Tuesday, November 8, 2011
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108th year, issue 112 News, page 2 Arts & Entertainment, page 5
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Recalculating education Virginia Tech’s net price calculator is intended to help students estimate the true cost of university attendance BY KELSEY JO STARR | news staff writer
B
rittney Moses recently realized college isn’t as expensive as she thought, with the help of a new tool Virginia Tech has to offer. The net price calculator, which is available on Tech’s website, helps students figure out accurate estimates of their cost of attendance at the university. Moses initially looked at similar estimates on college websites, adding money to those numbers for personal expenses. But to her surprise, the extra costs were significantly reduced when she used the calculator. “The daily costs aren’t what (the other websites) said they were,” Moses, a freshman human development major, said. “Everything’s either on my meal plan or included in my tuition.” Websites like College Board state that costs of attendance are much higher than they turn out to be, which can deter students from applying to some universities. The calculator is intended to help solve that problem. The calculator uses a base number for the average cost of attendance at Tech, not the university bill amount, said Barry Simmons, the Office of University Scholarships and Financial Aid director. As students enter more information, the number adjusts, providing them with a more personal estimate for the costs of attending Tech. The calculator takes into account financial aid, residency, student living plans, family financial history
and more to produce the estimate. The base number consists of tuition and fees, a room and board charge regardless of whether a student is on campus, and various allowances for travel and personal expenses. An extra expense for computer and software fees is factored in for first-year students. And finally, the net price is calculated by subtracting estimated financial aid awards. Before financial aid estimates are taken into account, the average cost of attendance for in-state students is about $22,000 per year, a number produced from the calculator. Tech implemented the calculator as part of the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, which required colleges that participate in Title IV federal student aid programs to have their own calculators by Oct. 29, according to the Institute of Education Sciences website. Tech launched its calculator on Oct. 26, according to the Financial Aid office. However, Simmons said this is not the final solution to financial aid issues. “This is a consumer movement long in the making to make the issue of college choosing more transparent,” Simmons said. “Unfortunately because of the variability, between the way colleges do things and between the way people understand the college process, the whole effort is amiable but is rife with particular problems.” The net price, he said, is more than
the university bill students will pay, regardless of financial aid, because of extra costs for personal expenses. Extra costs can sometimes scare parents and students because of the sudden jump in cost, especially for incoming freshmen. “A lot of people, when they see the words ‘net price,’ jump to thinking, ‘That’s what my bill’s going to be,’ and that’s not the case,” Simmons said. “If we can get the right understanding of the terminology, that’s good. I’m all for being transparent. There are instances were institutions are not as forthcoming or transparent as they should be in letting students know what their financial aid is going to be.” Shelley Blumenthal, a guidance counselor at Blacksburg High School, said she likes that the calculator includes extra costs because it provides a more accurate estimate for the amount students will pay when attending Tech. “I like the fact that you can plug something in and get an early read on what possible costs are going to have to be taken into account,” he said. “I see it as being a very positive thing because one of the things that used to happen that students and parents would just see the sticker cost and didn’t look beyond to see the net cost after financial aid.” Blumenthal has already been encouraging students to use the calculator. He also plans to introduce it at various college nights and financial aid workshops throughout the year. To find the calculator, visit the Tech cost of attendance webpage at admiss.vt.edu/cost.php, and click the “Net Price Calculator” header on the right hand side.
Student X 18 years old In-state
A student returns to his car in the Perry Street parking garage as the sun sets. Students are adjusting to an earlier sunset in Blacksburg after the shift to standard time on Nov. 6.
