Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a
public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...
land-grant
A land grant is a gift of real estate—land or its use privileges—made by a government or other authority as an incentive, means of enabling works, or as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service. Grants ...
research university
A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are the most important sites at which knowledge production occurs, along with "intergenerational kno ...
with its main campus in
Blacksburg, Virginia
Blacksburg is an incorporated town in Montgomery County, Virginia, United States, with a population of 44,826 at the 2020 census. Blacksburg, as well as the surrounding county, is dominated economically and demographically by the presence of V ...
. It also has educational facilities in six regions statewide, a research center in
Punta Cana
Punta Cana is a resort town in the easternmost region of the Dominican Republic. It is part of the Veron–Punta Cana Municipalities of the Dominican Republic, municipal district, in the Salvaleón de Higüey, Higüey municipality of La Altagraci ...
,
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...
, and a study-abroad site in
Riva San Vitale, Switzerland
Riva San Vitale is a municipality in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland, located in the district of Mendrisio.
History
Riva San Vitale is first mentioned in 774 as ''Primo Sobenno''. In 1115 it was mentioned as ''Ripa Sancti Vitalis''.
The ...
. Through its
Corps of Cadets
A corps of cadets, also called cadet corps, was originally a kind of military school for boys. Initially such schools admitted only sons of the nobility or gentry, but in time many of the schools were opened also to members of other social classes. ...
ROTC
The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC ( or )) is a group of college- and university-based officer-training programs for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces.
Overview
While ROTC graduate officers serve in all ...
program, Virginia Tech is a
senior military college
In the United States, a senior military college (SMC) is one of six colleges that offer military Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) programs under , though many other schools offer military Reserve Officers' Training Corps under other sectio ...
.
Virginia Tech offers 280 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to some 34,400 students; as of 2015, it was the state's second-largest public university by enrollment. It manages a research portfolio of $522 million, placing it among the top 50 universities in the U.S. for total research expenditures, top 25 in computer and information sciences and top 10 in engineering, with the latter two the highest rankings in the state.
[ It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".
VT has produced two ]Rhodes Scholars
The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom.
Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...
, four Marshall Scholars
The Marshall Scholarship is a postgraduate scholarship for "intellectually distinguished young Americans ndtheir country's future leaders" to study at any university in the United Kingdom. It is widely considered one of the most prestigious sc ...
, 38 Goldwater Scholars, and 131 Fulbright Scholars
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...
. Among its alumni are eight Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor. ...
recipients, 97 flag officers
A flag officer is a commissioned officer in a nation's armed forces senior enough to be entitled to fly a flag to mark the position from which the officer exercises command.
The term is used differently in different countries:
*In many countries ...
, governors of two U.S. states, two astronauts, and one billionaire. Three Nobel laureates
The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make ou ...
and one MacArthur Fellow
The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 ind ...
have received a degree or served as faculty members at the university. As of 2015, VT had more than 240,000 living alumni worldwide.
The university's athletic teams are known as the Virginia Tech Hokies
The Virginia Tech Hokies are the athletic teams representing the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in intercollegiate athletics. The Hokies participate in the NCAA's Division I Atlantic Coast Conference in 22 va ...
and compete in Division I of the NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference
The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...
.
History
In 1872, with federal funds provided by the Morrill Act of 1862
The Morrill Land-Grant Acts are United States statutes that allowed for the creation of land-grant colleges in U.S. states using the proceeds from sales of federally-owned land, often obtained from indigenous tribes through treaty, cession, or se ...
, the Reconstruction-era Virginia General Assembly
The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, and was established on July 30, 161 ...
purchased the facilities of Preston and Olin Institute The Preston and Olin Institute was a Methodist academy for boys in Blacksburg, Virginia which operated from 1851 to 1872. They chose the name Preston for Colonel William Ballard Preston, of nearby Smithfield Plantation, a well-known Montgomery Cou ...
, a small Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...
school for boys in Southwest Virginia's rural Montgomery County. That same year, of the adjoining Solitude Farm
Solitude Farm is a historic home in West Whiteland Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. The original house was built in two sections about 1750 and in 1761. The original section is a two-story rectangular stuccoed stone structure with a kitc ...
including the house and several farm buildings on the estate were acquired for $21,250 from Robert Taylor Preston, a son of Governor of Virginia
The governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia serves as the head of government of Virginia for a four-year term. The incumbent, Glenn Youngkin, was sworn in on January 15, 2022.
Oath of office
On inauguration day, the Governor-elect takes th ...
, James Patton Preston
James Patton Preston (June 21, 1774May 4, 1843) was a U.S. political figure who served as Governor of Virginia.
Biography
James Patton Preston was born at Smithfield (Blacksburg, Virginia), Smithfield Plantation, in what is now Blacksburg, Virg ...
. The commonwealth incorporated a new institution on the site, a state-supported land-grant
A land grant is a gift of real estate—land or its use privileges—made by a government or other authority as an incentive, means of enabling works, or as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service. Grants ...
military institute named Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College.
Virginia Tech's first student, Addison "Add" Caldwell registered on October 1, 1872, after hiking over 25 miles from his home in Craig County, Virginia
Craig County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 4,892. Its county seat is New Castle.
Craig County is part of the Roanoke, VA Metropolitan Statistical Area.
History
Nestled in the ...
. A statue, located in the Upper Quad of campus commemorates Add's journey to enroll. First-year cadets and their training cadre re-enact Addison Caldwell's journey every year in the Caldwell March. They complete the first half of the 26-mile march in the fall and the second half in the spring.
The first five presidents of Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College served in the Confederate States Army
The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...
or the Confederate
Confederacy or confederate may refer to:
States or communities
* Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities
* Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...
government during the Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
as did many of its early professors including the first Commandant
Commandant ( or ) is a title often given to the officer in charge of a military (or other uniformed service) training establishment or academy. This usage is common in English-speaking nations. In some countries it may be a military or police ran ...
, James H. Lane, a VMI graduate and former Confederate General
The general officers of the Confederate States Army (CSA) were the senior military leaders of the Confederacy during the American Civil War of 1861–1865. They were often former officers from the United States Army (the regular army) prior to ...
who taught civil engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage ...
and commerce at the college and is the namesake of Lane Hall, one of the oldest buildings on campus, built in 1888. Its third president, Thomas Nelson Conrad
Thomas Nelson Conrad (August 1, 1837 – January 5, 1905) was the third president of Virginia Tech (then Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College) and served in the Confederate Secret Service during the Civil War.
Early life
Thomas Nelson C ...
, was a notorious Confederate spy who ran a covert intelligence gathering operation from a home in the heart of Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
. Its sixth president, Paul Brandon Barringer
Paul Brandon Barringer (February 13, 1857 – January 9, 1941) was an American physician and college administrator, the sixth president of Virginia Tech, serving from September 1, 1907 through July 1, 1913. He was also chairman of the faculty ...
, was a son of Confederate General Rufus Barringer
Rufus Clay Barringer (December 2, 1821 – February 3, 1895) was a North Carolina lawyer, politician, and Confederate brigadier general during the American Civil War.
Early life
Barringer was born in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, the nint ...
and a nephew of Confederate Generals Stonewall Jackson
Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson (January 21, 1824 – May 10, 1863) was a Confederate general during the American Civil War, considered one of the best-known Confederate commanders, after Robert E. Lee. He played a prominent role in nearl ...
and Daniel Harvey Hill
Lieutenant-General Daniel Harvey Hill (July 12, 1821 – September 24, 1889), commonly known as D. H. Hill, was a senior officer of the Confederate States Army who commanded infantry in the eastern and western theaters of the American Civil Wa ...
.
