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COLLEGIATETIMES
thursday december 4, 2008 blacksburg, va.
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news PRICES FORK ROUTE DISCONTINUED There will be a public meeting at the Blacksburg Transit office at 2800 Commerce St. in Blacksburg tonight from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. to hear the community response to the BT discontinuing its service to the Prices Fork route. The route will be eliminated on Dec. 19, citing low ridership as the main reason for the cut. The Hethwood bus will now service the old Prices Fork route, with the exception of the Sheffield Drive stop, which will be eliminated.
sports TECH WOMEN’S HOOPS VISITS WISCONSIN TONIGHT Tech’s women’s basketball team will take the court in its ACC/Big Ten Challenge contest tonight against the Wisconsin Badgers at 8 p.m. in the Kohl Center. Tech, with a record of 5-1, will try to bounce back from its first setback of the season on Nov. 29 against No. 17 Vanderbilt. Wisconsin currently sits with a mark of 6-1.
tomorrow’s weather SUNSHINE high 38, low 23
corrections Yesterday’s article “Dancing to remember, honor April 16 victim Reema Samaha” contained an error. Samaha was actually in four dance companies at Virginia Tech. Additionally, Adjunct Professor of dance Kyle Shukis choreographed one of the dances for the Remembrance Through Dance performance show that was held on the one-year anniversary of April 16, not the entire performance. The Collegiate Times regrets these errors. 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.
index News.....................2 Features................3 0pinions................5
Classifieds..............6 Sports....................7 Sudoku..................6
An independent, student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903 105th year issue 109
Students design prefab Habitat ZACH CRIZER
ct news reporter Teaming with Habitat for Humanity, a pair of Virginia Tech students turned their thesis project into a better life for a Christiansburg family. Their project came to fruition on Wednesday morning. Architecture majors Brandon Lingenfelser and Dan Gussman began their thesis project last year, with the intention of creating an easier way to build a Habitat for Humanity home. Gussman said they had worked for the cause before, and hoped to improve the process. He said normal Habitat for Humanity houses, which are built completely on site, waste about 30 percent of the materials used. Their project, which built many complicated aspects of the home off site, wasted between 3 percent and 4 percent of materials. “We decided we wanted to look at building a pre-fab house for our thesis,” Gussman said. “We wanted to tackle how we could make their process more efficient.” Their design also has an advantage in style compared to other pre-fabricated houses. “It has a bad stigma attached. (That) they all look the same.” Gussman said. Gussman and Lingenfelser built two modules, which could be customized, arranged and attached for the family moving into the house. The house was put together on its permanent site on Wednesday morning. Christiansburg woman Rhonda Reid and her two children will be moving into the house, which was placed adjacent to her parents’ home. Reid was selected after an application process with the New River Valley Habitat for Humanity. “They surprised me with it,” Reid said. “They took me out to lunch and gave me this tube with a picture of the house in it.” New River Valley Habitat for Humanity Executive Director Terri Fitzwater-Palmore said Reid and other recipients are hard working people that just cannot quite afford to purchase a home. “This program is for people that work hard,” Fitzwater-Palmore said. “It is not a handout.
They actually pay a mortgage.” That mortgage is special to Habitat for Humanity, as it has no interest payments, making it easier for the recipients to own the homes. Reid is divorced, with two kids: Morgan, a 12-year-old girl and Ethan, a 10-year-old boy. One big advantage is the home’s location next to Reid’s parents, who help take care of the children when Reid is working. “It’s going to be so convenient and wonderful to be over here by their grandparents,” Reid said. Reid said her family is thankful for the community support. “We prayed, we prayed and the lord answered our prayer,” Reid said. When she saw the house for the first time on Wednesday, Reid said she could barely believe her eyes. “I thought it was beautiful,” Reid said. “I can’t believe it’s true. It’s been like a dream, and now all of a sudden there is a house.” Gussman and Lingenfelser completed the project with the help of several faculty advisers and student helpers. Lingenfelser could not be present for the final step today, as he is working in Costa Rica, however, his father attended. Fitzwater-Palmore commended the students on their work. “It’s amazing they had the dedication and heart for the community to do such a huge project,” Fitzwater-Palmore said.
SALLY BULL/SPPS
Above: A crane hoists the first housing module onto the foundation in Cambria. Left: Tech graduate Dan Gussman returned from San Diego for the move.
