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An independent, student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903 www.collegiatetimes.com
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
COLLEGIATETIMES 110th year, issue 24
News, page 2
Lifestyles, page 7
Opinions, page 5
Muskets to Manuscripts BY DANIELLE BUYNAK | managing editor
Tucked away in the bottom floor of Newman Library, Special Collections houses fragments of history.
Sports, page 4
Study Break, page 4
TUESDAY MORNING TAKEAWAYS
Thomas propels offense to fast start
L
ess than 200 feet away from the University Bookstore on campus sits a first edition of James Joyce’s “Ulysses,” an 1861 Civil War musket and Michael Collins’ copy of the flight plan for Apollo 11. The pieces are only fractions of what makes up Special Collections — a distinct arm of the Virginia Tech library, founded in 1970, that houses a unique set of archives. Special Collections boasts up to 1,900 different manuscript collection sets and over 18,000 cubic feet of paper documents. Marc Brodsky, the public services and reference archivist for Special Collections, estimates the number of books in the collection to hit at right about 47,000, with more in storage. Paper documents and books are the main resources within the collections: a serialized first edition of Charles Dickens, an 18th century bill of sale for a slave and a lifesized book of bird drawings by John James Audubon (and accompanying furniture) are among its greatest hits. In addition to books, Special Collections is also home to a variety of non-document based artifacts, ranging from Civil War-era armament to photos of historic Blacksburg to oral histories to a car hood decorated
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TREVOR WHITE / SPPS
D.J. Coles (18) caught Tech’s first score of the game Thursday. JACOB EMERT sports editor
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3 KEVIN DICKEL / SPPS
1. The reading Room offers a quiet environment for studying artifacts. 2. Special Collections contains 47,000+ books, some dating back to the 15th century. 3. Prohibition-era advertisement still stands after careful preservation. 4. Archivists occasionally receive 4 artifacts with unusual contents, pictured here, a lock of human hair.
see SPECIAL / page two
Downtown businesses offer October discounts ERICA CORDER news staff writer
Th roughout the month of October, Hokie Passport holders will enjoy downtown Blacksburg at 10-20 percent off. For the fift h year, “30 Days of Blacksburg” will bring discounts from 26 local merchants to Virginia Tech students. The tradition was initiated by a partnership between Virginia Tech’s Student Government Association (SGA) and Downtown Blacksburg, Inc. Chantal Ghoussoub recalls her first time finding out about the event. “I remember I heard about 30 Days when I was a sophomore. I’m one of those people that’s always on the lookout for freebies and discounts — I’m that Groupon gal. I got my friends to go downtown with me and we used up a ton of the discounts. We really liked it. I’m planning on going again this year. I’m really a big fan of it,” Ghoussoub said.
NEWS
Now, Ghoussoub organizes the event as SGA director of community initiatives, a subgroup that strives to make sure the SGA “isn’t only there to service students.” “One of the big initiatives of the Student Government Association is to service our local community, and so they were finding, around five or six years ago, that they weren’t doing all that they could to service our community, even though they had events such as Relay (for Life) and Big Event that were started in SGA,” Ghoussoub said. “They wanted to give back to the community in a larger way, and we wanted to do it through monetary means, so (30 Days of Blacksburg) was invented.” SGA also recognized that vendors are not able to advertise on campus per campus policy. To compensate, the group came up with the idea of a month-long advertisement campaign. see DAYS / page two
MELISSA DRAUDT news reporter
Tech community members gathered Sunday to spend quality time with officers at the second annual Virginia Tech Police Department Community Day. From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., more than 100 people attended the event on the Drillfield for demonstrations, activities and free food. Throughout the day there were opportunities for members of the community to observe K9 demonstrations, soak officers in a dunk tank, simulate driving while texting or under the influence and participate in a doughnut eating contest. VTPD Community Day changed things up this year by having the event fall on Parent’s Weekend, as well as during an open house for prospective students. Junior finance and accounting major, Kylie Gilbert, attended the event with her mother, who was in town for parent’s weekend.
CATIE CARRERAS / SPPS
The Hokie Bird goes for a ride during the Virginia Tech Police Department’s Community Day festivities. “My mom wanted to go to it and we did all the activities,” Gilbert said. “She absolutely loved it, she thought it was very cool to see all the different pieces of emergency response out there and their demonstra-
tions.” According to Gilbert, the event is an important part of community development on campus. It shows “the Virginia Tech community the things that the emergency
SPORTS Where are all the female superheroes? Check out why one columnist thinks they should have a place in Hollywood.
Check out where you’ll find deals downtown this week for 30 Days of Blacksburg. see page 2
see TMT/ page four
Tech police host Community Day
OPINIONS
Need to see the arrests from this past weekend? see page 8
Virginia Tech’s 17-10 win over the previously-undefeated Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Thursday night reinforced what many already knew about the Hokies. The defense is among the nation’s best, the offense has potential and the special teams is continuing to be a liability. Marathon, not a sprint Tech’s offense has been notoriously slow to get going recently. Dating back to last year’s Russell Athletic Bowl against
Rutgers, the Hokies have totaled three yards on their opening four drives. Saturday, however, was a change of pace. After recovering a fumble on the Yellow Jackets’ opening possession, the Hokies found themselves in perfect position to strike first. On Tech’s second play, quarterback Logan Thomas found receiver D.J. Coles on a short crossing pattern. Coles, with room to run, scampered across the goal line for a touchdown. “It’s always nice to jump on (Georgia Tech) early,” Thomas said.
response teams do… and breaks down the barrier between what people think of as ‘scary cops’ and the average community member,” Gilbert said. see VTPD / page two
ONLINE The men’s soccer team battled No. 16 Clemson to a scoreless draw on Friday night for another big ACC surprise.
Check online for constant updates throughout the day. www.collegiatetimes.com
CollegiateTimes @collegiatetimes
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