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An independent, student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
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COLLEGIATETIMES 107th year, issue 21
News, page 2
Features, page 5
Opinions, page 3
Sports, page 6
Classifieds, page 4
Sudoku, page 4
Better late than never
Legislators target K-12 schools in budget cuts LIANA BAYNE & ZACH CRIZER ct news staff Virginia’s proposed budget has met resistance from supporters of K-12 education and health care as state legislators have laid out competing plans that would slash funding. The state must somehow address a two-year, $4 billion deficit. Both the Senate and the House of Delegates have proposed plans that would cut more from public school funding than former Gov. Tim Kaine proposed in December. Both plans also call for deeper cuts to public health care programs. Each chamber will vote on its own version on Thursday. The chambers will then attempt to compromise on the differences between the two plans. The House plan would cut a total of $1.5 billion more than what Kaine had proposed and would include an additional $620 million in cuts to public K-12 schools and $211 million from health and human services programs. The Senate would only cut $704 million from the proposed budget and would plan to take $133 million from education and $344 million from health and human resources. Neither house plans to cut more from higher education. Both plans also The world is eliminated a pronot going to posed 5 percent tax fall apart. What on student fee money public universities. we’ve got to do atVirginia21, a lobis figure out how bying group that we can best use cooperates with student government the dollars that groups in all Virginia are available. universities, hosted a lobbying day FRANK RUFF STATE SENATOR Thursday focused on ridding the proposal of the tax and maintaining current higher education funding levels. “I definitely think the trip made a difference because the student tax was something that was a big priority for Virginia21, and it’s something we all addressed in our meetings,” said Brittany Anderson, SGA director of governmental affairs. “I think our message was really carried loud and clear over the past couple of weeks during the General Assembly session, and I think it sends a really good message about where students priorities are and how much students care.” Sen. Frank Ruff, a Republican from the 15th district, said Thursday that every part of the budget is experiencing cuts and must ride out the economic recession. “The reality is this is an extremely bad year,” Ruff said. “This is the worst economy in our generation and your generation. The world is not going to fall apart. What we’ve got to do is figure out how we can best use the dollars that are available.” He emphasized the importance of new ideas that must come from tense budget negotiations. “Too frequently we just say, ‘OK, we did it last year and the year before, so we’re going to do it this year and add a little bit to it.’ Maybe that’s not the game plan we’ll be going with the next decade,” Ruff said. In a meeting with a leader from each represented school, Delegate Robert Tata said that while funding for higher education may be cut this year, he expects it to rebound next year. Tata, who serves as the chairman of the House of Delegates Arts and Higher Education subcommittee, also said proposed bills that would require Virginia universities to admit a certain proportion of their students from inside the state were unrealistic. Out-of-state students, who pay a higher tuition, make up a large funding base for state universities. Both plans also include plans to discontinue Kaine’s proposed car tax relief payments that would give $1.9 billion back to taxpayers.
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DANIEL LIN/SPPS
Eva Rettig, a junior at Blacksburg High School, tries to figure out when her classes are now going to be held. Classes resume today at 2 p.m. at Blacksburg Middle.
BEGINNING TODAY, BLACKSBURG HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS TO HOLD CLASSES AT MIDDLE SCHOOL IN EVENING HOURS ZACH CRIZER nrv news editor Blacksburg High School students are set to return to classes — but they will have a late lunch first. Students resume classes Tuesday afternoon at Blacksburg Middle School, more than a week after the roof of the high school’s gym collapsed. Meetings were held at the middle school Monday night to give students instructions
on how to operate in the modified schedule. High school classes will begin after the end of the middle school’s day ends at 2 p.m. There is a 28-minute transition time between the two schedules. The day will begin with a late lunch in what would have been the fifth class period. Students will then proceed to their first period. Classes will end at 7:15 p.m. High school students were out of school all of last week as officials created a plan to deal with the collapse, which has made the
high school building unsafe to occupy. At Monday’s meeting for upperclassmen, officials directed student drivers to park in an overflow lot near the middle school’s stadium. They are not allowed to park until 1:45 p.m. The change of schools also alters plans for students who do not drive. In addition to new bus schedules, the changes mean many who frequently arrived at school on foot will have to make new arrangements. “I have to drive to a friend’s house and walk from there,” said junior Conor Gallagher, who lives near the high school building on Patrick Henry Drive. However, walking is now an option for many students, such as senior Matthew
Harper, who lives in the Prices Fork area near the middle school. Officials also considered busing the displaced students to Christiansburg High School, but they decided in favor of the location of Blacksburg Middle School. Still, some students worry that certain programs offered at the high school will not be fully functional at the middle school. For example, the makeshift replacement does not have drafting tables to support the high school’s architectural drawing program. The schedule meets requirements for a five hour, 31 minute instructional day. “Truthfully, we’re not going to get home until 8 (p.m.),” Gallagher said. “The only real advantage is we get to sleep in.”
