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COLLEGIATETIMES
friday december 5, 2008 blacksburg, va.
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news SGA PASSES NEW ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION The student government association recently passed three environmental legislation initiatives which ask the administration to cut back on waste within dining services. The new initiatives, which both the House and Senate voted unanimously to implement, are a reusable mug program, a food recycling system and a cutback to paper receipts. SGA proposed to have students bring their own coffee mugs to on-campus locations and receive a discount on their drinks to cut back on paper waste on cups. The foodrecycling program will donate uneaten food to hungry families rather than have it thrown away. The third proposal was for students to be given the choice of a receipt in order to reduce waste. SGA has passed five total bills of legislation this semester, including these last three initiatives.
sports TECH WRESTLING IN TWO WEEKEND TOURNEYS Members of the Hokies’ wrestling team will take part in two tournaments this weekend. Ten wrestlers will head to the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, while 12 will compete in the Davidson Open. Among those in Vegas include true-freshmen Jason Garnett, who is 12-0 and ranked No. 11 in the nation, and Jesse Don, ranked at No. 19.
Staff juggle career, children FACULTY AND STAFF SEEK SOLUTIONS TO CHILDCARE CONUNDRUM AS TECH STRIVES TO DEVELOP PARTNERSHIP WITH PROFESSIONAL DAYCARE SERVICE. SHANNON AUD
ct news reporter Faculty and staff members at Virginia Tech balance family life and parenthood with their dedication to their jobs at the university. But the day care process, taking care of sick children and finding ways to uphold the commitment to a career can be difficult. Perhaps the most difficult roadblock when address in finding child care is high demand. Waitlists have become a reality that many parents must face when it comes to enrolling their children in a day care center.
A JUGGLING ACT The Work/Life Resource Center at Tech helps to meet these needs in many ways, by providing help finding child care options, professional advice on familial issues, support groups for newcomers on staff, work-life grants and community connections. Tech also provides a day care through the Child Development Center in Learning and Research, run by Victoria Fu, a professor in human development. There are approximately 40 slots, all of which are reserved for children of faculty and staff as well as graduate students. However, would-be patrons still encounter long waiting lists and limited space. To address the demand for day care, the center has changed its hours to accommodate the needs of Tech’s staff. It is now open from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. “The changeover from the university calendar from parttime to full-time is directly to address the needs of the faculty and staff,” said Lynn Ann Wolf, curriculum coordinator and instructor at the center. Fu added that the hours aid the university in retention and recruitment of quality staff members. The center is nationally certified, holding it to more stringent standards of day care and research. For example, the center must have a high ratio of teachers to students, increasing the individual attention that each child receives. These standards of quality are what Fu believes faculty and staff are seeking in day care for their children.
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tampa’s weather SUNSHINE high 74, low 55
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Classifieds..............6 Sports....................4 Sudoku..................6
An independent, student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903 105th year issue 110
COLLABORATION In addition to the opening and expansion of the Child Development Center, Tech is finding new and alternative ways to directly address the limited amount of day care available for its faculty and staff. The Work/Life Resource Center has recently secured a partnership with Rainbow Riders Child care, a nationally accredited day care center. The arrangement, which was finalized in September 2008, asserts that Tech must give Rainbow Riders $100,000 every year for five years. This is in exchange for 60 percent of the slots at the new center Rainbow Riders is in the process of building. The money comes solely from private donations given to the university. The Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center is also a part of this partnership. The center gives $20,000 and in turn receives 12 percent of the total available child care openings. The new center, which should be completed in time for the fall 2009 semester, will accommodate approximately 246 children. This includes full-time preschool and infant care and before- and after-school care for children up to 12 years old. Sign-up for the waiting list has already begun, but parents will not know their status until February or March 2009. “The partnership with Rainbow Riders has been in process for a number of years. This is a huge step that will certainly make things easier,” said Cathy Jacobs, director of the Work/ Life Resource Center. “To recruit these young workers with new expectations for what a university should provide, we must keep up with the latest available work-life resources and child care initiatives. We have to always keep up with our
see DAYCARE, page two
BioTherapeutics seeks to meet new medical needs JUSTIN GRAVES
ct news reporter
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“I think the most important aspect is having qualified teachers with educational background previous supervised experience,” Fu said. “We see our teachers as teachersresearchers. When you look at child care from a national perspective it’s about quality, affordability and compensation.”