standard tuition estimate:
photo by Daniel Lin
news reporter At its last meeting of the year, the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors approved a new nuclear engineering program, discussed university expansion and passed a resolution regarding Blacksburg water Monday, among other things. The program is significant because nuclear energy is seen as a possible green solution to problems the world is facing, including global warming and its carbon footprint, said Larry Hincker, university spokesman. If the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia approves the program, Tech will offer master's and doctorate degrees in nuclear engineering in spring 2013. The doctorate program will be the first of its kind in Virginia. “We believe that this will sail through because there is a lot of demand for this,” Hincker said. “This is partially a reflection of what is happening in the industry.” The Financial and Audit Committee gave its annual report on the student financial aid program at the university. According to the report, financial aid given has increased by about $50 million since FY 08-09. About $342.2 million was given in financial aid in 2008-09. In FY 10-11, that figure increased to $390 million. The university also saw an increase in aid from grants, scholarships and waivers by $40
million between the two fiscal periods. The BOV also discussed expanding the amount of students at Tech, a move that would bring in additional revenue for the university, but also stretch its capacity. “There has been this big question of should the university grow and should they bring more students in,” said Michelle McLeese, a graduate representative to the BOV and a doctorate student. McLeese said the graduate student community would like to expand and bring in more students. “We want more graduate peers, and we want to have a bigger community,” McLeese said. “We’re interested in manifesting graduate culture more throughout the university.” Matthew Banfield, a theater arts major and undergraduate representative to the BOV disagreed, saying overcrowding in classrooms is a problem. Banfield also said academic advising is a common issue among students. And it will be more difficult for students to find time to meet with advisors if the university expands. “It’s a two way street with the advisor’s responsibilities to the students and the students' responsibility to reach out to their advisors,” Banfield said. “There are a lot of good resources on campus already, but they just need some marketing attention to make the students realize that see BOV / page two
Family income of $50,000 to $ 59,000
tuition calculator estimate:
$17,364 $13,394
BOV approves new engineering degree CODY OWENS
Oldest child Family of 4
VICTORIA ZIGADLO / COLLEGIATE TIMES
Physician charged in Jackson death HARRIET RYAN &VICTORIA KIM mcclatchy newspapers A Los Angeles jury convicted Michael Jackson’s personal physician of involuntary manslaughter, concluding a trial that offered a glimpse of the last days of one of the world’s most famous men by deciding that his death was a criminal act. The verdict was delivered Monday in a windowless downtown courtroom a world away from the turreted Holmby Hills mansion where Dr. Conrad Murray had a $150,000-a-month position that included providing what the pop star called “milk” — the surgical anesthetic that ultimately claimed his life. With its verdict, the jury found that Murray acted with criminal negligence and that those actions were a substantial factor in Jackson’s 2009 death. The panel rejected the defense assertion that Jackson gave himself a fatal overdose of propofol and therefore bore complete responsibility for his own death. Immediately after the verdict, Murray was placed in handcuffs at the direction of the trial judge, to remain in custody pending his Nov. 29 sentencing. “This is a crime where the end result was the death of a human being. That factor demands rather dramatically that the public should be protected,” Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor said. The cardiologist, who had once told patients that working for
Jackson was “the opportunity of a lifetime,” faces a maximum penalty of four years in state prison. The stern approach Pastor took in sending Murray to jail rather than releasing him on bail suggested the minimum sentence of probation is unlikely. Authorities in Texas and Nevada are expected to revoke his medical licenses. The California Medical Board suspended his license earlier this year. After the verdict, Murray’s jury consultant, John G. McCabe, said the doctor’s biggest challenge had been the intense coverage of the singer’s death. Of the nearly 150 citizens in the jury pool, every one said they had heard of the case against Murray. He noted that propofol, unknown outside of anesthesiology circles the day Jackson died, quickly entered the common vocabulary as “that powerful, dangerous surgical anesthetic.” “Would the verdict have come out the way it did if there hadn’t been two years of pretrial publicity? We’ll never know,” he said. Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley denied that the case was brought only because it involved Jackson and said the office would prosecute any doctor. “To the extent that someone dies as a result of their being a so-called Dr. Feelgood, they will be held accountable,” Cooley said. Deputy District Attorney David Walgren, the lead prosecutor, echoed a theme of his own summation.
Jackson, he said, was “not a pop icon but a son and a brother, and that’s most important to keep in mind today.” The verdict came on the second day of deliberations and was read to a packed courtroom that included Jackson’s parents, some of his siblings and devoted fans. As a court clerk pronounced the word guilty, there was a gasp from the singer’s family. Across the aisle, Murray’s mother sat stoically while other supporters sobbed. During the six-week proceedings, prosecutors painted Murray as greedy and incompetent and accused him of abandoning his medical judgment in complying with Jackson’s request to be given the anesthetic propofol to put him to sleep. Murray, prosecutors said, acted not as a medical professional but as an employee, corrupting the “hallowed” doctor-patient relationship. Witnesses testified to many egregious medical missteps — giving propofol in an unmonitored setting, fumbling at basic resuscitation, keeping no records — failures that experts said directly led to Jackson’s overdose. As Jackson stopped breathing and suffered cardiac arrest under the influence of propofol, jurors were told, the doctor chatted on the phone and sent and received email and text messages. He delayed calling for help and lied to paramedics and emergency doctors, witnesses said. Central to the government’s case
were the doctor’s own words from a police interview two days after Jackson’s death. In the 2 1/2-hour tape, Murray admitted to giving the singer the propofol — caving after Jackson repeatedly begged for it, he said — as well as two other drugs earlier in the day. Admissions in the interview were enough evidence of the doctor’s guilt, medical experts testified. But the prosecution’s star witness also said levels of the drug found during an autopsy showed Murray probably gave 40 times as much propofol as he told police. The doctor’s defense said Jackson died by his own hand when the star, nervous about performing and addicted to a painkiller that rendered him completely unable to sleep, swallowed a sedative and injected himself with propofol. No defense witness, however, addressed head-on a point the prosecution’s medical experts repeatedly drove home: that even if Jackson gave himself the drugs, Murray was equally liable for leaving his patient in a situation where he could. Throughout the trial, fans who once staked out Jackson’s home lined the court hallways, huddling around laptops and mobile devices to watch the proceedings. During closing arguments, they cried, prayed and cheered along with the prosecutor’s closing and hissed at the defense attorney’s summation. Prosecutors were often greeted with thundering applause in the halls.