In Oman, Tech fosters From Tech to the world emerging university through technology RILEY PRENDERGAST
ct news reporter Few students at Virginia Tech have ever heard of the small Arab country of Oman, let alone are aware that Tech is acting as one of the advisers on the construction of a new national university in its capital city of Muscat. “This is a very strategic area of the world, and these countries are going to be very critical players in the future of international relations. So what we envision here is a university that is going to be on such a status that it will attract students from the entire region,” said vice president for outreach and international affairs John Dooley, “As we look at the future of Virginia Tech, as I think that it is very important that we have a global profile. And obviously opportunities like this help enhance our global profile and enhance our position and understanding as being a world-class university.” Tech’s role will involve sending over senior level professors in the fields that the new university will specialize in to aid with creating a curriculum and assist in starting the education at the university. However, these faculty positions will be “a fairly short-term experience,” Dooley said. “It’s not like we are building a university in the Middle East,” said Patrick Guilbaud, program director of IT in international relations. “We are only acting as educational advisers, and we are not putting any money into the project. The university will not have Virginia Tech in the name; we are simply acting as a partner to help with all of our capacity in technical areas.” The university, which will educate in English, began when Tech’s international relations department was approached by the Oman Trading Establishment Group of Companies, a consortium of companies selling commercial vehicles, special equipment, electronics and home appliances, to see whether they would be interested in helping a new university get
on its feet. “Virginia Tech has a strong interest in international endeavors, and we have four or five major centers throughout the world,” Guilbaud said. “And through some efforts that we have in India, a group got into contact with (vice president for international affairs) John Dooley about a concept that they had on paper to start a new university in partnership with a group in Oman, and that was a couple years ago.” The idea came from a businessman Saad Bahwan, the chairman of the OTE Group, who had decided to pick up where his father left off with a dream of building a university in Muscat. “The man who is the head of the company is actually the son of a Sheik. And the father for years back had wanted to build a university as a legacy because they are a very well known, very influential family in Oman,” Guilbaud said. “The son … had a lot of senior members of his company in India, and it was them that made the linkage back to Virginia Tech through our work with them.” Seeing as the country is a sultanate, or an absolute monarchy under a sultan, he first had to gain permission from the Sultan, Qaboos Bin Al Said from whom he had gained the opportunity to fulfill his father’s dream through his “Omanization” programs. This process of “Omanization” would begin with developing “a strong educated work force,” hence the need for a new university, according to Guilbaud. Therefore, Al Said has put forth funding for organizations that are competent and interested in starting universities in Oman. “He had this great vision to modernize Oman, simply because a lot of countries in the Middle East know that oil is a finite resource and the price of oil will not stay where it is forever so they should start to diversify,” Guilbaud said. “I have heard that as much as $50 million are being made available for those being able to partner and create the university.”
see OMAN, page two
RILEY PRENDERGAST
ct news reporter Interactive white boards and video conferencing tools, the newest technology to hit classrooms across Virginia Tech’s campus, are allowing teachers and students alike to reevaluate how they look at education. These new visual displays allow for more interaction between students and their professors—sometimes even spanning the globe. Professors are no longer confined behind desks controlling Power Point presentations when using the new interactive white boards. Professors can now teach from the front of the room, using the touch board to manipulate the display. A professor can even write manually on the interactive board and then convert their handwriting in to text. The cost of the boards is upward of $3,000 and can reach $5,000. And that doesn’t include the required projector, which comes with a $1,000 price tag. “We have put them in most classrooms; it doesn’t really matter which college uses them,” said Jeff Kidd, a spokesman for Tech’s telecommunications auxiliary. It is up to each specific college to order its own interactive white boards, with the highest number being placed in buildings that host engineering classes. Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine will also house six of the boards in newly renovated classrooms. Video conferencing tools have also been added to Tech’s repertoire. Now mass conferences can be conducted via video, not only allowing for visual presentations, but also connecting research groups at different universities and
conducting face-to-face interviews from every location. Video Broadcasting Services at Virginia Tech has recently opened up this medium, providing support to the commonwealth-wide interactive video conferencing network. It also allows for broadcasting classes throughout the state and allows for professors to meet with their peers and share information about their research all over the world. These new tools in the classroom are creating easier ways for not only professors to talk to their peers, but for students to talk about their own research and even tap into streaming videos of classes. “We have about 60 classes currently being broadcast this semester,” said Patsy Galliher, a VBS staffer. “We broadcast to multiple locations including Northern Virginia and VCU; we have a couple classes going to Wakeforest, Roanoke, Lynchburg, Hampton Roads, Danville, and Oakridge, Tenn.” Tech’s video service allows for collaboration with other institutions. “We work with a consortium of universities in the commonwealth,” said Mark Harden, VBS’ manager, “We routinely work with Old Dominion, UVa, Mary Washington, and William and Mary.” “Most of the classes originate from the Blacksburg area, but some do come from the Northern Virginia campus at Falls Church,” Harden said, “But they could be taught from some of our other locations as well.” Of course, just because these options are available it does not mean that every professor will begin to upload a live version of his lecture. These services are more geared toward sharing information with other institutions, and
less toward letting students catch some extra sleep rather than going to lecture. “Very rarely would a professor say that by checking out these videos you don’t have to attend class,” Harden said, “They still want the interaction in their classes, and these videos are not interactive. It can be used when there’s an occasional need to miss a class or as part of the review process.” The conference tool is not only used as a means of broadcasting Tech professors all over the globe as teachers can choose to bring in guest lecturers or help their students take classes from universities abroad. “We actually have students that attend classes from Egypt. In the spring we will have students attending classes from Germany, we may even have some attending from Puerto Rico,” Harden said, “We can connect anywhere that has similar equipment.” The system allows from the use of high-resolution graphics and the ability to interact with the professor. The College of Engineering seems to be the group that’s embracing this new advancement in classroom technology the most. “I would say that our largest structural use comes from the College of Engineering, and that’s probably because of their presence in the northern Virginia center, and because of the Commonwealth Graduate Engineering program. This is a big consortium among the engineering schools,” Harden said, “Each college is represented, but just not in as many numbers.” VBS said that this technology is not restricted to use by classes; it may be used for group events or guest speakers brought in by university clubs.
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