September 29, 2006Task force on race at Virginia Tech meets with studentsThursday night's meeting between Virginia Tech's newly formed Taskforce on Race and the Institution and students was devoid of the contentiousness of the meeting last spring that led to its creation. Members of the task force posed questions about the racial climate on campus during a two-hour session. Students discussed everything from social isolation to classroom segregation created by some professors to the way they felt when seeing few minorities during campus tours. One criticism of the task force came from Tech student Devin Stone, who asked for transparency from the task force and questioned if its meetings would be open to the public. Wayne Scales, a Tech engineering professor who is chair of the task force said the meetings would not be open to the public, insisting he wasn't trying to hide anything. Continue reading "Task force on race at Virginia Tech meets with students" » September 26, 2006Reforms to improve college access to poor picking up steamUVa's move yesterday to end early decision was yet another sign that schools are becoming more conscious about economic diversity - or lack thereof. Known for both its academic rigor and its preppy popped collars, UVa typically finds itself atop lists for public school selectivity and at the bottom in economic diversity. Officials there hope that eliminating the early decision program, which locks in students who apply early regardless of the financial aid package, will lead to more spots opening up for students who can't pay their way and typically need to compare college costs before deciding where to go. While UVa is the first school in the state to go this route, it isn't the only Virginia school where students from low-income families are nearly non existent. Continue reading "Reforms to improve college access to poor picking up steam" » September 21, 2006Who's responsible for keeping Virginia Tech green?I heard an interesting presentation from a couple of students at a faculty senate meeting I attended last week. They came to gauge faculty support for a student fee that would help Virginia Tech be more enviornmentally friendly and energy efficient. They sited an impressive list of figures: For an annual cost of $330,000 the university could acheive a return on investment of 28 percent, lowering energy bills and water consumption through things like new light bulbs and more efficient water infrastructure. The students' arguments appear to have been well received by some of their peers. Last spring the Student Government Association and the Graduate Student Assembly passed resolutions of support of a plan that could add $6 a semester for this "green fee." Continue reading "Who's responsible for keeping Virginia Tech green?" » September 20, 2006Kiplinger's ranks affordability of collegesIn case you haven't seen enough rankings, Kiplinger's Personal Finance came out with its annual rankings of the most affordable colleges. As usual, Virginia schools fared well, though not as well as last year. UVa and William and Mary maintained their No. 3 and 4 positions but Virginia Tech dropped from 20th to 22nd. James Madison dropped from 17th to 24th. The biggest (and only) winner of the group was the University of Mary Washington, which climbed from 22nd to 16th. September 19, 2006Princeton joins Harvard in ending early admissionsIt didn't take long for a second Ivy League school to follow Harvard University's lead in eliminating the early admissions option that many in higher education say is skewed in favor of wealthy students. Because most early admissions programs require students to agree to attend a school before they can compare financial aid packages, some see them as unfair to lower income students. Officials also saw the early admissions process as adding adding to the mania surrounding applying to college. Many schools have higher acceptance rates among early applicants, furthering the inequity in the system in favor of savvy students who receive more guidance from their high school officials on ways to get into selective universities. Virginia Tech's director of admissions Norrine Bailey Spencer wasn't surprised to hear that Princeton University joined Harvard in the move to end the process. Continue reading "Princeton joins Harvard in ending early admissions" » September 13, 2006Harvard to end early admissionEarlier this week Harvard University announced plans to end its early admission program starting with the fall 2008 freshman class. The idea behind the move is that early admission gives an advantage to wealthier students who are often more informed about the process and aren't concerned with committing to a prestigious school early because they don't have to compare financial aid packages. While this notion has been discussed for years, Harvard is the first prestigious university to announce an end to the practice. Harvard doesn't require a commitment from students who apply early, so it doesn't sound like this is a big deal in and of itself. But judging by some of the comments in the wake of the announcement, many higher education officials think Harvard could set off a trend of other schools - some which do require a commitment - dropping the option. There's also the matter of the move being a step in the direction of easing some of the application craziness that permeates high schools across the country. Virginia Tech's director of scholarships and financial aid Barry Simmons said Tuesday that he was happy with the move. September 11, 2006Facebook responds to student protestsFacebook, the uber-popular college networking web site, is providing options for users to protect their privacy after a new feature it recently added angered thousands of students. The new "news feed" feature the site offers shows users any recent changes friends have made to their profiles -- be it changing relationship status, adding friends or joining groups. In what can only be classified as the definition of irony, some users may have opened up the site to find, via newsfeed, that their friends had joined a group called "Students against facebook news feed." The web site's creator reacted quickly and now students can decide if they'd like certain changes they make to their profiles blocked from the new function. What are your thoughts? Is this much ado about nothing since all of the information being provided on the news feed is available anyway or did Facebook cross the line in creating a feature that some users have referred to as "stalkerish"?
