AROUND THE DRILLFIELD
AROUND THE DRILLFIELD
Forestry may become college
The School of Forestry and Wildlife Resources may become Virginia Tech’s ninth college in July 1994 if a recommendation made by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors in August is approved by the State Council of Higher Education (SCHEV).
"The creation of this college is an investment that will increase students' access to a wider range of programs," said Darrel Martin, assistant to the president and university information officer.
Virginia Tech's forestry school in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has long been recognized among the top five such programs in the nation and has received extensive support from Virginia's forestry-related industries. Increased administrative costs for the new college will be offset through additional private-sector support.
Freshmen highly rated
The 4,364 freshmen entering Virginia Tech this year come with an impressive academic record: 71 National Merit Scholars (10 more than ever before), 15 National Achievement Scholars, and an overall average class ranking of the top 20 percent of their high school graduating classes.
A third of those accepted ranked in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating classes; 82 percent ranked in the top third.
Three-fourths of the class are native Virginians; while out-of-staters hail from 37 states. As in years past, 44 percent are female, 56 percent male.
Faculty win NSF award
Two Virginia Tech engineering faculty members have each received a $125,000 National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award. The national award, which is presented annually to only 200 scientists and engineers in the United States, will provide research support to civil engineer Teresa Taylor and mechanical engineer Craig Rogers.
Taylor's work has led to a new way of predicting how far projectiles will penetrate soils, a method useful to both military and mining concerns. Rogers is responsible, to a large degree, for the formation of a new scientific area of research called intelligent material systems and structures and directs Virginia Tech's Center for Intelligent Material Systems and Structures. He is hoping to develop a higher form of material systems and structures through the mimicry of biological organisms.
1,000th Hokie plate sold
Virginia Tech has become the first school in the commonwealth to realize profits from the College Plate program. After the 1,000th plate was sold by the Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV), that agency began transferring $15 to the university's general scholarship fund for each plate sold or renewed. The money will support scholarships for Virginia Tech students.
The DMV says Virginia Tech, leading the state in plate sales since November 1990, has been marketing more aggressively than any other university or college.
James Madison University moved into second place, selling over 644 plates, against third-ranked Penn State with 634.
Order forms for the plates can be obtained by contacting your local DMV office or University Relations at Virginia Tech. The cost is $25 per year in addition to the regular registration fee.
Two professors win SCHEV award
James Robertson Jr., C.P. Miles Professor of History, and E. Snizek, professor of sociology, have been awarded outstanding faculty awards from the State Council of Higher Education (SCHEV).
Snizek, who developed the Kezins' Sociological I.Q. Test at the request of the Random House Publishing Co. for a book on sociology, has earned numerous teaching awards and has designed a teaching mentor program. He has been a Virginia Tech faculty member since 1972.
Robertson, too, has won many university teaching awards and teaches what is believed to be the largest Civil War class anywhere. One of his 23 books, Soldiers Blue and Gray, was a 1989 finalist for the Pulitzer in history.
Squires Student Center back
Squires Student Center was open and ready to serve pizza, movies, and a host of other activities to students arriving at campus for fall semester.
Closed since May 1988 for renovations, the student center has gained another 85,000 square feet, a new theatre, a recital salon, a fast food court, an atrium, and music faculty office space. The $17-million project was about 95 percent complete in early September. Construction was delayed in 1989 when workers found asbestos in a glue-like substance used with the floor tile. The cleanup cost more than $2.3 million and halted renovation for a year.
Most undergraduate students and more than three-fourths of the student activities staff have never set foot in Squires before, according to Don Hall, assistant director of operations of university unions and student activities.
Virginia Tech Magazine Volume 14, Number 1 Fall 1991