In a nod to this southern heritage the Confederate Battle Flag
The flags of the Confederate States of America have a history of three successive designs during the American Civil War. The flags were known as the "Stars and Bars", used from 1861 to 1863; the "Stainless Banner", used from 1863 to 1865; and ...
was traditionally waved by cheerleaders at Virginia Tech football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
games and the Highty-Tighties
The Virginia Tech Regimental Band, also known as the Highty Tighties, VPI Cadet Band, or Band Company was established in 1893 as a military marching band unit in the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Unive ...
played Dixie
Dixie, also known as Dixieland or Dixie's Land, is a nickname for all or part of the Southern United States. While there is no official definition of this region (and the included areas shift over the years), or the extent of the area it cover ...
as a fight song
A fight song is a rousing short song associated with a sports team. The term is most common in the United States and Canada. In Australia, Mexico, and New Zealand these songs are called the team anthem, team song, or games song. First associated ...
when the Hokies
The Virginia Tech Hokies are the athletic teams representing the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in intercollegiate athletics. The Hokies participate in the NCAA's Division I Atlantic Coast Conference in 22 va ...
scored a touchdown. A large Confederate flag also hung inside Cassell Coliseum
Cassell Coliseum is a 10,052-seat multi-purpose arena in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States, that opened in 1962. It is home to the Virginia Tech Hokies men's and women's basketball teams, wrestling team, and volleyball team.
History
Built as a ...
where Virginia Tech basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
games are played. Since 1963, "Skipper", a replica of a Civil War cannon has been fired at football games by members of the Corps of Cadets when the team scores. The Confederate Flag was also prominently featured on all Virginia Tech class ring
In the United States, a class ring (also known as a graduation, graduate, senior, or grad ring) is a ring worn by students and alumni to commemorate their final academic year and/or graduation, generally for a high school, college, or university ...
s. The display of the Confederate flag at athletic events ended in the late 1960s after Marguerite Harper, a black woman attending Virginia Tech on a Rockefeller Rockefeller is a German surname, originally given to people from the village of Rockenfeld near Neuwied in the Rhineland and commonly referring to subjects associated with the Rockefeller family. It may refer to:
People with the name Rockefeller fa ...
Scholarship
A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need.
Scholarsh ...
for culturally disadvantaged students, was elected to the student senate during her sophomore year and made a successful resolution to end the practice. Following the resolution there was a large demonstration in opposition to the removal of the Confederate flag. The campus was covered in Confederate flags and Dixie was blasting from dormitory windows. Harper and her white roommate received hate mail and threatening phone calls but the resolution stood and the display of the rebel flag ended in 1969. The Confederate flag on Virginia Tech class rings became optional in 1972 and could be left off of the ring at the student's request. The Confederate flag has since been removed from class ring designs entirely.
Under the leadership of seventh president Joseph Dupuy Eggleston
Joseph Dupuy Eggleston II (November 13, 1867 – March 15, 1953) was an American educator, the seventh president of Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College and Polytechnic Institute (now Virginia Tech), and the 14th president of Hampden ...
, who held the position from 1913 to 1919, the university established a Reserve Officer Training Corps
The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC ( or )) is a group of college- and university-based officer-training programs for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces.
Overview
While ROTC graduate officers serve in all ...
to support national efforts during World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
In 1917, physics professor Charles E. Vawter, Jr. (son of Charles E. Vawter, who had served on the VPI board of visitors from 1886 to 1900), shot Stockton Heth, Jr., a scion of one of Montgomery County's wealthiest families, in his campus home on faculty row. Heth, who lived at Whitethorne, an antebellum
Antebellum, Latin for "before war", may refer to:
United States history
* Antebellum South, the pre-American Civil War period in the Southern United States
** Antebellum Georgia
** Antebellum South Carolina
** Antebellum Virginia
* Antebellum ar ...
mansion on a 1,500-acre estate near Blacksburg, later died of his wounds. Due to the Heth family's wealth and political connections, Vawter's position as head of the VPI physics department, and the extramarital affair that led to the shooting, the resulting murder trial was one of the most sensational in Virginia history. Eggleston attempted to suppress news of the affair in the media with considerable success, most likely due to world events that stole the headlines in the spring of 1917, rather than his efforts to protect VPI's reputation.
College reorganizations
During Thomas Nelson Conrad's tenure as president, the college switched from semesters to the quarter system, which remained in place until the late 1980s. Under the 1891–1907 presidency of John McLaren McBryde
John McLaren McBryde (January 1, 1841 – March 20, 1923) was the fifth president of Virginia Tech, serving from July 1, 1891 to September 1, 1907. McBryde was born in Abbeville, South Carolina. He entered South Carolina College in 1858 at ...
, the school organized its academic programs into a traditional four-year college and a graduate department was founded. The evolution of the school's programs led to a name change in 1896 to Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College and Polytechnic Institute. The "Agricultural and Mechanical College" portion of the name was popularly omitted almost immediately; in 1944, the name was officially changed to Virginia Polytechnic Institute (VPI).
VPI admitted its first female students in 1921 as civilian day student
A day school — as opposed to a boarding school — is an educational institution where children and adolescents are given instructions during the day, after which the students return to their homes. A day school has full-day programs when compar ...
s; they did not live on campus. In 1923, VPI changed a policy of compulsory participation in the Corps of Cadets from four years to two years. In 1931, VPI began teaching classes at the Norfolk Division of the College of William and Mary
The College of William & Mary (officially The College of William and Mary in Virginia, abbreviated as William & Mary, W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 by letters patent issued by King William III a ...
(now Old Dominion University
Old Dominion University (Old Dominion or ODU) is a public research university in Norfolk, Virginia. It was established in 1930 as the Norfolk Division of the College of William & Mary and is now one of the largest universities in Virginia with ...
). This program eventually developed into a two-year engineering program that allowed students to transfer to VPI for their final two years of degree work.![Patton Hall and cars at Virginia Tech, ca 1952](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Patton_Hall_and_cars_at_Virginia_Tech%2C_ca_1952.jpg)
![VirginiaTechBridge](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/VirginiaTechBridge.jpg)
The first women's dormitory at VPI, Hillcrest Hall, was built in 1940. In 1943, VPI merged with Radford State Teachers College in nearby Radford, which became VPI's women's division; the merger was dissolved in 1964. Today, Radford University
Radford University is a public university in Radford, Virginia. It is one of the state's eight doctorate-granting public universities. Founded in 1910, Radford offers curricula for undergraduates in more than 100 fields, graduate programs inclu ...
is a co-educational research university that enrolls nearly 10,000 students and offers more than 150 undergraduate and graduate programs.
Post-World War II
![Donaldson-Brown Virginia Tech](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Donaldson-Brown_Virginia_Tech.JPG)
In 1953 under the leadership of President Walter Stephenson Newman
Walter Stephenson Newman (July 20, 1895 – June 29, 1978) was the tenth President of Virginia Tech, serving from 1947 until 1962.
Early life and education
Walter Stephenson Newman was born in 1895 in Woodstock, Virginia to Walter and Sallie ...
, VPI became the first historically white, four-year public institution among the 11 states in the former Confederacy to admit a black undergraduate. Three more black students were admitted in 1954. At the time Virginia still enforced Jim Crow laws
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...
and largely practiced racial segregation
Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...
in public and private education, churches, neighborhoods, restaurants, and movie theaters and these first black students at VPI were not allowed to live in residence halls or eat in the dining halls on campus. Instead, they boarded with African American families in Blacksburg. In 1958 Charlie L. Yates made history as the first African American to graduate from VPI. Yates earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, and ...
, with honors, and was hailed as the first African American "to be graduated from any major Southern engineering institute," according to news reports at the time.
VPI President T. Marshall Hahn
Thomas Marshall Hahn, Jr. (December 2, 1926 – May 29, 2016) was an American educator. He served as President of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University from 1962 to 1974 and CEO of Georgia-Pacific Corporation from 1983 to 1993.
...