Shultz transformation to begin in summer NATHAN DENNY news staff writer Upcoming summer construction on Shultz Hall aims to transform Blacksburg into an arts center by 2013. Starting this summer, renovations will begin on the existing Shultz building, which is expected to house the new Center for the Arts by 2012. To be completed in 2013, construction will begin on an addition to the building. The cost of this project is estimated at $89 million, with the renovation taking about $29 million. “We’re going to have a 1,260 seat performing arts hall,” said Ruth Waalkes, the executive director for the Center of the Arts at Virginia Tech, “two different visual arts galleries, and we’ll have a series of applied research facilities.” The Arts Initiative at Virginia Tech, the university’s effort to enhance the presence and practice of arts at Tech, proposed this project to the university. The television studio of the Department of Communication, currently housed in Shultz, will be relocated during construction. It will have a new space in the upgraded building, which will also be home to another program, the Center for Creative Technologies in the Arts. Shultz Dining Center, traditionally a popular place to dine for the corps of cadets, will remain open during renovation until late 2012. After that, however, the dining center will be permanently closed and replaced by
COURTESY OF VIRGINIA TECH
The planned renovations for Shultz Hall will include the new Center for the Arts and are expected to be completed in a planned dining hall adjacent to the ICTAS building. “Any top-notch university in the country has a good venue of some kind for visual and performing arts,” said Sue Ott Rowlands, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. “I’m looking forward to not just having a nice building, but more importantly, having access to the kinds of cultural events ... that we haven’t had in the past.” Rowlands, who also sits on the building committee for this project, envisions the new center as the first step in making Blacksburg a destination for the arts by attracting new
guest performers to campus. The promotion of the arts on Tech’s campus has been a long-running initiative. President Charles Steger made it one of his priorities in his 2000 inaugural speech, and he pointed to the need for additional performing arts space. Sarah Edwards is a freshman music major and member of the Symphonic Wind Ensemble who voiced concern for current facilities. “The Recital Salon’s stage is really small, so it’s difficult for big group performances,” she said. “Haymarket Theatre doesn’t really have a large audience area. And in Burruss ... the
sound goes everywhere.” Edwards said the new 1,260-seat performance hall will be better suited for performing groups like the wind ensemble. Patricia Raun, director of the Performing Arts and Cinema Department, said she anticipates the building’s opening. “I am really looking forward to having a place on campus where my students and my colleagues and I can go to see world-class performing arts events and not have to drive to Washington, D.C., or Charlottesville,” she said.
Harrington family, friends to raise money with wristbands GORDON BLOCK news reporter Friends of slain Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington are preparing the sale of wristbands to raise money in her name for charity. The purple and green wristbands will feature Harrington’s name, a heart, and “241,” representing HARRINGTON the family’s slo-
gan, “I love you too much, forever, once more.” The wristbands are tentatively priced at $4. Proceeds from sales of the bands will be donated to Orphan Medical Network International. Erin Cole, a junior communication major at Tech, graduated from high school with Harrington. “We wanted to do something to contribute to a cause she believed in,” Cole said. Noting the success of wristbands such as the Livestrong bracelets for cancer research, Cole said wristbands
“were the perfect thing to do for Morgan.” Tony Liskey, a junior civil engineering major, spent $150 of his own money to create the initial order of 300 bracelets. Liskey serves as the administrator of a Facebook group organizing information about the bands. The group, titled “Morgan Harrington bracelets” had 1,112 members as of 8 p.m. yesterday. “We’re not sure if everybody’s looking to buy the wristband, but it shows they care about the cause,”
Cole said. “We’re going to try our hardest to get these out to everybody.” Plans are still underway to sell the bracelets in Blacksburg and the Roanoke area. Liskey said he has talked with administrators about potentially selling the bracelets either on the Drillfield or in Squires Student Center. Liskey said he hoped sales from the initial run of wristbands would generate around $1,000. Harrington, a junior education
major, went missing on Oct. 17, 2009 while attending a Metallica concert at the University of Virginia’s John Paul Jones Arena. Her body was uncovered Jan. 27, 2010 at a farm approximately 10 miles from the arena. The Harrington family announced in early February the formation of a scholarship in Morgan’s name to benefit the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. The Harrington family designated donations be made to the scholarship, along with OMNI.
in lieu of flowers
[ ] Scholarship donations may be mailed to: Virginia Tech, Attn: Gift Accounting, University Development (0336), Blacksburg, VA 24061. OMNI donations can be mailed to 6930 Empire Lane, Roanoke, VA 24018