Virginia Tech: Issues of Over Acceptance of Students

Virginia Tech, every year grows with popularity. One way to tell of this fact is by how many students are attending the university. "Every year, excluding 2016 Virginia Tech has accepted more and more students." Kenneth Belcher, Senior Associate Director for Housing Services stated.  With Virginia Tech being a popular college that people want to attend and the second happiest college in America, President Sands believes that it is the perfect opportunity to expand. From the article, President Sands shares aspirations for Virginia Tech to become a global land-grant university, he projected that by 2023, there will be 30,000 undergraduates. In 2015, there were 25,000 undergraduates. Adding 5,000 may not seem like a lot of students, but dealing with where to put these students can make campus seem cramped. Housing has to ask the questions, "Will there be enough classroom space? What about living spaces?"

Belcher stated that the university does have plans to build more dorms, but building dorms is costly. Right now, Housing and Residence Life are almost done with the renovation of O'Shaughnessy Hall, a dorm that has seven floors, housed 341 students in 2016. This renovation is a 21.5 million dollar project as told by the article, O'Shaughnessy Hall Renovation. Belcher said that the residence hall really does need a face lift. "The systems needed some love... and we want to change it into a residential college." 

This year, there are two fewer buildings as the tear down of Monteith Hall and Thomas Hall occurred. The tearing down actually results in the final stage of redesigning the Upper Quad, where New Cadet Hall and Pearson Hall were recently built to help with the redesign and incoming cadets. 

Even with renovations and closing down resident halls, Housing and Residence Life always expects temporary housing to be an issue. Temporary housing is normal for the university. "Usually we expect 170 students to be in temporary every year," says Belcher.

Residential Advisors expect to have their own room whenever doing their job, but Belcher disposes that theory. "Residential Advisors are told during their trainings that they should be considered lucky if they do not have a roommate." He also goes onto say that students are paired with Residential Advisors before being put into a temporary space such as a study lounge. 

2015 was the worst year for Housing and Residence Life as the construction of the new cadet dorm, Pearson Hall, was in progress and the storm of students who accepted Virginia Tech's offer had a role on temporary housing. Housing and Residence Life needed to put students in a living space. After all of the study lounges were converted into dorm rooms, and the Residential Advisors were already paired with a student, they looked to Foxridge apartments to rent out spaces for students. Some students may not have expected their first year at Virginia Tech to be off campus in an apartment, or crammed in a lounge, or living with their Residential Advisor, but everyone's college experience is different.   

Top 15 Costliest United States Hurricanes

Hurricanes are a destructive force from nature that occur every year and are more prominent in the  months of June through November. With those months in mind, the ocean waters are warmer and lately, have been warmer than average leaving 2017 with a very costly hurricane season.

Along with Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma, thirteen other hurricanes ranging from 1965 to 2011 made the rank for the top 15 costliest hurricanes in the United States.

Hurricane Harvey, a category 4 hurricane which hit Texas this year, is estimated to cost roughly 190 billion US dollars. Another money making hurricane was Hurricane Irma which hit Florida this year as well. Irma, a category 5, is estimated to cost the United States roughly 150 billion US dollars. Shockingly, these two hurricanes are ranked the highest for the most expensive hurricanes to hit the United States. A known hurricane that greatly impacted, and still impacts the United States, is Hurricane Katrina which used to be the costliest hurricane settling at 130 billion US dollars, and now has been dropped to third place.

The rank for the costliest hurricanes goes Harvey, Irma, Katrina, Andrew, Ike, Wilma, Ivan, Charley, Irene, Rita, Agnes, Betsy, Frances, Hugo, and lastly Camille.

To look at hurricanes during the season and to see what is stirring up in the oceans, the National Hurricane Center keeps viewers updated with probability percentages of the disturbance turning into a hurricane, and if an actually hurricane is formed.

4th Annual Virginia Tech Science Festival

Rain doesn't stop families from enjoying Virginia Tech's Science Festival. 