Victims of diabetes and other common related illnesses may soon have access to new therapies without all of the crippling side effects. BioTherapeutics Inc. is working to develop nutritional interventions against a variety of chronic inflammatory and infectious diseases. One of Virginia Tech’s own associate professors, Josep Bassaganya-Riera, founded the company. After spending many years at Iowa State University, Bassaganya-Riera came to Tech in 2003, and began work with BioTherapeutics in 2007. His work is renowned by many of his peers, including many licensing associates here at Tech. “I find it exciting to see a VT inventor with the entrepreneurial drive and vision to get a new venture off the ground,” said Jackie Reed, an associate for Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties. “I am confident that BioTherapeutics has what life-science investors will be looking for.” Bassaganya-Riera explained that the idea for the company originated from findings on abscisic acid paired with the newly surfaced realization that this could be “just the tip of the iceberg.” “We discovered a naturally occurring, bioactive compound capable of improving diabetes and decreasing inflammation,” Bassaganya-Riera said. BioTherapeutics has been developed from work conducted by the Nutritional Immunology Group, led by Bassaganya-Riera, at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute and Virginia Tech’s department of human nutrition, foods and exercise. Barry Whyte is the strategic and research communications officer at VBI. “Part of our mandate is to support the transfer of technology and competencies from the academic to the private sector,” Whyte said. “The spin-off of BioTherapeutic from Virginia Tech is
a good example of one of the innovative ways that we are looking at to fill the commercialization gap and address some of society’s pressing unmet medical needs.” “In academia, we have our role as educators and researches, but first and foremost, we have to solve important problems in society,” Bassaganya-Riera said. “The mission of this company is to improve human health and well-being by discovering new nutraceuticals that will battle chronic inflammatory and infectious diseases.” People who suffer from diseases such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases could see some relief through advances by BioTherapeutics. The company wants to expand upon its research by pursuing innovative techniques and ideas using naturally occurring compounds that have been proven by clinical and laboratory research to treat diseases. Many of the technologies used by the company have shown effectiveness in mouse studies and are linked to chronic inflammatory/infectious disease prevention and treatment. From a developmental standpoint, nutraceuticals can modulate the function of certain conserved proteins that can impact immune responses. BioTherapeutics wants to take advantage of these properties of nutraceuticals and research how they can be used to solve pressing medical needs. “We want to tap into nature, identify the plant-derived compounds that activate a protein called peroxisomeproliferator activated receptor gamma and thereby decrease inflammation,” Bassaganya-Riera said. “This is all part of BioTherapeutics’ mission. We should be able to improve diseases, both chronic and other infections, without the significant side effects that synthetic drugs have.” Bassaganya-Riera spoke extensively about the effects that obesity-related inflammation has on type II diabe-
tes, which typically comes with age. Common drugs such as Avandia are popular for treatment, which activate a PPR Gamma, but also have significant side effects. “Low-grade chronic inflammation is very much linked to obesity,” Bassaganya-Riera said. “We found that the plant hormone abscisic acid, a newly discovered naturally occurring agonist of PPAR gamma, decreased inflammation and improved diabetes significantly with no side effects.” According to many researchers, an influenza epidemic is forecasted for the coming years. BioTherapeutics is also working on the development of immune modulatory compounds and antivirals. This will hopefully allow individuals to be able to react against the virus, while more importantly withstanding the initial response. “Another one of our goals is to develop nutraceuticals that improve vaccine efficacy,” Bassaganya-Riera said. “For instance, during an influenza virus epidemic we want to minimize inflammation in the lungs and increase antiviral immune responses. This could be achieved with the right combination of naturally occurring immune modulators.” Little changes in everyday life, more specifically in diet, can help decrease the likelihood of type II diabetes and other chronic inflammatory diseases. “Diet and exercise are important, but diet is more broad than just decreasing calories,” Bassaganya-Riera said. “Eating good quality food and making sure you’re exposed to a balanced diet in terms of milk, cereal, vegetables and concentrations of vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants are important.” “Students should try to be as successful as possible — work hard, and try to make a difference in society,” Bassaganya-Riera said. “It’s not only what we eat or our health, but how we contribute in a meaningful way to making a better society.”
MINA NOORBAKHSH/COLLEGIATE TIMES
Town forum discusses university drinking GORDON BLOCK
ct news reporter Alcohol policy and neighborhood relations were at the forefront of the Forum on Alcohol-Influenced Behavior, which took place yesterday evening at the Blacksburg Municipal Building. Recently appointed vice president of student affairs Ed Spencer, along with Deputy Town Manager for Blacksburg Steve Ross led the evening’s discussion. Other members of the panel included assistant police chief Tom Foster; Sgt. Nathan O’Dell of the Blacksburg Police Department; Director for Tech’s Alcohol Abuse Prevention Center Steven Clarke; Byron Hughes from Tech’s Judicial Affairs; Town of Blacksburg Housing and Neighborhood Services Manager Matt Hanratty; Town of Blacksburg Director of Planning and Building Anne McClung; Katherine Lloyd of Tech’s Residence Life; and Steve Baffuto of Virginia ABC. At the forefront of discussion was the drinking policy of both Virginia Tech and Blacksburg. A lively discourse began when Virginia Tech Students for Sensible Drug Policy president Kristopher Reinertson asked the panel about the Amethyst Initiative, a petition signed by over 130 college presidents to reopen the discussion on the legal drinking age. Tech officials were less than positive about the initiative. One major reason was the safety risks of having a lower drinking age. “There has been a reduction in the number of fatalities for people age 16 to 21 since the increase to the drinking age,” Foster said. Foster also expressed concern for a trickle-down effect to high schoolers should the drinking age be lowered to 18. “There’s a very large number of eighteen-year olds that are in high school, that when the age is lowered, have access to alcohol,” Foster said. “Their peer groups, of course, are 17, 16, 15, and 14 years old.” However, officials such as Spencer noted the vast changes in the drinking culture from past years to now. “I regret that the kind of experience in respect to alcohol that students have today is so different from what many of us had when we were in college,” Spencer said. “The drinking age was 18, and it was a natural part of the environment, and we drank pretty responsibly.” Spencer noted the casual and relaxed nature of drinking during his college days. “We even had at my fraternity house deans come over for wine socials on Friday afternoons,” Spencer said. “Can you imagine that today?” That said, Spencer was pessimistic about the possibilities to change the legal drinking age back to 18. “I think changing it back is going to be a real challenge. Doing so in many ways is sort of like fighting against motherhood and apple
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