, whose tenure ran from 1962 to 1974, was responsible for many of the programs and policies that transformed VPI from a small, historically white, predominately male, military institute with a primary focus on undergraduate teaching into a major co-educational research university. The student body that had been approximately 5,682 in 1962 increased by roughly 1,000 students each year, new dormitories and academic buildings were constructed, faculty members were added – in 1966, for instance, more than 100 new professors joined the faculty – and research budgets were increased. During Hahn's tenure, not only did the university graduate its first Rhodes Scholar
The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom.
Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...
, W.W. Lewis, Class of 1963, the requirement for male students to participate in the Corps of Cadets for two years was dropped in 1964. Beginning in the fall 1973, women could participate in the Corps, making Virginia Tech among the nation's first senior military colleges to integrate women.
In 1970, the state legislature allowed VPI university status and gave it the present legal name, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. In the early 1990s, university administration authorized the official use of Virginia Tech as equivalent to the full legal name; it has been used as the first-reference name for the school's athletic teams since the 1970s. However, diplomas and transcripts still spell out the formal name. Similarly, the abbreviation "VT" is far more common today than either VPI or VPI&SU.
Vietnam War era
During the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
, students on college campuses across the nation protested the draft
Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...
and U.S. involvement in the conflict. Despite its long history as a military school
A military academy or service academy is an educational institution which prepares candidates for service in the officer corps. It normally provides education in a military environment, the exact definition depending on the country concerned. ...
, Virginia Tech was no exception. Most protests at Virginia Tech were small sit-ins and teach-ins, but In mid-April 1970 a group of anti-war protesters including students and faculty members disrupted a Corps of Cadets drill on campus. The Virginia Tech administration under Dr. Hahn took swift action. The students involved were suspended and the faculty members involved were fired from the university and the administration went to court and obtained an injunction to prevent them from repeating the act. This succeeded in calming tensions on campus, but only for a few weeks.
Tensions on campus reached the boiling point several days following the Kent State Shootings
The Kent State shootings, also known as the May 4 massacre and the Kent State massacre,"These would be the first of many probes into what soon became known as the Kent State Massacre. Like the Boston Massacre almost exactly two hundred years bef ...
when on May 12, 1970, a large mob including students and a number of non-student anti-war protesters enraged by the Kent State incident and angered by the administration's disciplinary actions in response to a number of recent infractions by protesters including; vandalism of university property, a series of potentially dangerous fires set on campus, breaking and entering into a university building, and a sit-in in Cowgill Hill, seized Williams Hall and barricaded themselves inside. The administration responded quickly calling in law enforcement and early the following morning Virginia State Troopers
The Virginia State Police, officially the Virginia Department of State Police, conceived in 1919 and established in 1932, is the state police force for the U.S. state of Virginia. The agency originated out of the Virginia Department of Motor Ve ...
forced their way into Williams Hall and began rounding up the protesters. Once inside the building the police discovered bomb making materials and determined that the students had apparently intended to build a firebomb. The first few protesters were dragged out of the building; the rest left peacefully and were arrested and taken to the Montgomery County jail. The students involved in the seizure, were suspended from Virginia Tech and given twenty-four hours to remove their belongings from campus after being released from jail.
Several more anti-war protests occurred at Virginia Tech during the early 1970s but none turned violent.
Late 20th century
The university continued to expand through the last quarter of the 20th century. In 1975 William E. Lavery, who had joined the Virginia Tech faculty in 1966, took over as president when Dr. Hahn left the university to join Georgia-Pacific
Georgia-Pacific LLC is an American pulp and paper company based in Atlanta, Georgia, and is one of the world's largest manufacturers and distributors of tissue, pulp, paper, toilet and paper towel dispensers, packaging, building products and r ...
.
Desperate for additional farmland for the support of teaching, research, and extension programs in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Virginia Tech acquired Kentland Farm on December 31, 1986. Virginia Tech secretly traded about 250 acres of research orchards adjacent to a commercial area that would soon become Christiansburg's main shopping district to a group of developers for the historic but long fallow
Fallow is a farming technique in which arable land is left without sowing for one or more vegetative cycles. The goal of fallowing is to allow the land to recover and store organic matter while retaining moisture and disrupting pest life cycles ...
1,785-acre Kentland property. The developers on the other end of the swap, one of whom was a former Tech athletics official, quickly sold 40 acres of the former university farmland for $2.7 million. News of the land swap, and especially the fact that it was done behind closed doors, sparked outrage.
Also in 1986, Virginia Tech became embroiled in an athletic scandal sparked by allegations of illegal recruiting, the bitter departure of two athletic directors in less than a year and millions of dollars of debt run up by the university's sports program due to mismanagement of financial resources, million dollar coaching contracts, and lavish expense accounts for athletics officials that led to a rebuke from Governor of Virginia
The governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia serves as the head of government of Virginia for a four-year term. The incumbent, Glenn Youngkin, was sworn in on January 15, 2022.
Oath of office
On inauguration day, the Governor-elect takes th ...
, Gerald Baliles
Gerald Lee Baliles (July 8, 1940 – October 29, 2019) was a Virginia lawyer and Democratic politician whose career spanned great social and technological changes in his native state. The 65th Governor of Virginia (from 1986 to 1990), the na ...
in 1987. Baliles, the featured speaker at the Virginia Tech's 115th annual commencement exercises, scolded the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors for the scandal and warned other state-supported institutions in Virginia not to put athletics ahead of academics.
Lavery developed a reorganization plan for the troubled Athletic Department, and Frank Beamer
Franklin Mitchell Beamer (born October 18, 1946) is a retired American college football coach, most notably for the Virginia Tech Hokies, and former college football player. He is the father of current South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Shane ...
was hired to replace Bill Dooley
William Gerald Dooley (May 19, 1934 – August 9, 2016) was an American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head coach at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1967–1977), Virginia Polytechni ...
as head football coach, but with negative publicity continuing to swirl within and around the university, he announced his resignation on October 16, 1987, effective December 31, 1987, to prevent polarization of the campus. He was succeeded as president by James Douglas McComas
James Douglas McComas (December 23, 1928 – February 10, 1994) was 14th President of Mississippi State University from 1975-1985, the 12th President of the University of Toledo from 1985 to 1988, and the 13th President of Virginia Polytechni ...
who served until 1994.
Due to the unpopularity of US involvement in the Vietnam War
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
enrollment in the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets spiraled downward through the 1970s and 80s. In 1991 through the efforts of Henry Dekker (Class of 1944) The Corps of Cadets Alumni Inc. was created to save the corps, whose numbers had declined to only a few hundred students. In 1992 the alumni organization initiated Corps Review, a newsletter that was expanded to a magazine in 2004 and targeted corps alumni. In the mid-1990s, the corps alumni organization set a goal of "1000 in 2000" and initiated a major campaign to push the number of cadets to 1,000 by the turn of the century. The goal was not reached, but membership in the corps did increase substantially by the end of the decade.
21st century
The early decades of this century have seen expansion across the university's institutions in both physical and population sizes. In 2001 Virginia Tech acquired the 326-acre Heth Farm adjacent to campus, increasing the College Farm to over 3,000 acres. The was created with a strategic partnership with the Carilion Clinic
Carilion Clinic, formerly known as Carilion Health System, is a Roanoke, Virginia-based non-profit integrated health care organization that provides care for nearly one million Virginians and West Virginians. Carilion owns and operates seven hosp ...
and the governor of Virginia. These years also brought about the rapid development of the university's professional schools of graduate education and business programs. Virginia Tech brought in over $500 million in research expenditures in 2014.
The establishment of scholarships for cadets and a resurgence of national patriotism after the events of September 11, 2001
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...
helped the corps recruit new cadets, increasing the ranks to 1,127 by 2018—the largest corps the university has seen since the mid-1960s. The Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets is poised to increase enrollment to 1,400 in coming years.
