COLLEGIATETIMES
may 22, 2008
what’s inside News.............2 Features ........3 0pinions........5 Sports ...........9 Classifieds ...11 Sudoku........11 105th year issue 59 blacksburg, va.
Blackboard course Summer session draws more students raises concern “WELFARE 101: HOW TO NOT BE A POOR BLACK MAN” CREATED THROUGH APPARENT SOFTWARE DESIGN FLAW
BERNADETTE WHITE
ct news editor Summer school enrollment for the first session at Virginia Tech in 2008 has increased to 4,089 students, a jump of 9 percent over last year’s 3,866 enrolled in first summer session. According to Tom Wilkinson, associate vice president for distance learning and summer sessions, there are many factors that caused enrollment to decrease. Among these was the cost of staying in Blacksburg, the drop in the number of classes offered and the fact that many courses students needed were not offered. In response to past declining
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summer courses, sections and enrollments the Provost created a university-wide planning committee to review summer session operations. According to a report issued by the committee in 2006, between summer 2000 and summer 2005, the number of courses offered dropped by 9.6 percent and enrollment decreased by 5.3 percent. The committee on summer sessions is composed of representatives from the colleges, faculty, students and administration and was formed to make suggestions to improve enrollment by summer 2007. Part of the function of the committee is to serve as a central planning
see ENROLL, page two
Students enrolled in Summer Session I 5979
5921 5663 5472
2002
and advocacy group for summer session. Another function of the committee is to coordinate crosscollege initiatives to promote summer instruction. According to the committee’s 2006 report, “the decline in the number of courses and sections offered over this period demonstrated an immediate need to reintroduce incentives into the summer session budget and planning cycle to encourage active participation on the part of the colleges and departments in reversing the enrollment trends.” To remedy declining enrollments, the office for distance learning and
2003
2004
2005
5521
2006
5576
2007
2008
statistics courtesy of Tom Wilkinson, director of distance learning and summer sessions
BERNADETTE WHITE
ct news editor An oversight in Blackboard’s course creation tool recently allowed a group of students to create a virtual course listing for a class titled “Welfare 101,” described as “how to not be a poor black man,” raising concern over the use of university computing resources. The course contained racially insensitive text and images. After inquiry by the Collegiate Times, the listing was removed from Blackboard. Frederick Tanner and Philip Gilliam, a sophomore HNFE major, were listed on the course’s staff information page. Gilliam refused an interview with the Collegiate Times and Tanner released a statement addressing the matter. “The course creation wizard was previously available as a module within blackboard, alongside other popularly used modules such as the dictionary, thesaurus, and calculator. It was popular opinion among my peers that if the university did not want the tool to be used to its fullest extent, they would have disabled the module. I did not create the course, nor did I condone the content.” Mark Owczarski, director of news and information for university relations, said the university purchased the software for the entire Blackboard
Town plans summer operations GABRIEL MCVEY
ct staff writer As any year-round Blacksburg resident can tell you, summers used to mean shortened operating hours, ample parking and brief waits for service at local businesses because of a reduced student population. That is changing as Blacksburg’s population grows, and more students stay for summer term. Municipal services in Blacksburg increasingly brace for summers that demand maximum effort to finish projects while population and traffic reductions allow, and year after year the town finds that those reductions diminish in length and degree.
“Street paving and water lines sometimes have to be repaired right away, but we try not to cut major roads if we don’t have to,” said Jim Akers, Blacksburg’s acting director of public works. “It’s really just common sense. We try to get major refurbishments done in busy areas while the traffic is as low as possible,” Akers said. Street repaving is a major works project for Blacksburg. Paving work begins in July and concludes in August. Pavement marking work continues into the fall – weather permitting – according to Blacksburg public works documents. Blacksburg budgets about $600,000 annually for paving, which also covers costs associated with the required
MARK UMANSKY/SPPS
markings, according to public works documents. Blacksburg plans sidewalk, curb and gutter work on Lee, Wharton, Jefferson, Kabrich and Webb streets; Stonegate and Broce drives; Prices Fork Road and University City
Boulevard. The town plans a cooperative project with Virginia Tech Electric to install additional streetlights on Patrick Henry Drive near the North Main intersection, according to public works documents. Public works plans sewer system upgrades at the Cedar Run Pump Station on Ellett Road along with water main replacements for several areas across town, roofing and heating/air conditioning system upgrades for several municipal facilities and building work on the South End Fire Station under construction on Hubbard Street, according to public works documents. Akers said that Blacksburg Parks
see TOWN, page two
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suite one year ago. The software was a new product that was deployed for online courses and came with all the defaults to allow users interface with the product were all turned on. When installing the program, the technical team tailored the program to the needs of Virginia Tech. These needs meant allowing only Virginia Tech faculty to post courses on Blackboard. However, not all of these settings were changed. Randy Marchany, director of the IT security lab, said, “These undocumented features are endemic to any software.” The setting that allowed courses to be posted was not changed, which allowed for any person with a Virginia Tech PID to post a class on Blackboard. This is how “Welfare 101” was posted. The recent incident has been the first and only of its kind on Blackboard, Owczarski said. In response, Information Technology Services has since changed the settings to allow only faculty the right to post materials. The offensive material was taken down and a systematic check of Blackboard sites was conducted. Information Technology Services will provide the information to the appropriate offices and channels,
see TECH, page two
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