How did FSU’s big win hurt the ACC? see page 5
An independent, student-run newspaper serving the Virginia Tech community since 1903 www.collegiatetimes.com
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
COLLEGIATETIMES 110th year, issue 35
News, page 2
Lifestyles, page 5
Opinions, page 3
Sports, page 5
Dare to step into St. Albans BY MEGAN BURPO | lifestyles staff writer
I
magine spending the night in an abandoned insane asylum. But this isn’t a movie. It isn’t even just a Halloween trick. It’s St. Alban’s Sanatorium, home to ghost tours, haunted houses and zombie simulations. The house has a long life enclosed in its four walls and neighboring riverbanks that is rich in history and paranormal activity. St. Albans was first home to the Powhatan, Shawnee and Cherokee Indians, and is also the site of the 1775 Draper’s Meadow Massacre. In 1892, St. Albans Lutheran Boy’s school was formed, and eventually the house was converted into a hospital for the mentally ill in 1916. Administrator of St. Albans, Jessica Wright, has been working at St. Albans for two years and was a volunteer for a year beforehand. “We do what we do to keep the building running and the history alive,” Wright said. “Good or bad memories, every person that passes through here works to honor
the past.” Wright and her family have been a part of the Mountain Ridge Paranormal Research Society for the past eight years and have always held paranormal activity at the center of their lives. St.Albans became a place to investigate paranormal activity in 2011, when a team of investigators set out to prove the house’s worth and rich history. When the house first opened, controversy was stirred at the thought of using an old insane asylum to run a haunted house. However, Wright explained that no harm was intended and any publication of the house’s old occupation was simply a marketing strategy. “I knew nothing about business; I ran a daycare before this and worked as a volunteer,” Wright said. “All I knew was that this was the last chance we had to prove ourselves and this house, so I did anything I could to be noticed.” see HOUSE / page six
lifestyles editor
CAMERON AUSTIN / COLLEGIATE TIMES St. Albans Sanatorium is open for the Halloween season for historical, photography and haunted house tours.
more info The ghost hunts at St. Albans are private paranormal investigations open to groups of 10 or more and cost $60 per person. The hunts start at 8 p.m. and last through the night until 4 a.m.
DEAN SEAL
NEWS
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news staff writer
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map key proposed construction sites main roads campus
the public input meeting, VDOT Project Manager Phillip Hammack said that most of the comments had been very positive, with most attendees simply being content with a plan that would eliminate
New showerheads expected to save millions of gallons CARMEN LODATO
Proposed Southgate Construction
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Future Hokies and Blacksburg residents may not have to suffer through game-day traffic congestion that typically plagues U.S. 460. The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) held a public input meeting on Monday night for their latest project to replace the existing intersection of U.S. 460 and Southgate Drive with a more efficient interchange. VDOT is calling the new interchange the Southgate Connector, and while plans were developed for it in 2011, the need for improvements to the existing intersection has been a regional priority since 2002. The project is estimated to cost $46.7 million, is expected to begin in 2015 and will require roughly 24-30 months of construction. The project is intended to improve safety at this .925-mile section of the U.S. 460 bypass while reducing the traffic congestion that typically builds up at the intersection due to its traffic lights and reduced speed limit. With dozens of community members attending
the current traffic pattern caused by the traffic light at the intersection. Public input from the meeting will play a role in redesigns to the project. see SOUTHGATE / page two
LIFESTYLES
Virginia Tech took another stride toward sustainability this summer when Housing and Residence Life replaced 266 showerheads in 21 residence halls. Traditional showerheads were replaced with more energy and water efficient models that use 2.5 gallons of water per minute, compared to the 3.5 gallons that previous traditional models used. Before this summer, a limited number of low-flow models were installed in a few residence halls. A student in Slusher Hall noticed these low-flow showerheads and submitted a proposal to Green RFP, a program that takes student sustainability projects and puts them into action. The proposal was originally only for Slusher Hall, but was later extended to more residence halls. “After we looked at the cost of putting the showerheads in Slusher we asked what was required to extend this idea to other buildings, and other residence halls,” said Denny Cochrane, sustainability program manager. Thousands of students
The new showerheads will cut the universities water bill down $45,000. living in residence halls may not have noticed the small change, but it’s slated to save about 23 million gallons of water. This initiative will also cut down the university’s water bill by $45,000 a year. “We wanted to install these showerheads across the whole outfit to reduce water consumption,” said Tim Gift, associate director for facilities management. The new showerheads are longer and sit lower— a negative point for taller students. “We’ve gotten some negative feedback on how low they are, especially in some of the older buildings where the showerheads are situated lower on the wall,” Gift said. Installation of new showerheads went smoothly and wrapped up before students returned to campus this fall.
In the event of a zombie apocalypse, don’t lose your head — literally and figuratively. Thinking clearly is imperative to surBROOKS vival, said Max Brooks, the best-selling author of 2003’s “Zombie Survival Guide” and 2009’s “World War Z.” Brooks is making a stop in Blacksburg to share his wealth of knowledge on the fictional but real-world applicable topic. He will be presenting “10 Lessons for Surviving a Zombie Attack” tonight at 7:30 in the Haymarket Theatre in Squires Student Center. Brooks, who majored in history at Pitzer College, started his career in comedy as a writer for Saturday Night Live (SNL) but soon realized his passion for more serious writing and the living dead.
“
Well the truth is, the images that I came up with don’t haunt me half as much as the research.” Max Brooks “World War Z” author
Around the time of Y2K, when survival guides were flying off the shelf, Brooks noticed an absence of zombie “how-to” manuals. That’s when he set out to answer his own questions about a potential undead epidemic with a detailed, wellresearched zombie survival guide. His novel “World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War” was a follow-up to his “Zombie Survival Guide” and offers a picture of how the world would react. The novels, which Brooks said he wrote out of fear of the undead and the unknown, were not only a huge success in the book industry, but they were a personal success for Brooks. The Collegiate Times spoke with Brooks about his best-selling novels, his future plans and what he thought of Brad Pitt’s take on “World War Z.” Collegiate Times: Where did you get the idea for “World War Z?” Brooks: That came about a year after “Zombie Survival Guide” was published. I wanted to write another zombie story, but every zombie story I had ever seen were all sort of basic, small group survival stories — all basically the same story … Those stories are great, but I had a lot of questions that nobody was answering. see ZOMBIE/ page two
ONLINE Women’s soccer won a nailbiter against Wake Forest before sailing past Pitt.
Some students spent their fall break getting doused in colored corn starch. see page 2 see page 6
info on the go
SPORTS Check out last-minute and affordable Halloween costume ideas and decorations inspired by Pinterest.
When will Blacksburg see snow? It may be sooner than you think. see page 2
‘World War Z’ author shares how to survive zombie attack MADELEINE GORDON
Construction proposed to Southgate entrance news editor
Study Break, page 4
see page 5
Check online for a video of last weekend’s Bug Fest www.collegiatetimes.com