Thursday, March 28, 2013 Print Edition

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Thursday, March 28, 2013

An independent, student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903 www.collegiatetimes.com

COLLEGIATETIMES Features, page 5

Opinions, page 3

Sports, page 6 PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY BRAD KLODOWSKI / SPPS

109th year, issue 91 News, page 2

Study Break, page 4

Take Back the Night marches for safety

BRAD KLODOWSKI / SPPS

In previous years, the event has been held on the Drillfield.

Law allows restrictive membership BY MELISSA DRAUDT | news staff writer

On July 1, Virginia public colleges will not be able to punish organizations that deny membership to certain students A new Virginia law on student organizations at public colleges is rousing feedback from critics and causing student groups at Virginia Tech to take public action. The law, passed last week, would give student organizations the ability to base membership decisions off of whether a person’s religious or political beliefs align with those of the organization. The law states that religious or political based student groups can decide that “only people committed to the organization’s mission” are allowed to join or run for leadership positions. Public universities are prohibited from “discriminating against a student organization that makes such a determination” about its core functions.

ALL-COMERS EFFECTS ON THE U.S.

KEY States with bans on all-comers policies

States in the process of banning all-comers policies States where all-comers policy has caused controversy

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ news editor

The Take Back the Night Rally and March celebrates its 24th annual event Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Virginia Tech Graduate Life Center Plaza. Womanspace, a feminist

DONAL MURPHY Some, though, are questioning the motives of those supporting the bill, and are concerned about the effects it will have on the LGBT community and religious groups especially. “I think it’s a well-crafted way to allow student organizations to discriminate,” said Caroline Sapyta, junior environ-

2. No public institution of higher education ... shall discriminate against any such student organization or group that exercises its rights... § 23-9.2: 12

mental resource management major and president of the LGBTA. Michael Sutphin, member of the Blacksburg Town Council, board member at Equality Virginia and Virginia Tech alumnus, agreed. “On its surface, the bill is written to see LAW / page two

AT-A-GLANCE

• Ohio passed a state-wide "all-comers" ban last year. • Vanderbilt University adopted an all-comers policy last year, causing fifteen Christian groups to lose access to campus facilities and student-fee funding after refusing to confirm the policy. • The InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at the University of Buffalo was suspended in 2011 for requiring elected leaders to sign a faith-based agreement and asking one of its leaders to resign due to his sexual orientation. • At UNC-Greensboro controversy ensued when officials deemed a Christian pro-life group as non-religious and required it to adopt the school's all-comers policy. • The legislation in Tennessee is in response to the issue with the all-comers policy at Vanderbilt. It passed unanimously in the House on Wednesday.

Man’s best friend: Pets reduce stress MADELEINE GORDON features reporter

COURTESY OF KELLY UNDERWOOD

Robyn Fox squats next to her dog Kaiya, allowing students to interact with them during their study break. veterinary medicine commu- might come across. a broad definition, Kobylinski nity, and trains their pets for After taking the training said. PAWS has programs in therapy work. The pets must course, which was designed local nursing homes, elementake a six-week training class, by the College of Veterinary tary schools, libraries and at which teaches skills like greet- Medicine specifically for Tech through both Newman ing a friendly stranger and PAWS, the animal therapists Library and Cook Counseling walking politely on a leash must pass an exam before Center. and desensitizes animals to beginning therapy work. see PAWS / page five any medical equipment they For PAWS, therapy work has

and activist organization on campus, is hosting the event with the purpose of raising awareness of violence against women, specifically sexual harassment, misogyny, rape and murder. “There are issues that we need to change, and that see RALLY / page two

Diggs Week inspires teaching innovations

No information available

1. A religious or political student organization may determine that ordering the organization’s internal affairs, selecting the organization’s leaders and members, defining the organization’s doctrines, and resolving the organization’s disputes are in furtherance of the organization’s religious or political mission and that only persons committed to that mission should conduct such activities; and

Dog really can be man’s best friend. Or at least that’s the idea behind animal-assisted therapy. With the hope of introducing the local community to the benefits of animal assisted therapy, the VirginiaMaryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine faculty and students created the organization Virginia Tech Helping Pet Assisted Wellness Service, or PAWS. You might be familiar with PAWS if you’ve ever seen dogs in the lobby of Newman Library. According to Abby Kobylinski, co-chair of the organization and veterinary medicine student, library visits have become very popular — but she says PAWS has much more than that to offer to the community. “The mission of VT Helping PAWS is to bring a spiritual and emotional healing to people in the community through the work of animals,” Kobylinski said. According to Kobylinski, PAWS takes people from the

Rally celebrates 24 years on campus and aims to raise awareness of violence against women

news reporter

From yoga exercises to acting classes, educators are embarking on new teaching techniques thanks to Diggs Week. Virginia Tech’s Diggs Teach i ng Schola r Association is celebrating the first ever Diggs Week between March 25 and March 29 to promote innovation in the classrooms. The association, named after Tech alumnus Edward Singleton Diggs, is headed by Terry Cobb, an associate professor in the Department of Management and winner of the Diggs Teaching Scholar Award last year. “What we’re trying to do is celebrate, promote and publicize teaching with innovation on the campus,” Cobb said. “We’re encouraging professors to try something new in their classes.” The week has no events or traditional celebrations, but rather has professors register with the association and propose innovative methods to will use in their classrooms. The association then thanks and recognizes all professors involved, and awards three of them $500 for implementing their innovative proposals. Cobb won the award by encouraging students to work in self-managed project teams that worked on their own with external clients. These teams work with various regional and local organizations such as Goodwill, the New River Valley clinic and others to help them establish an online presence. These project teams are all part of Pamplin’s Productivity and Quality Leadership class. This year Alan Abrahams, assistant professor of business information technology; Shelli Fowler, executive director of English graduate programs and pedagogies of English; and Susanna Rinehart, associate professor of cinema and theater won the award. Fowler won for teaching

students about managing their d i g it a l footprint through o n l i n e civil activ- ABRAHAMS ity. Rinehart won for her plans to hold workshops for professors, helping them use acting methods to maintain student interest in classes. Abrahams won for his work in expeditionary learning, which is a process of setting a large, multi-layered goal and dividing the class into groups who break up that goal and form a final product. For example, Abrahams’ class was able to use this process to create an online business guide for e-commerce ventures. “My proposal to them was that I undertake expeditionary learning on a new domain, which was text analytics, an emerging technology area. This is an approach that I’ve tried and tested,” Abrahams said, who first gained reputation for his use of expeditionary learning to create the Online Business Guide. The end goal for the Diggs funding in Abrahams’ class is the creation of the Pamplin Text Analytics Toolbox. This is intended for all departments at Tech to easily be able to fi nd information from online text sources. While no longer required, former winners such as Cobb maintain innovation in their classes. Cobb uses his experience with yoga to teach breathing exercises to maintain low stress in his class. He hopes that the innovation will continue with this Diggs week and those to come. “I just hope that next year we can get not just faculty involved in nominating innovative teachers during Diggs week, but we hope to enlist students to help us recognize the teachers they think are particularly innovative as well,” Cobb said. Follow the writer on Twitter: @MalloryNoePayne


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