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Virginia Tech

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Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech)
File:VTSeal.gif
MottoUt Prosim (Latin, "That I May Serve")
TypePublic
Established1872
Endowment$408.6 million (June 2005)
PresidentCharles W. Steger
Students25,800
Undergraduates21,400
Location
Blacksburg
,
Virginia
,
United States
CampusSuburban, 2,600 acres
AthleticsDivision I Atlantic Coast Conference, 17 varsity teams
ColorsChicago Maroon and
Burnt Orange
MascotHokie Bird
Websitewww.vt.edu

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (better known as Virginia Tech, abbreviated as VT, historically abbreviated as VPI, informally abbreviated as VPI&SU, and commonly referred to regionally as simply Tech) is a public land-grant polytechnic university in Blacksburg, Virginia, USA. Its historical strengths are in agriculture, engineering, architecture, and veterinary medicine programs. Tech is also one of only two universities in the country with a full-time military component within a larger civilian university.

In addition to its research and academic programs, Virginia Tech is known for its campus and location in the New River Valley of southwestern Virginia near the Appalachian Mountains. Since 1990, Tech has also gained a national reputation for the success of its football program.

History

In 1872, the Virginia General Assembly purchased the facilities of a small Methodist school called the Olin and Preston Institute in rural Montgomery County with federal funds provided by the Morrill Act. The Commonwealth incorporated a new institution on that site, a state-supported land grant military institute called the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College.

Under the 1891-1907 presidency of John M. McBryde, the school reorganized its academic programs into a traditional four-year college setup (including the renaming of the mechanics department to engineering); this led to an 1896 name change to Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College and Polytechnic Institute. The "Agricultural and Mechanical College" section of the name was popularly omitted almost immediately, though the name was not officially changed to Virginia Polytechnic Institute until 1944 as part of a short-lived merger with what is now Radford University. VPI achieved full accreditation in 1923, and the requirement of participation in the Corps of Cadets was dropped from four years to two that same year (for men only; women, when they began enrolling in the 1920s, were never required to join).

VT Presidents of
Virginia Tech
Charles L. C. Minor 1872-1879
John L. Buchanan 1879-1882
Thomas N. Conrad 1882-1886
L. L. Lomax 1886-1891
John M. McBryde 1891-1907
Paul B. Barringer 1907-1913
Joseph D. Eggleston 1913-1919
Julian A. Burruss 1919-1945
John R. Hutcheson 1945-1947
Walter S. Newman 1947-1962
T. Marshall Hahn, Jr. 1962-1974
William E. Lavery 1975-1987
James D. McComas 1988-1994
Paul E. Torgerson 1994-1999
Charles W. Steger 2000-

Shortly after its founding as a Military college, a rivalry began between VPI and Virginia Military Institute (founded 1839). In fact, "The Military Classic of the South" began as a rivalry between VMI and VPI. This heartfelt and robust rivalry continued into the late 1970s, when Virginia Tech simply became too large and competitive in its athletic programs for VMI to continue competing (VMI enrolls 1,200 cadets and is the Nation's only all-cadet or classical state military college). Later, throughout the early 20th century, another rivalry developed between Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia (founded 1819).

President T. Marshall Hahn (1962-74) was responsible for many of the changes that shaped the modern institution of Virginia Tech. The merger with Radford was dissolved in 1964, and in 1966, the school dropped the two-year Corps requirement for male students (in 1973, women were allowed to join the Corps; Tech was the first school in the nation to open its military wing to women). One of Hahn's more controversial missions was only partially achieved; he had visions of renaming the school from VPI to Virginia State University, reflecting the status it had achieved as a full-fledged public research university. As part of this move, Tech would have taken over control of the state's other land-grant institution, a historically black college in Ettrick, Virginia south of Richmond then called Virginia State College; this failed, and that school eventually became Virginia State University. As a compromise, the school added "and State University" to its name in 1970, yielding the current formal name of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. The new acronym of VPISU was derisively spoken as Vippy-sue by students and Hahn detractors. In the early 1990s, the school quietly authorized the official use of Virginia Tech as equivalent to the full VPI&SU name; most school documents today use the shorter name, though diplomas still spell out the formal name. Similarly, the abbreviation VT is far more common today than VPI or VPI&SU, and appears everywhere from athletic uniforms (most notably on football helmets) to the university's Internet domain vt.edu.

Admissions

For the fall 2005 freshman class, Virginia Tech received 17,687 applications. Approximately 21 percent of the freshman class was filled by early decision candidates. Grades and SAT scores continue to rise. The typical fall 2005 freshman had a high school grade point average of 3.76 on a 4.0 scale, with a middle range of 3.38 to 3.95. The average cumulative SAT score was 1232, with a middle range of 1140 to 1330.

Academics

Bachelor's, master's, and doctoral programs are offered through the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, the College of Architecture & Urban Studies, the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, the Pamplin College of Business, the College of Engineering, the College of Natural Resources, the College of Science, and the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine. The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences offers the only two-year associate's degree program on campus, in agricultural technology.

Virginia Tech boasts one of the best higher education programs in the country. In 2006, it was ranked among the top 100 higher education institutions in the United States. Its College of Engineering is ranked as one of the top engineering programs in the country and its College of Architecture is ranked as one of the top five in the nation. The Times, a national newspaper in the UK, ranked Virginia Tech as one of the top 200 universities in the world.

In the most recent (2004) survey of the Engineering Workforce Commission of the American Association of Engineering Societies, Inc., the Virginia Tech College of Engineering ranks eighth nationally for the number of undergraduate degrees awarded. “America's Best Colleges 2006” survey, released by U.S. News & World Report in August 2004, ranks Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering's undergraduate program 14 in the nation among all accredited engineering schools that offer doctorates, and eighth at public universities.

