Jacob Sewell, assistant professor of geosciences. “That’s where our biggest impact comes from,” The panel also criticized loose consumption. “We live in an era of conspicuous consumption, one that’s pushing our planet to it’s breaking point, “ said Denny Cochrane, energy sustainability coordinator. Urban sprawl was also blamed for global warming. “We have to prevent what’s occurring in Blacksburg with sprawl,” said Don Lagrehr, member of the Blacksburg Town Council. “We have to promote a smart growth policy, Members of the panel were quick to call for action.”
Jackie Pontius, a junior enviornmental planning and public policy major, hands out plastic bracelets, similar to Livestrong ones, to students who attended the gathering.
Some panel members were quick to state the need for change beyond state imposed mandates. “We can do more, and we should do more,” Holmes said. “We call ourselves the greatest country in the world, but we really should act like the greatest country in the world.” Also being called to action was the younger generation. “You (the young people) will be the ones to solve this problem,” said Timothy Mallam, manager of state environmental affairs for West Virginia Appalachian Power. The call for youth action resonated through the panel. “We have to speak up on these issues, “De Soto said. “It’s our responsibility to fix this,” The panel emphasized that the solution would not be an easy one. “Trying to solve global warming won’t be done with one solution. This issue will take everybody at the top working with cooperation from everyone to make it work,” Cochrane said.
Survey says: Dollars off, please
Freshmen look for cost, academic quality
A RECENT SURVEY SAYS CONSUMERS TEND TO BE ATTRACTED BY DOLLAR-AMOUNT DISCOUNTS FOR BIG-TICKET ITEMS
CANDACE SIPOS
ct news reporter
BEN BYARD
tory French at Harding Avenue Elementary to fifty students grades K-5 once a week. “Teach for Madame,” the official name of the program, held its second class of a 13-week curriculum on Wednesday. The classrooms held smiling, enthusiastic students practicing their newly honed French adjective skills while belting out the occasional “bonjour” to anyone who entered the room. Welch is hopeful that “Teach for Madame” will continue long after he graduates and that the program will filter into other elementary schools throughout the community and nationwide. “We’re trying to be a national model for early foreign language education in schools,” Welch said. All teaching materials, including lesson plans and curriculum ideas, were donated by Early
An annual survey, conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles, revealed that freshmen in 2007 were more concerned than ever before with colleges’ cost and academic quality. Virginia Tech was among the four-year universities and colleges that participated in the survey. Of the 272,036 surveyed freshmen entering 356 four-year universities and colleges around the nation last fall, 63 percent reported that academic reputation was a very important factor in selecting a college, an increase from 2006 of 5.6 percen. Fifty-two percent claimed that a college’s ability to place its graduates in “good jobs” was a key to their college selection, a rise of 2.6 percent. Thirty-nine percent found financial-aid offers very important, a rise of 5.1 percent. Those three figures were the highest they have been in 35 years. “One of our speculations is that there’s been a lot of discussion in the media about accountability due to the Spellings Commission and the colleges’ reactions,” said John Pryor, director of the cooperative institutional research program at HERI. “One conceivable effect has been that the incoming first-year students are looking more carefully at those issues.” The Spellings Commission refers to the charge appointed by U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings to review higher education in America. Among other requests, it calls for greater cost controls at America’s colleges. Mabel Freeman, assistant vice president for undergraduate admissions at Ohio State University, which has been participating in
see FRENCH, page two
see FRESHMEN, page two
ct staff writer
coming up SPECIAL MONDAY CT
The CT’s semiannual special advertising section, Collegiate Living, will be on stands Monday. Check out the CT’s new video of an Ethiopian restaurant downtown on our Web site.
index News.....................2 Features................3 0pinions................5
Sports....................7 Classifieds............11 Sudoku................11
An independent, student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903 105th year • issue 12
According to a survey conducted on the campus of Indiana’s Ball State University, the type of sale offered in any given store actually influences the number of prospective shoppers to a significant degree. James Lowry, a professor of marketing at Ball State who recently conducted the survey, was intrigued by the holiday season last year, and therefore undertook this study. He questioned primarily business majors in their junior and senior years and reached the following conclusions. In this study, which he completed just prior to the beginning of the New Year, Lowry discovered a surprising trend. On a small-ticket item, such as a bag of potato chips, percentage-based sales were preferred. Meanwhile, big-ticket items, usually costing over $20.000, attracted more consumers with a dollar-amount discount. Items in the middle range between the two classifications could go either way, depending on the consumer. “It’s about the perception of the individual,” Lowry said. “People like to see large amounts taken off (prices).” This trend holds true in Blacksburg as well. Nancy Willoughby, owner of Fringe Benefit, a clothing store on South Main Street, passes out dollar-off coupons to many students and their families at the beginning of each semester. “I never get many back,” she said, but commented that percentage sales draw many more people in. “When having a sale, it’s easier to just do a percentage.”
see SURVEY, page two
PAULPLATZ/SPPS
Jennifer Porter, a junior interdisciplinary studies major, watches as a student from Harding Avenue Elementary works on a basic French worksheet.
French students give back in memory of professor LAUREN MORRISON
ct staff writer Inspired by the call of duty for the campus community to commit 300,000 hours of service by the end of the spring in the wake of last April’s shootings, one student is going above and beyond. John Welch, a junior international studies major, created an early foreign language program at a nearby elementary school in honor of his late French teacher, Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, who was killed while teaching during the April attacks. “I wanted to create something that would last for a long time and do it in her honor and in her memory,” Welch said. Welch and a half a dozen other French students have pledged their time to teach introduc-
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