2007 mass shooting
On April 16, 2007, Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho
Seung-Hui Cho (, properly Cho Seung-hui; January 18, 1984 – April 16, 2007) was a Korean-born mass murderer responsible for the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007. Cho killed 32 people and wounded 17 others with two semi-automatic pistols on Apr ...
fatally shot 32 faculty members and students and wounded 17 others in two locations on campus before killing himself. The massacre is the deadliest mass shooting
There is a lack of consensus on how to define a mass shooting. Most terms define a minimum of three or four victims of gun violence (not including the shooter or in an inner city) in a short period of time, although an Australian study from 200 ...
on an American college campus, surpassing Charles Whitman
Charles Joseph Whitman (June 24, 1941 – August 1, 1966) was an American mass murderer who became known as the "Texas Tower Sniper". On August 1, 1966, Whitman used knives to kill his mother and his wife in their respective homes, then went to ...
's rampage at the University of Texas
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
in 1966. Although it was at the time the deadliest mass shooting committed by a lone gunman in U.S. history, it has since been surpassed by two shootings at an Orlando nightclub and an outdoor music festival in Las Vegas. It is the second-deadliest school massacre in U.S. history, surpassed only by the Bath School bombing in 1927 that killed 44.
The Virginia Tech massacre led to an intense nationwide debate over gun rights, gun safety and efficacy of gun-free zones. It prompted many states to introduce legislation to prohibit public colleges and universities from banning concealed weapons
Concealed carry, or carrying a concealed weapon (CCW), is the practice of carrying a weapon (usually a sidearm such as a handgun), either in proximity to or on one's person or in public places in a manner that hides or conceals the weapon's pr ...
on campus for permit holders. In 2013, at least 19 states introduced legislation to allow concealed carry on campus in some form, and in the 2014 legislative session, at least 14 states introduced similar legislation. In 2016, Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
passed a bill permitting faculty members to carry handguns on campus after notifying local law enforcement. In 2015, Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
became the eighth state to allow concealed weapons on college campuses. In December 2016, Governor John Kasich
John Richard Kasich Jr. ( ; born May 13, 1952) is an American politician, author, and television news host who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1983 to 2001 and as the 69th governor of Ohio from 2011 to 2019. A Republican, Kasic ...
signed a bill into law that lifted Ohio's statewide ban on firearms on college campuses, leaving the decision to the institutions. In 2017, Georgia became the tenth state to prohibit colleges and universities from banning concealed weapons on campus. Virginia law allows individual institutions to make the decision whether to allow concealed weapons on campus, but Virginia Tech continues to ban concealed carry permit holders from carrying guns on campus.
Innovation Campus and further growth
After Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...
unveiled its second headquarters in Crystal City, Virginia
Crystal City is an urban neighborhood in the southeastern corner of Arlington County, Virginia, south of downtown Washington, D.C. Due to its extensive integration of office buildings and residential high-rise buildings using underground corridor ...
, Virginia Tech announced plans to build a $1 billion graduate research center adjacent to the facility. The Virginia Tech Innovation Campus will be housed at a million-square-foot campus in Alexandria. It is expected to educate hundreds of graduate students. The Innovation Campus will focus on computer science and software engineering, with specializations in areas including artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and data analytics.
Due to rapid growth of incoming freshmen classes, the university announced in 2019 that it would offer 1,559 incoming, in-state freshmen financial incentives to skip the 2019–20 school year in Blacksburg. Expecting a larger-than-planned class size, the university budgeted $3.3 million for the endeavor. Virginia Tech also waived the requirement that freshmen live on campus for the 2019–20 school year, leased an off-campus Holiday Inn
Holiday Inn is an American chain of hotels based in Atlanta, Georgia. and a brand of IHG Hotels & Resorts. The chain was founded in 1952 by Kemmons Wilson, who opened the first location in Memphis, Tennessee that year. The chain was a division ...
, and converted its on-campus hotel to house students.
Organization and administration
Virginia Tech is a public university and one of Virginia's two land-grant institutions. Its academic programs are administered by nine colleges, the Graduate School, and the Honors College.
Academics
Virginia Tech offers 116 bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...
programs through its nine undergraduate academic colleges, 160 master's and doctoral degree programs through the Graduate School, and a professional degree from the Virginia–Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine
The Virginia–Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine (also known as the Virginia–Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine) is a state-supported college of two states, Virginia and Maryland, filling the need for veterinary medicine educ ...
. In addition, the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Research Institute, is a public/private partnership jointly managed by Virginia Tech and the Carilion Clinic
Carilion Clinic, formerly known as Carilion Health System, is a Roanoke, Virginia-based non-profit integrated health care organization that provides care for nearly one million Virginians and West Virginians. Carilion owns and operates seven hosp ...
founded on January 3, 2007.
Admissions
Virginia Tech received a record number of nearly 22,500 applications for the fall 2015 freshman class, an increase of 7.6% from the previous year's 20,897 applications for an overall admissions rate of 65.8%. The typical student offered admission had a high-school grade point average of 4.00, with the middle 50 percent ranging from 3.84 and 4.27. The average cumulative SAT score was 1250 (out of 1600), with a middle range ranging from 1160 to 1340. Of the 5,518 students who accepted the offers of admission (for an admissions yield of 38%), 18 percent accepted under the Early Decision Plan. The Office of Undergraduate Admissions is located within the Visitor and Undergraduate Admissions Center.
Virginia Tech offers a highly selective Honors College
Honors colleges and honors programs are special accommodation constituent programs at public and private universities – and also public two-year institutions of higher learning – that include, among other things, supplemental or alternativ ...
, which provides undergraduate students 11 different ways to earn Honors credits towards one of the five Honors degree options. Once admitted, Honors students are required to maintain a 3.6 GPA in order to remain in the program. Roughly one-fourth of the approximately 1,600 University Honors students live in one of the two University Honors residential halls, the Honors Residential College located in East Ambler-Johnston and the Hillcrest Honors Community
The main campus of Virginia Tech is located in Blacksburg, Virginia; the central campus is roughly bordered by Prices Fork Road to the northwest, Plantation Road to the west, Main Street to the east, and U.S. Route 460 bypass to the south, althou ...
.
For the 2013–14 academic year, the Graduate School at Virginia Tech enrolled 6,723 graduate students (4,465 full-time; 2,258 part-time) in its masters and doctoral programs.
The Pamplin College of Business received 381 applications for its incoming Evening MBA program, and offered admission to 142. The class's average GMAT was 610, and mean undergraduate GPA was 3.4.
The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine in Roanoke, Va., received 4,403 applications for its eighth incoming class, the class of 2021, and offered admission to 42. The class's MCAT scores range was 503–520 (median 512, mean 512), and mean undergraduate GPA was 3.57.
Rankings
In '' U.S. News & World Report''s list of "2023 Best Colleges", Virginia Tech tied for 62nd overall among national universities, tied for 23rd among public ones, tied at 41st for "Most Innovative", ranked 156th in "Best Value Schools", and tied for 291st in "Top Performers on Social Mobility".
The Pamplin College of Business
The R.B. Pamplin College of Business (commonly known as Pamplin College of Business or Pamplin), is Virginia Tech's business school. Founded in 1965, it has more than 41,000 alumni. The current Dean is Robert Sumichrast. In 1986 the college was ren ...
's part-time MBA program was tied for 19th overall by ''U.S. News & World Report'' in 2020. The Master of Information Technology program, jointly sponsored by the Pamplin College of Business and the College of Engineering, is ranked No. 4 in ''U.S. News & World Report''s Best Online Graduate Computer Information Technology Programs. This interdisciplinary program is offered entirely online.
Programs in the College of Architecture and Urban Studies (CAUS) include architecture + design, landscape architecture, urban planning, and public administration. In its 2016 "America's Best Architecture & Design Schools" report, ''DesignIntelligence'' ranked the undergraduate architecture program 3rd nationally among both public and private universities. The graduate architecture program ranked 9th in the nation. For 2013, ''DesignIntelligence'' ranked the university's undergraduate and graduate landscape architecture programs No. 2 in the nation. In addition, ''DesignIntelligence'' ranked the university's undergraduate interior design program 6th and undergraduate industrial design program 3rd. The Planetizen 2012 Guide to Graduate Urban Planning Programs ranked Virginia Tech's MURP program as 19th. Virginia Tech's MURP program was also rated among the best programs in Technology, Land Use Planning, Environmental Planning, and Growth Management.