Campus

Main article: Virginia Tech campus
Burruss Hall, signature building on the Virginia Tech campus.

The Virginia Tech campus is located within Blacksburg; the central campus is roughly bordered by Prices Fork Road to the northwest, Plantation Drive to the west, Main Street to the east, and 460-bypass to the south, though it has several thousand acres beyond the central campus. The university has established branch campus centers in Hampton Roads (Virginia Beach), the National Capital Region (Falls Church - Alexandria, Virginia), Richmond, Roanoke, and the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center in Abingdon.

On the Blacksburg campus, the majority of the buildings incorporate Hokie Stone as a building material. Hokie Stone is a medley of different colored limestone, often including dolomite. Each block of Hokie Stone is some combination of gray, brown, black, pink, orange, and maroon. The limestone is mined from various quarries in Southwestern Virginia, Tennessee, and Alabama, one of which has been operated by the university since the 1950s.

Athletics

Main article: Virginia Tech Hokies
File:VT Emblem.gif

Virginia Tech's sports teams are called the Hokies, except for the swim team which uses a variant ("H2Okies", a play on the chemical formula for water). The Tech mascot is the Hokie Bird. Tech teams participate in the NCAA's Division I-A in the Atlantic Coast Conference, which the school joined in 2004 after leaving the Big East.

The word "Hokies," which originated from the Old Hokie spirit yell, is often used interchangeably with "Fighting Gobblers" to refer to the sports team, fans, students, or alumni, although the former is the official usage. The word "Hokies" originated in the 1890s; see Hokies for more information. The mascot is the Hokie Bird, a turkey-like creature. The teams were originally known as the "Fighting Gobblers," and the turkey motif was retained despite the name change.

The stylized VT (the abbreviation for Virginia Tech) is used primarily by the athletic department as a symbol for Virginia Tech athletic teams. The "athletic VT" symbol is trademarked by the university and appears frequently on licensed merchandise, and is occasionally referred to colloquially as the "square root of one" for its resemblance to that mathematical figure.

During the early years of the university, a rivalry developed between the Virginia Military Institute and VPI. This rivalry developed into the original "Military Classic of the South," which was an annual football game between VMI and VPI on Thanksgiving Day in Roanoke, Virginia. This rivalry continued until 1970 when VPI's football program became too large and too competitive for VMI. Today, Tech's major athletic rivalries include the University of Virginia, and the University of Miami.

Virginia Tech's fight song, Tech Triumph, was written in 1919 and remains in use today. Tech Triumph is played at sporting events by both the Virginia Tech band, The Marching Virginians, and the Corps of Cadets' band, the Highty Tighties. The Old Hokie spirit yell, in use since 1896, is familiar to all Tech fans.

Virginia Tech's football team plays home games in Lane Stadium, considered one of the loudest stadiums in the country and recognized in 2005 by rivals.com as having the best homefield advantage in the country. [1] Head coach Frank Beamer has become one of the winningest currently active head coaches in Division I-A football with 178 wins following the 2005 season. The Hokies currently have the fifth longest bowl streak in the country, having participated in bowl games in each of the last 13 seasons. Since the 1995 season, the Hokies have finished with a top-10 ranking four times, won four conference championships (three Big East and one ACC), and played once for the national championship, losing to Florida State University 46-29 in the 2000 Sugar Bowl. Annually, Virginia Tech plays its traditional rival, the University of Virginia, for the Commonwealth Cup.

Virginia Tech's men's basketball team has seen a resurgence of fan support under coach Seth Greenberg. Prior to Coach Greenberg's arrival in Blacksburg, the Tech men had not had a winning season since the 1995-1996 season when they had received a bid to the NCAA tournament.

Virginia Tech's women's basketball team, led by coach Beth Dunkenberger, is a fixture in postseason, having received a berth to the NCAA tournament each of the last four seasons. Virginia Tech's women have been in postseason play every year since the 1997-1998 season, Bonnie Henrickson's first season as the head coach of the lady Hokies.

Both basketball teams play their home games in Cassell Coliseum.

Virginia Tech's recently retired baseball coach, Chuck Hartman, finished his career as the fourth winningest coach in Division I baseball history with a 1,444-816-8 record, including a 961-591-8 mark in his 28 seasons at Tech.

Affiliated institutions

The Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, founded in 1978, is a separate institution on the same campus, funded by the Commonwealth of Virginia and the state of Maryland and jointly operated by VT and the University of Maryland. VMRCVM and VT jointly operate an equine center in Leesburg, Virginia, and VMRCVM has a small operation on the University of Maryland's College Park, Maryland campus.

In 2003, a school of osteopathic medicine called the Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM) opened in the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, an office park adjacent to and owned and operated by the university as a local business incubator. VCOM is incorporated as a private, non-profit institution with no state interest, but is very closely affiliated with Virginia Tech on an operational level.

In 2002, a biomedical engineering program, called the School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences (SBES), was created as a cooperative venture between Virginia Tech and Wake Forest University. SBES offers opportunities to undergraduates and grants M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in biomedical engineering.

Distinguished alumni

Sports

Baseball

Basketball

Football

Military

Business, government, and academia

Research computing

In 2003, Virginia Tech created a supercomputer which ranked as the 3rd fastest in the world. The system was made from 1100 dual processor Power Macintosh G5s and cost $5.2 million. The supercomputer, called System X, was disassembled shortly after it was ranked in order for it to be replaced with Apple's rack-based servers which consume both less space and power.

Internet networking research is an important part of Virginia Tech's history. It has participated in Suranet, Internet2, Abilene, the Lambda Rail and other such networks. Virginia Tech also participates in the management of Net.Work.Virginia and the Mid Atlantic Crossroads.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

References

  1. ^ Lane Statium rating by Rivals.com
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