Spectrum - Volume 18 Issue 31 May 9, 1996 - Commonwealth Connection involves faculty

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Commonwealth Connection involves faculty

By Netta S. Smith

Spectrum Volume 18 Issue 31 - May 9, 1996

Citizens across the commonwealth will have a chance to meet and become acquainted with a group of new Virginia Tech faculty members through a program called the Commonwealth Connection. At the same time, the faculty members will have an opportunity to become familiar with the university's extended campus as they travel throughout the state May 13-17.

The program is designed to raise the profile of, and increase understanding about, our university and its faculty. The tour is designed to provide contact with key university constituencies and will include a broad geographical cross-section of the state.

Faculty members will learn about the instructional, research, and outreach/Extension activities in which the university participates away from Blacksburg, and the locations at which they occur.

The interaction among the new faculty members should help them develop cross-disciplinary relationships. It also will give them an understanding of the places of origin of most of our students.

Planned stops include the Shenandoah Valley Agricultural Experiment Station/McCormick Farm, the state capitol in Richmond, several 4-H centers, Culpeper Extension office, Hampton University and Virginia State University, NASA, the Northern Virginia Graduate Center, Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center in Abingdon, the Smokeless Fuel facility in Oakwood, Wellmore Surface Mine in Vansant, and the Equine Center in Leesburg. The group will lunch in Richmond with Del. John Watkins and breakfast in Abingdon with Congressman Rick Boucher.

Participants for 1996 are: Lennie Scott-Webber, Ozzie Abaye, Sally Paulson, Elizabeth Calvera, Linda Maddux, Linda Gray, Michael Gregg, Sheldon Jacobson, Alexander Aning, Glen Holmes, Lee Skabelund, Flynn Auchey, Don Rieley, Tom Hammett, Gerald Toal, Hara Misra, and John Simonetti.

Also Anna Marshall-Baker, Dixie Reaves, Tammy Cheatham, Tysha Addison, Rukmini Siranganathan, Grace Carrazza, Charles Michalopoulos, Taylor Clarke, Guo Quan Lu, Kriton Hatzios, Maurice White, Bill Kaloupek, Sanjay Gupta, Brian Murphy, Rene Rios, Edwin Lewis, and Edward Lener.