The College of Natural Resources and Environment's wood science and forest products program accredited by the Society of Wood Science and Technology
A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societi ...
.
''Kiplinger's Personal Finance
''Kiplinger's Personal Finance'' ( ) is an American personal finance magazine published by Kiplinger since 1947. It claims to be the first American personal finance magazine and to deliver "sound, unbiased advice in clear, concise language". It ...
'' places Virginia Tech 20th in its 2019 ranking of 174 best value public colleges in the United States. In 2018, ''CEOWORLD magazine'' ranked the undergraduate architecture program 3rd nationally. The graduate architecture program ranked 14th.
Student affairs rankings
Virginia Tech received the following rankings from The Princeton Review
The Princeton Review is an education services company providing tutoring, test preparation and admission resources for students. It was founded in 1981. and since that time has worked with over 400 million students. Services are delivered by 4,0 ...
in its 2017 ''Best 380 Colleges'' Rankings:
Research
![Burruss Hall, Virginia Tech](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Burruss_Hall%2C_Virginia_Tech.JPG)
Virginia Tech's research and development expenditures (R&D) were $542 million in fiscal year 2019, which ranked 48th among education institutions in the nation and 2nd in the state of Virginia according to the National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...
. As a result, Virginia Tech marked its 15th consecutive year of research growth, with the university's research portfolio more than doubling from $192.7 million in fiscal year 2000. The only Virginia institution in the top 50 of the NSF's rankings for research expenditures, Virginia Tech is No. 23 among public universities. The university's research expenditures rank it in the top 5 percent of more than 900 research universities and colleges. Each year, the university receives thousands of awards to conduct research from an ever-expanding base of sponsors. Researchers pursue new discoveries in agriculture, biotechnology, information and communication technology, human health, transportation, energy management (including leadership in fuel-cell technology and power electronics), security, sustainability, and a wide range of other engineering, scientific, social science, and creative fields. This research led to 36 patents and 17 license and option agreements in fiscal year 2013.
Fralin Life Science Institute
The Fralin Life Science Institute is an expansion of the Fralin Biotechnology Center, which was established in 1991. Research at the institute is focused on the areas of vector-borne disease; infectious disease and microbial sciences; plant sciences; obesity; cancer biology; and ecology and organismal biology.
Biocomplexity Institute of Virginia Tech
The Biocomplexity Institute of Virginia Tech
The Biocomplexity Institute of Virginia Tech (formerly the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute) is a research organization specializing in bioinformatics, computational biology, and systems biology. The institute has more than 250 personnel, inclu ...
, formerly known as the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, is a bioinformatics
Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field that develops methods and software tools for understanding biological data, in particular when the data sets are large and complex. As an interdisciplinary field of science, bioinformatics combi ...
, computational biology
Computational biology refers to the use of data analysis, mathematical modeling and computational simulations to understand biological systems and relationships. An intersection of computer science, biology, and big data, the field also has fo ...
, and systems biology
Systems biology is the computational modeling, computational and mathematical analysis and modeling of complex biological systems. It is a biology-based interdisciplinary field of study that focuses on complex interactions within biological syst ...
research facility that opened in 2000 on Virginia Tech's main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. The institute houses more than 200 employees and multiple supercomputing clusters, and has more than $109 million in active research awards.
Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI)
The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) was founded as the Center for Transportation Research in 1988, and employs more than 350 personnel. VTTI has more than $125 million in active research awards, and has a mission to save lives, save time, save money, and protect the environment
Environment most often refers to:
__NOTOC__
* Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally
* Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...
. It is the second largest university-level transportation institute in the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, and the largest group of driving safety researchers in the world. Facilities include the , two-lane, fully instrumented Virginia Smart Road
The Virginia Smart Road, also known as simply the Smart Road or Smart Highway, is a short, limited access road in Montgomery County, Virginia, used for the testing of pavement technologies and as a proving ground for new transportation technologie ...
; connected-vehicle test beds in Southwest and Northern Virginia; more than 83,000 square feet of office and laboratory space; the VTTI/Center for Injury Biomechanics Crash Sled Lab; and the National Tire Research Center in Southern Virginia. These laboratories include an asphalt lab, fully equipped garages, instrumentation bays, and a machine shop for working on VTTI's vehicle fleet.
VTTI develops and tests advanced transportation safety devices, techniques, and innovative applications. VTTI's research impacts public policy in transportation, notably through research into distracted driving and commercial hour-of-service.
VTTI conducts applied research to address transportation challenges from various perspectives: vehicle, driver, infrastructure, materials, and environment. Most notable among VTTI endeavors are its naturalistic driving studies. These studies particularly utilize VTTI's data acquisition systems, which gather continuous video and driving performance data in real-world driving conditions. These systems have been installed in nearly 4,000 passenger vehicles, commercial trucks and motor coaches, and motorcycles.
Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS)
Since 2005, the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS) has made efforts to build capacity at the intersection of engineering, science, biology, and the humanities. Thrust areas include nuclear engineering, nanoscale science and engineering, nano-bio interface, sustainable energy, safe and sustainable water, national security, cognition and communication systems, renewable materials, and emerging technologies. The first director was Roop L. Mahajan (2005–2016) and the current director is Dr. Stefan Duma (2016–present).
Virginia Tech Research Center – Arlington (VTRC-A)
The Virginia Tech Research Center – Arlington (VTRC-A) opened at 900 N. Glebe Road in June 2011. The building is located in the Ballston area of Arlington.
A number of established Virginia Tech research centers and institutes are located in this facility
Other areas of research
Other research conducted throughout the university's colleges and interdisciplinary groups includes high-performance computing; advanced materials; wireless telecommunication; housing; human and animal health; cognition, development, and behavior; the environment; and energy, including power electronics, biofuels, fuel cells, and solar-powered building structures.
* The School of Biomedical Engineering & Sciences partners with the College of Engineering
Engineering education is the activity of teaching knowledge and principles to the professional practice of engineering. It includes an initial education (bachelor's and/or master's degree), and any advanced education and specializations that ...
, Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Wake Forest University School of Medicine is the medical school of Wake Forest University, with two campuses located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. It is affiliated with Atrium Health Wake Forest ...
, and the College of Veterinary Medicine. Virginia Tech's research includes biomechanics, cellular transport, computational modeling, biomaterials, bioheat and mass transfer, biofluid mechanics, instrumentation, ergonomics, and tissue engineering.
* Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties Inc. (VTIP) was established in 1985 as a nonprofit corporation to support the mission of the university by protecting and licensing intellectual properties that result from research performed by Virginia Tech faculty, staff members, and students. During fiscal year 2012, 17 U.S. patents and six foreign patents were issued to VTIP, and 32 license and option agreements were signed. In addition, VTIP reported $2,269,991 in license revenue.
* The Virginia Tech Applied Research Corporation (VT-ARC), is a private nonprofit
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
corporation
A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and r ...
affiliated with Virginia Tech that was established in fall 2010. With offices in Northern Virginia
Northern Virginia, locally referred to as NOVA or NoVA, comprises several counties and independent cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. It is a widespread region radiating westward and southward from Washington, D.C. Wit ...
and Blacksburg, VT-ARC fosters applied research and development, and management of large contract research projects. VT-ARC researches in intelligence
Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can b ...
, cyber security
Computer security, cybersecurity (cyber security), or information technology security (IT security) is the protection of computer systems and networks from attack by malicious actors that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, the ...
and information technology
Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system (I ...
, national security
National security, or national defence, is the security and defence of a sovereign state, including its citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of government. Originally conceived as protection against military atta ...
, energy
In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of heat a ...