Virginia Tech hosted the 4th Annual Science Festival on November 4, 2017 from 10 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon.  The science festival is a popular, free-of-charge event for the whole family. Even though, this year the festival was a muggy and rainy one, that did not stop the community from coming out and learning. The Virginia Tech Science Festival's website states that this was a rain or shine event even though there are some attractions/booths outdoors, but most of the events are inside. The outdoor attractions did have a possibility of being cancelled or delayed. The science festival has been an ongoing event since 2014, when Virginia Tech collaborated with the Science Museum of Western Virginia. Last year was a hit where more than 6,000 people, from all around Virginia, showed up to learn all about science. Science was a broad topic at the science festival, where robotics, rocketry, weather, 3-D printing, space, engineering, animals, and much more came together to excite the minds of kids. The event took place in the Moss Arts Center, down the street of Alumni Mall, Torgersen Hall, and Newman Library and was open to everyone, but the event was geared for younger kids. Attendees have stated that in the past, the Moss Arts Center is typically the busiest because they have the most attractions. Best advice for attending the festival would be to start at Newman Library, then venture into Torgersen Hall, walk down Alumni Mall, and end the festival at the Moss Arts Center. 

Virginia Tech Narration

An informational audio slideshow of the history, students, and atmosphere of Virginia Tech.

Pylons-- Sequence Photos

Sequence Photos of The Pylons at Virginia Tech

Extreme Wide Shot

Wide Shot

Medium Shot

Close-up Shot

Extreme Close-Up Shot

Virginia Tech: Professor gives information on continuing hurricanes

Virginia Tech: Tropical Meteorologist gives information on continuing hurricanes

Stephanie Zick, Virginia Tech Assistant Professor with the Geography Department, talks to Catherine Maxwell on the number of hurricanes that have occurred for the 2017 hurricane season. The 2017 season is not over yet and tropical weather is still happening. This year, we have had some make landfall on the United States (Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma) and these hurricanes were on the intense scale. When Irma made landfall it was categorized as a Category 5 hurricane, which is the highest on the hurricane scale. Zick labels herself as a tropical meteorologist who is interested in how storms interact and impact the environment and the evolution of tropical cyclone precipitation for those projected landfalls. Zick goes into detail about the role of tropical cyclones with the United States, the commonality of these systems, and if the severity will continue. She states that this is an active season, but this pattern has been seen before only a few short years ago in 2010. This year we feel as if we have seen so many when in actuality it may be seen as normal. 

Update: With the tropical storm season still in effect, Tropical Storm Nate is churning in the western Caribbean and it could soon clip the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico before striking the Gulf of Mexico. The warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico could soon make this tropical storm become Hurricane Nate-- the next one to strike the U.S. 

Switzerland Study Abroad

Switzerland Study Abroad

Virginia Tech student travels across the world to learn more about communications. 

Abbie Dunn, Junior at Virginia Tech goes to Lugano, Switzerland for a summer study abroad. The trip consisted of two-weeks and Abbie took a class called Organizational Communication while she was there. She loved the cuisine, especially the crepes. She got to experience different cultures and different languages that were spoken such as French and Italian. Her regret? Wishing she could have stayed longer than the two weeks and done a semester. Her advice for all Virginia Tech students is to "go! study abroad!" 

Catherine Maxwell- Junior

Hello! This blog is to detail all about my journalistic adventures and learnings throughout my time at Virginia Tech.

So, let's learn a little about who I am! I am currently a Junior who is trying to obtain a dual-degree in Meteorology and Multimedia Journalism. I grew up in Christiansburg, Virginia-- for you Hokies out there, you have all ventured to my hometown! You probably haven't been into the nuts and bolts of good ole' Cburg, but you went to the luxurious Wal-Mart and Target that Blacksburg unfortunately does not have.

My parents and I have a wonderful relationship. I go to them for anything and know they will support me no matter what. My dad knew what was best for me and actually helped me shape the career I want and am pursuing! I have always had a fascination with the weather. I would love when a rumble of thunder or a crack of lightning would display in the sky. Whenever I was younger I would always watch the news with my dad. He one day looked at me and said, "you should be the person on t.v. who gives the weather." I shrugged, thinking "that seems so lame." When in reality, it isn't! I pondered and pondered and decided, "Why not! Who cares if someone thinks it isn't cool. This is what I want to do."

I was in the car with two of my elementary school friends and driving down the road their mom asked me the typical question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" I immediately said, "A meteorologist!" My two friends laughed at me and starting mocking the meteorologists I watched everyday with my dad. I was confused on why they were laughing at me. I finally get home and tell my dad and he basically told me I will grow up with a lot of criticism and people will always want to put me down but I have to brush that off.

That's exactly what I did. Now, I am here at this wonderful university getting a degree in something that two people made fun of me for once. Nothing is going to stop me and I am excited to embark on this journey and go for my goals!