September 8, 2006Virginia colleges score poor in affordabilityThe National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education released a report Thursday on how Virginia colleges stack up in six categories: preparation, participation, affordability, completion, benefits and learning. The biennial report, which debuted in 2000, assigns letter grades to all 50 states and also compares the higher education system in the U.S. to other nations -- a hot topic for higher education folks and Thomas Friedman readers. Continue reading "Virginia colleges score poor in affordability" » September 7, 2006This is a test of the Emergency Alert System...As a response to the manhunt of William Morva on Aug. 21, Virginia Tech officials are debating whether to use a text messaging system to stay in touch with their students. One of my colleagues, Albert Raboteau, wrote about Tech's recent considerations. The discussions are coming on the heels of a rash of articles in recent months about how text messaging and instant messaging have taken the place of e-mail in the lives of the millennial generation. Here's just one I was able to find. (Unfortunately, I couldn't find an active link to the AP story that I think started all the flurry of writing about texting and IMing. If anybody has it lying around, please send it to us in the comments section.) Anyway, several universities around the country, including Penn State, have launched programs to begin using such systems. Penn State is working with e2Campus, one of a handful of companies who are trying to market their technology wares to universities. Another school that has already started to use the technology is Montclair State University in New Jersey. MSU's program started last year (2005-06), and I wrote about it at my previous paper when they first rolled out the new phones that were part of the package. There, students can use the tricked up cell phones to check where the shuttle buses are on their routes around campus, to get into their university e-mail accounts and also to receive text messages from the university about school-wide news. They also have the option of using a personal security device linked with the police department that is able to track a student's movement through a global positioning system. (The idea, for example, is that a student who goes jogging alone might want to put the security device on for the time of the run, in case of emergency.) All of these features sound like they might work well in getting students to sit up and pay attention to university happenings -- school closings because of weather, news about an upcoming rally or other event -- or even help with personal safety and peace of mind. But I do question how well they would work in a real, large-scale emergency. As many learned on Sept. 11, 2001, cell service was so jammed that the phones were almost useless. E-mail was the best way to stay in touch that day. When I was in New York City for the August 2003 blackout, none of my friends were able to use their mobile phones. I also heard from many students at Virginia Tech that they had spotty service throughout the day when Morva was running loose because of the overloading of the system with parents trying to call in. All of that makes me wonder if the service or networks would be able to handle the volume of the text messages that a university would want to send to its students in an emergency. Are the systems just providing a false sense of security? More on guns on campusSo apparently I'm not the only one who found it intriguing that a Virginia Tech student used the William Morva case to argue in the pages of the Roanoke Times that he should be able to carry a gun on campus. (See blog item from Aug. 31.) In Tuesday's paper, Larry Hincker (Tech's associate vice president for university relations) and Harry F. Hambrick Jr. (a Roanoke resident) both wrote that they were surprised about the comments of Bradford Wiles, a graduate student at Tech. They each argued that guns do not belong in the classroom, and Hambrick wrote that he was glad that his daughter (a college student herself) attended a school where carrying concealed weapons is prohibited. The quote that stood out for me most was Hambrick's: "The Morva incident was handled admirably by law enforcement. In response to Wile's (sic) implied question: Yes, I do expect you to rely, as everyone else does, on trained law enforcement rather than on yourself, with a gun." For another view, do read the comment we received from a reader who says he is a retired police officer and SWAT trooper. (It's at the end of my first blog item.) |
About this blog
Rhode Island native and Virginia Tech reporter Greg Esposito posts on everyday college life, trends and issues affecting the 35,000-plus students in the New River Valley and beyond.
Tim Thornton, who is old enough to have children attending college, is still taking classes and is still fascinated by colleges, the students who populate them and the bureaucrats who operate them. His reporting beat is Radford University.
West Virginia native Anna Mallory blogs on student life topics at Virginia Tech, Radford University, New River Valley Community College -- and beyond.
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