, and health care
Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...
.
* The Virginia Cooperative Extension
Virginia Cooperative Extension provides resources and educational outreach to the Commonwealth of Virginia’s more than seven million residents in the areas of agriculture and natural resources, family and consumer sciences, community viability, ...
programs are delivered through a network of faculty, 107 county and city offices, 11 agricultural research and Extension centers, and six 4-H educational centers. The system incorporates the faculty at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and through research and Extension efforts, the college helped elevate the state's agricultural exports to record numbers. In 2013, exports in the Commonwealth of Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States, Southeastern regions of the United States, between the East Coast of the United Stat ...
reached $2.85 billion.
* The Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center
The Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, known locally as the 'Corporate Research Center' or the 'CRC' or 'VTCRC', is a science park on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, comprising 33 completed buildings on of land. The CRC is ...
(VTCRC) is home to over 170 research, technology and support companies. The park is located in a mountain setting. An expansion on the northwest side of the park provides enough land to construct 15 buildings in addition to the 33 single- and multi-tenant buildings currently on-site. The VTCRC employs over 2,900 employees.
* The Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance
The Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance (VTIPG) is a major research center that serves federal government agencies, the Commonwealth of Virginia and local governments as well as nonprofit/civil society organizations, domestically and ...
is a nonprofit and public sector research and outreach institute for the university.
* The Center for Modeling Immunity to Enteric Pathogens is a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID, ) is one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). NIAID's ...
(NIAID)-funded program to model immune responses to gut pathogens.
* The Virginia Tech Metropolitan Institute (The CMI) conducts elemental and applied research on the dynamics of metropolitan complexities, such as demographics, environment, technology, design, transportation, and governance. MI is housed within the College of Architecture and Urban Studies (CAUS) and partners closely with the faculty of the School of Public and International Affairs
A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compul ...
(SPIA) while also reaching beyond the boundaries of department, college, or university, to bring together the richest collaboration of thinkers to each research question.
* The Virginia Tech Language and Culture Institute (LCI) provides language-related programs and services for academic and professional development. The institute was started in the 1960s, when members of the Blacksburg chapter of the American Association of University Women
The American Association of University Women (AAUW), officially founded in 1881, is a non-profit organization that advances equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, and research. The organization has a nationwide network of 170,000 ...
decided to volunteer their time teaching English. The women held free classes in church basements or their own homes to help the spouses of international students and faculty members learn English. In 2014 LCI opened a new state-of-the-art learning center in Fairfax, Virginia
The City of Fairfax ( ), colloquially known as Fairfax City, Downtown Fairfax, Old Town Fairfax, Fairfax Courthouse, FFX, or simply Fairfax, is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth ...
that provides language-related programs and services for academic and professional development both on the main campus in Blacksburg and within the National Capital Region.
* The Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC is in Roanoke, Virginia
Roanoke ( ) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 100,011, making it the 8th most populous city in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the largest city in Virginia west of Richmond. It is lo ...
and is an integral component of the new medical research and education initiative embodied by the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Fralin Biomedical Research Institute.
* The Institute for Society, Culture, and Environment (ISCE) was created in 2007 to support interdisciplinary research and scholarship.
*The Hume Center for National Security and Technology
Hume most commonly refers to:
* David Hume (1711–1776), Scottish philosopher
Hume may also refer to:
People
* Hume (surname)
* Hume (given name)
* James Hume Nisbet (1849–1923), Scottish-born novelist and artist
In fiction
* Hume, the ...
conducts research in the areas of cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and national security.
![War Memorial Gym Virginia Tech](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/War_Memorial_Gym_Virginia_Tech.JPG)
Campus
The Virginia Tech campus
The main campus of Virginia Tech is located in Blacksburg, Virginia; the central campus is roughly bordered by Prices Fork Road to the northwest, Plantation Road to the west, Main Street to the east, and U.S. Route 460 bypass to the south, althou ...
is in Blacksburg, Virginia
Blacksburg is an incorporated town in Montgomery County, Virginia, United States, with a population of 44,826 at the 2020 census. Blacksburg, as well as the surrounding county, is dominated economically and demographically by the presence of V ...
. Most buildings are built of limestone in a neo-Gothic style. Notable green spaces include the Hahn Horticulture Garden, Virginia Tech Duck Pond, and the old-growth forest, Stadium Woods.
The central campus is roughly bordered by Prices Fork Road to the northwest, Plantation Drive to the west, Main Street to the east, and US 460 Bypass to the south, though it has several thousand acres beyond the central campus.
In the center of the Blacksburg campus lies the Drillfield, a large oval field running northeast to southwest, encircled by a one-way street that is known as Drillfield Drive. The Drillfield's name, coined in 1926 after the completion of Virginia Tech's first real stadium, Miles Stadium
Miles Stadium was a college football stadium located on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg, Virginia. It was the home field of Virginia Tech's football team from 1926 to 1964, unt ...
, stems from its use by the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets
The Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets (VTCC) is the military component of the student body at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Cadets live together in residence halls, attend morning formation, wear a distinctive uniform, and recei ...
to conduct military drills. A waterway, Stroubles Creek, runs beneath the Drillfield on the south side. A three-sided conduit for the creek that retains the natural bed of the creek was installed in 1934, and, in 1971, the first two asphalt walks were added. The urban legend that the Drillfield is sinking at the rate of an inch per year has no basis in fact. In the summer of 2014, three dirt paths were paved as part of the university's master plan to improve the landscaping and pathways, add seating areas, and enhance path entrances around the Drillfield.
On the northwestern side of the Drillfield stand most of the university's academic and administrative buildings, including Burruss and McBryde Halls. On the southeastern side of the Drillfield stand most of the residential buildings, including students' residence halls, dining halls, and War Memorial Gym. Newman Library is on the eastern side of campus and connects to Torgersen Bridge, which spans the main road into campus, Alumni Mall. North of the Drillfield and northwest of Alumni Mall lies the Upper Quad, known to many students as military campus. The Upper Quad is home to the Corps of Cadets' barracks.
On the main campus in Blacksburg, most of the buildings incorporate Hokie Stone
Hokie Stone is a grey dolomite—limestone rock found near Blacksburg, in western Virginia. It gets its name from the traditional nickname attributed to students and alumni of Virginia Tech.
Hokie Stone is quarried by Virginia Tech for campus p ...
as a building material. In the 1990s, a Virginia Tech Board of Visitors committee expressed an intent that henceforth Hokie Stone should be used in all buildings constructed on the central campus. In 2010, the board of visitors passed a resolution making that sentiment official university policy.
Hokie Stone is generally gray, shaded by hues of brown and pink. It is mined from various quarries in Southwest Virginia, Tennessee, and Alabama, one of which has been operated by the university since the 1950s. Most buildings on campus incorporate Hokie Stone into their design, but there are a few notable exceptions. For example, several older buildings on the Upper Quad, including Lane Hall, are constructed of red brick, as are Hillcrest Hall and Donaldson Brown. Also, a number of academic buildings were not constructed using Hokie Stone, as they were built before the institution of the rule mandating its use in all new university buildings.
Extended campuses
The university has established five branch campuses:
* Virginia Tech Hampton Roads
Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water in the United States that serves as a wide channel for the James River, James, Nansemond River, Nansemond and Elizabeth River (Virginia), Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's ...
Centers, Newport News
Newport News () is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the 5th most populous city in Virginia and 140th most populous city in the Uni ...
and Virginia Beach
Virginia Beach is an independent city located on the southeastern coast of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The population was 459,470 at the 2020 census. Although mostly suburban in character, it is the most populous city ...
* Northern Virginia Center, Falls Church
Falls Church is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,658. Falls Church is included in the Washington metropolitan area.
Taking its name from The Falls Church, an 18th-century Churc ...
(National Capital Region)
* Virginia Tech Richmond Center
The Virginia Tech Richmond Center in the Richmond Region is responsible for carrying out the university's three missions – research, education, and outreach. The Richmond Center's presence was established in 2001 and has since created facilitie ...
, Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, California, ...
* Virginia Tech Roanoke Center, Roanoke
* Virginia Tech Southwest Center, Abingdon
Northern Virginia Center (National Capital Region)
Virginia Tech's presence in the Washington Metropolitan Area
The Washington metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the National Capital Region, is the metropolitan area centered on Washington, D.C. The metropolitan area includes all of Washington, D.C. and parts of the states of Maryland, Virgin ...
links regional graduate education and outreach programs that are consistent with the university's strategic research areas of excellence: energy materials and environment, social and individual transformation, health, food, and nutrition, and innovative technologies and complex systems.
Supporting the university's missions is the Virginia Tech National Capital Region. The university has established collaborations and partnerships with local and federal agencies, nonprofit research organizations, businesses, and other institutions of higher education. Current locations include Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
, Arlington, Fairfax, Falls Church
Falls Church is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,658. Falls Church is included in the Washington metropolitan area.
Taking its name from The Falls Church, an 18th-century Churc ...
, Leesburg, Manassas, and Middleburg.
Biomedical Technology Development and Management is an executive program in the National Capital Region. The Master of Science in Biomedical Technology Development and Management (BTDM) is a graduate level degree created by Virginia Tech in response to future directions in medical product discovery and development and the emerging needs of industry and regulatory agencies. Curriculum for the degree program integrates science with technology, management, ethics, and public policy, and draws on the strengths of Virginia Tech in science, industrial and systems engineering, business and management, and medical research programs.
In 2014, the university opened a Language and Culture Institute location in Fairfax. The institute offers intensive English language programs for college-age students, professionals, and diplomats.
International campuses
Caribbean Center for Education and Research (CCER)
Located on the eastern tip of the Dominican Republic, the Caribbean Center for Education and Research (CCER) in Punta Cana provides a base for Virginia Tech faculty to conduct research as well as instruct students on biodiversity, environmental and social sustainability, global issues in natural resources, and hotel and tourism management. The center is the product of a partnership between Virginia Tech and the PUNTACANA Ecological Foundation (PCEF) and the PUNTACANA Resort and Club. PCEF maintains a natural forest reserve, of protected coral reef, freshwater lagoons and coastal mangroves.
Center for European Studies and Architecture (CESA)
Renamed the Steger Center for International Scholarship in 2014, the Center for European Studies and Architecture (CESA) is the university's European campus center and base for operations and support of its programs in the region. The center's location in Riva San Vitale
Riva San Vitale is a municipality in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland, located in the district of Mendrisio.
History
Riva San Vitale is first mentioned in 774 as ''Primo Sobenno''. In 1115 it was mentioned as ''Ripa Sancti Vitalis''.
The ...
, Ticino
Ticino (), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino,, informally ''Canton Ticino'' ; lmo, Canton Tesin ; german: Kanton Tessin ; french: Canton du Tessin ; rm, Chantun dal Tessin . ...
, the Italian-speaking canton of Switzerland
The 26 cantons of Switzerland (german: Kanton; french: canton ; it, cantone; Sursilvan and Surmiran: ; Vallader and Puter: ; Sutsilvan: ; Rumantsch Grischun: ) are the member states of the Swiss Confederation. The nucleus of the Swiss C ...
, is also close to major northern Italian cities such as Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
.
Agricultural Research and Extension Centers
Virginia Tech has several agricultural research and extension centers located throughout the Commonwealth dedicated to improving agricultural practices and the quality of life of Virginia citizens. The Virginia Tech Agricultural Research and Extension Centers are: Alson H. Smith, Jr., Eastern Shore, Eastern Virginia, Hampton Roads, Middleburg, Reynolds Homestead, Shenandoah Valley, Southern Piedmont, Southwest Virginia, Tidewater, and Virginia Seafood.
Power plant
Distinguished by a towering 180-foot-high radial brick smokestack, the university's coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when dea ...
fired Central Steam Power Plant generates an annual steam output greater than 943 billion BTUs and provides campus buildings with a portion of their heat, hot water, and electricity needs. Nearly 90 percent of campus buildings are connected to the plant through an extensive network of tunnels—the main access point is on the Drillfield—and more than of steam lines and piping provide heat to more than 6.8 million square feet of campus buildings. Only personnel with confined-space training are permitted to enter the tunnel system, comprising of inaccessible tunnel and of piping; of direct-bury piping in the ground; and of accessible tunnel and of piping.
Student life
There are more than 700 student organizations on campus. Some of these organizations include Bolt at Virginia Tech which builds electric racing motorcycles; PRISM a student-run ad agency; BASIS at Virginia Tech the largest student-run fixed income portfolio group in the nation managing $5 million; the Chocolate Milk Club; and a Young Life
Young Life is an evangelical Christian organization based in Colorado Springs, Colorado which focuses on young people in middle school, high school, and college.
Week-long Summer camps are a major focus, and these have a definite evangelizing asp ...
Chapter. Over 9,300 Virginia Tech students reside on campus.
The VT campus is home to twenty-eight residence halls housing both undergraduate and graduate students, and several more are either in the planning stages or under construction. The university has on-campus housing for graduate and professional students who are single; the housing may not accommodate families and spouses.
Typically, all freshmen are required to live on-campus. However, for the 2019 application year, first year students had the opportunity to live off-campus. This was the result of an unexpectedly large admission rate. In order to live on-campus, students must fill out the Virginia Tech Housing and Dining Contract, which requires students to purchase a major meal plan.
Campus residence halls
Corps of Cadets
Until 1923, every able-bodied male was required to participate for four years in the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets. The requirement was changed to two years until 1964, when participation became voluntary. Members of the ROTC program are required to participate in the Corps of Cadets. Virginia Tech remains one of three public universities in the United States with both an active corps of cadets and regular civilian students on its campus (Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...
and the University of North Georgia
The University of North Georgia (UNG) is a public senior military college with multiple campuses in Georgia. It is part of the University System of Georgia. The university was established on January 8, 2013 by a merger of North Georgia College ...
are the other two).
More than 1,000 cadets reside on the campus of Virginia Tech. The Corps of Cadets Community is located in the Upper Quad, which features some of the oldest buildings on campus. Cadet dorms are also known as "cadet barracks". Two new dormitories were constructed on the Upper Quad to house all of the cadets. Pearson Hall replaced Rasche Hall in November 2015, and in August 2017, Brodie Hall was replaced by the New Cadet Dorm (a.k.a. "New Brodie"). Former cadet dorms, Thomas Hall and Monteith Hall were demolished in 2017. Their sites are planned to be used as green space for the foreseeable future.
Greek life
Virginia Tech hosts a number of fraternities and sororities across four governing councils. There are 23 IFC fraternities and 13 National Panhellenic Conference
The National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) is an umbrella organization for 26 (inter)national women's Fraternities and sororities, sororities throughout the United States and Canada. Each member group is autonomous as a social, Greek alphabet#Use ...
sororities recognized at Virginia Tech. The fraternity and sorority community currently encompasses more than 5,500 students which represents just about 20 percent of the undergraduate population. The Oak Lane Community houses those sororities and fraternities which have houses chartered on campus. A number of fraternities have chartered off-campus housing. There are also numerous other academic and service related sororities and fraternities at the school, as well as various historically Black and cultural interest organizations.
There are also a number of fraternities at Virginia Tech that are not officially recognized by the university. These organizations have continued to operate off campus in Blacksburg despite being suspended for violations of university policies. These fraternities include: Center Club (formerly Sigma Chi
Sigma Chi () International Fraternity is one of the largest North American fraternal literary societies. The fraternity has 244 active (undergraduate) chapters and 152 alumni chapters across the United States and Canada and has initiated more tha ...
), Delta Kappa Epsilon, Kappa Sigma, Lambda Chi Alpha, Gold Club (formerly Pi Kappa Phi), Omicron Alpha Kappa (formerly Kappa Delta Rho), Theta Delta Chi, and Sigma Alpha Epsilon. While several of these chapters are still chartered by their national organization they are not currently recognized by Virginia Tech.
Athletics
Virginia Tech teams are known as the Hokies. The HokieBird is a turkey (bird), turkey-like creature whose form has evolved from the original school mascot of the Fighting Gobbler. While the modern HokieBird still resembles a Fighting Gobbler, the word "Hokie" has all but replaced Fighting Gobbler in terms of colloquial use. The term originated from the ''Old Hokie'' spirit yell, in which there was no particular meaning indicated for the word.
They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level (Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) sub-level for football), primarily competing in the Atlantic Coast Conference
The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...
(ACC) for all sports since the 2004–05 season. The Hokies previously competed in the Big East Conference (1979–2013), Big East Conference from 2000–01 to 2003–04 (football program from 1991–92 to 1999–2000); the Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) from 1995–96 to 1999–2000; and the Metro Conference from 1978–79 to 1994–95.
Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, soccer, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field and wrestling. Women's sports include basketball, cross country, field hockey, golf, lacrosse, rowing, soccer, softball, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field and volleyball.
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.
During the early years of VPI, a rivalry developed between it and Virginia Military Institute. This long-standing rivalry lasted nine decades, from 1894 to 1984, and developed into the original Military Classic of the South an annual football game between VMI and VPI usually held on Thanksgiving (United States), Thanksgiving Day at Victory Stadium in Roanoke, Virginia
Roanoke ( ) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 100,011, making it the 8th most populous city in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the largest city in Virginia west of Richmond. It is lo ...
. That series ended after the 1984 season; VMI had elected to play at the Division I-AA level, now Division I FCS, after the NCAA's 1978 divisional split for football, and the schools' wide disparity in size after Virginia Tech's rapid expansion in the 1960s and 70s had led to a similar imbalance in results. Another long-standing and important rivalry is between Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia. The Virginia-Virginia Tech rivalry strengthened in concurrence with both UVA's and Tech's growth during the 1960s and 1970s and this is now the Hokies' primary program-wide athletic rivalry. The two schools compete in football for the Governor's "Commonwealth Cup" each season.
Virginia Tech's fight song
A fight song is a rousing short song associated with a sports team. The term is most common in the United States and Canada. In Australia, Mexico, and New Zealand these songs are called the team anthem, team song, or games song. First associated ...
, "Tech Triumph", was written in 1919 and remains in use today. The song is played at sporting events by both the Virginia Tech student band, The Marching Virginians, and the regimental Corps of Cadets' band, the Highty Tighties. The "Old Hokie" spirit yell, written in 1896 and used to this day, is familiar to many Virginia Tech fans. This chant is also where the word "Hoki" (since modified to "Hokie") originally appeared.
The most prominent athletic facilities are Lane Stadium, Cassell Coliseum
Cassell Coliseum is a 10,052-seat multi-purpose arena in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States, that opened in 1962. It is home to the Virginia Tech Hokies men's and women's basketball teams, wrestling team, and volleyball team.
History
Built as a ...
, English Field, Thompson Field, Tech Softball Park, Rector Field House, the Beamer-Lawson Indoor Practice Facility, and the Christiansburg Aquatic Center.
File:Cassell Coliseum wide shot.jpg, Cassell Coliseum
File:VT Lacrosse and Soccer Stadium.JPG, Thompson Field
People
Faculty
Notable current and former faculty at Virginia Tech include Romesh Batra (biomedical engineering), Patricia Dove (geosciences), Marc Edwards (professor), Marc Edwards (civil and environmental engineering), Roger Ekirch (history), Nikki Giovanni (English), Michael Hochella (geosciences), Liviu Librescu (engineering science and mechanics), Tim Luke (political science), Linsey Marr (civil and environmental engineering), Xiang-Jin Meng (virology), Arun Phadke (electrical engineering), James I. Robertson Jr., James Robertson (history), Arthur Squires (chemical engineering), James Thorp (electrical engineering), John J. Tyson, John Tyson (biology), and Gary Wamsley (public administration).
There have been 17 university heads for Virginia Tech since its founding in 1872. The current president is Timothy Sands (previously provost of Purdue University), who has held the post since 2014.
Alumni
Virginia Tech has over 240,000 alumni internationally and from all 50 states. The Virginia Tech Alumni Association has over 100 chapters and has been consistently regarded as one of the best in the nation.
One of six senior military colleges in the United States, Virginia Tech has produced numerous military leaders, among them 97 generals and admirals, including Carlton D. Everhart II, Commander, Air Mobility Command; Thomas C. Richards, Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe; Lance L. Smith, Commander, United States Joint Forces Command; Jody A. Breckenridge, Commander, United States Coast Guard, Coast Guard Pacific Area; William G. Boykin, Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, Commander, John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center; and Wallace H. Robinson, Director, Defense Supply Agency.
Eight alumni have been awarded the Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor. ...
, the highest award bestowed by the United States armed forces: Antoine August Michel Gaujot, Julien Edmund Victor Gaujot, Earle Davis Gregory, Herbert Joseph Thomas, Jimmie W. Monteith, Robert Edward Femoyer, Richard Thomas Shea, Jr., Gary Lee Miller; their names are inscribed on a marble cenotaph at the center of War Memorial Court on the Blacksburg campus.
Many VT alumni have also served in civilian leadership roles: Chet Culver, 41st governor of Iowa; William Dodd (ambassador), William Dodd, ambassador to Germany; Linda Swartz Taglialatela, ambassador to Barbados; Rob Wittman, member of the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives; Tony McNulty, member of Parliament for Harrow East; Deborah Hersman, 12th chairperson of the National Transportation Safety Board; Regina Dugan, 19th director, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; John H. Thompson, Director of the United States Census Bureau; Lawrence Koontz, Senior Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, and William K. Barlow and Matt Lohr, members of the Virginia House of Delegates.
Outside of public service, Virginia Tech alumni have made notable contributions in the fields of business, literature, music and journalism. These include children's book author and Newbery Medal recipient Kwame Alexander; jazz guitarist Charlie Byrd; business executive Donaldson Brown; Boeing president and CEO Dave Calhoun; and television news anchor Hoda Kotb.
Notable Virginia Tech athletes include Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Frank Beamer
Franklin Mitchell Beamer (born October 18, 1946) is a retired American college football coach, most notably for the Virginia Tech Hokies, and former college football player. He is the father of current South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Shane ...
, Allan Bristow, Kam Chancellor, Bimbo Coles, Dell Curry, Ace Custis, Renee Dennis, Bill Dooley
William Gerald Dooley (May 19, 1934 – August 9, 2016) was an American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head coach at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1967–1977), Virginia Polytechni ...
, Jim Druckenmiller, Terrell Edmunds, Tremaine Edmunds, Bud Foster, Kendall Fuller, Kyle Fuller, Chuck Hartman, Sally Miles, Charles Moir, Johnny Oates, Bruce Smith, Tyrod Taylor, DeAngelo Hall, Isaiah Ford, Angela Tincher O'Brien, Angela Tincher, and Michael Vick.
See also
* Fighting Gobblers
* Hahn Horticulture Garden
* List of forestry universities and colleges
* Virginia Tech commencement speakers
Notes
References
Notes
External links
*
Virginia Tech Athletics website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Virginia Polytechnic Institute And State University
Virginia Tech,
Virginia Tech shooting
Engineering universities and colleges in Virginia
Land-grant universities and colleges
Public universities and colleges in Virginia, Virginia Tech
Technological universities in the United States
United States senior military colleges
Education in Montgomery County, Virginia
Education in Virginia Beach, Virginia
Science and technology in Virginia
Educational institutions established in 1872
1872 establishments in Virginia
Universities and colleges accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
Blacksburg, Virginia
Tourist attractions in Montgomery County, Virginia