Virginia Tech contributes significantly to social and economic progress at the regional, state and national levels through its teaching, research and public service activities. The study is motivated by the current debate on the appropriate level of support for higher education in Virginia's largest university. This study measures the benefits of the university's undergraduate teaching mission. The results suggest that a VT undergraduate degree significantly increases the lifetime earnings of the graduates and also leads to several other benefits to the graduate, to his/her family, and to society. This study can help policy-makers to better understand the important contribution of Virginia Tech's teaching mission to society, and thus make more-informed decisions regarding the appropriate level of support for higher education. / Master of Science

At the crossing of a strong architectural edge and an axis line, it is necessary to articulate the intersection and acknowledge the moment. But what if, at the point of this intersection, other contextual factors work against the articulation? What if there is an opportunity to not only mark the intersection, but in doing so strengthen the edge condition, elevate the importance of the axis line and provide a celebrated threshold experience? This project looks at this very condition as it exists within the context of the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. At the intersection of the axis of symmetry for the campus and the building edge along Perry Street, there is no acknowledgment of this crossing. In fact, in its present condition, the intersection is beset by a breakdown in the edge condition and only a trace of the powerful axis line. In addressing the challenges that plague this existing condition, this project will seek to achieve four things with respect to the Virginia Tech campus, at large: 1. Articulate the termination point of the axis of symmetry for the campus by strengthening the pedestrian path that runs along the axis providing a clearly defined route to the Drill Field. 2. A redefinition of the edge along Perry Street, repairing the breech in the building wall and connecting the components that make up the edge. 3. Strengthen intersection of the edge and the axis/path line by developing a new pedestrian portal into the heart of campus thereby providing a formal entry point along an edge that currently does not articulate the entry points into campus. 4. Develop the architectural context within the site, bridging the divide between the architectural traditions of the campus core with the modernist vernacular of the Perry Street Edge. / Master of Architecture

Traditional viewshed analyses distinguish between those areas which can be seen from a given observation point and those which cannot be seen. Given a surface digital elevation model (DEM) and observer properties (location and height), the algorithm computes whether or not each target cell is within the observer's line-of-sight. Just as significant and robust (although yet not commercially available) would be a tool that could search local neighborhoods of the observer to determine if different tower placements could achieve significantly improved viewsheds. This thesis customizes the popular ArcGIS software to demonstrate the implementation of such a tool. The use of different sampling methods specifies locations to site observation points throughout the Virginia Tech central campus, characterized by having large open areas in an otherwise urban environment. Analysis of the viewsheds calculated both before and after applying the optimization tool determined the amount of coverage gained by moving the observer short distances across the ground. In large open areas (Drillfield, parking lots), optimization achieved minimal gain, however in areas near buildings, significant increases in visible area were possible by moving the observer to the top of a nearby building. This research rejects the common belief that the best location for an observer or transmitter in open areas is always at the highest elevation point. However, in settings with tremendous vertical differences over small horizontal distances (ground to roof), the belief is justified. / Master of Science

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I vår studie har vi undersökt hur journalister gestaltar tre amerikanska skolskjutningar i svensk och amerikansk press. Skolskjutningarna ägde rum på Columbine High School, Virginia Tech och Sandy Hook Elementary School. Vi har analyserat sammanlagt 91 texter publicerade i Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter och New York Times. Teorierna vi har valt till vår studie är gestaltningsteori, media events och moralpanik. Kvantitativt har vi undersökt hur journalisterna valt att gestalta gärningsmännen och vilka som fått komma till tals i artiklarna. Kvalitativt har vi närstuderat 12 texter med fokus på skillnaderna mellan de svenska och amerikanska journalisternas gestaltning. Slutsatserna vi kan dra från vår studie är att rapporteringen skiljer sig åt mellan svenska Dagens Nyheter och amerikanska New York Times. De amerikanska journalisterna har större benägenhet att gestalta överlevande i skolskjutningar som “hjältar” och gärningsmännen som “onda personer”. De svenska journalisterna dramatiserar händelserna med fokus på sorg och tragedi. Både de svenska och amerikanska journalisterna väljer att gestalta gärningsmännen som unika individer.

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, June, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Liberty University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Massacre tracks three intersecting narratives during and after a fictionalized recounting of the infamous Virginia Tech massacre. In each characters’ search of individual re-creation and autonomy, they encounter the failings of their person, their families, their institutions, and their country. Formed by the great and impossible trauma that bound them, massacre survivors Connor and Tara navigate the tricky and deceitful terrain of a marriage that should never have been.

On April 16, 2007, Virginia Tech became the site of the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history (Breed, 2007). Because of the tragedy at Virginia Tech, news reports all over the U.S. probed about what caused the perpetrator, Seung-Hui Cho, to kill 32 students and faculty members. As the mainstream media talked about the possible causes, they ultimately pointed out that Cho's silence should have been detected as a warning sign to his violent rampage. As a result, the media named Cho a "silent killer." Due to the U.S. media's construction of silence through Cho, I argue that the news coverage helped perpetuate the notion that silence is not only a negative attribute in education, but it is also a dangerous behavior that can pose a threat to people's safety. Therefore, I ask in this dissertation, how did the news coverage of Virginia Tech serve as a public pedagogy of silence? That is, I argue that the news coverage of Virginia Tech served as what Giroux (1994) calls "public pedagogy" in which the media educate and influence the public about how silence should be understood in the classroom. With the media's construction of silence through Cho, it is timely to address how the meaning of silence has changed pedagogically. Even though numerous scholars have written about silence, very few--if any--frame silence within the performance paradigm, specifically in pedagogy. In this dissertation, I introduce silence as a pedagogical performance by using critical communication pedagogy as a theoretical framework to deconstruct problematic media constructions of silence. Through the use of cultural criticism, I analyze 36 mainstream U.S. mediated texts (e.g., newspapers, magazines, and news transcripts) to understand how the media rhetorically defined and constructed silence as a dangerous behavior. I also use an interview as part of multi-methodological approach to cultural criticism, adding clarification on how the surveillance of student behaviors, bodies, and pedagogical practices that do not fit the image of safety affect students in university classrooms.

The success of internationalization depends heavily on faculty support and engagement. Nonetheless, the motivations of faculty heavily engaged in international activities—described by scholars as champions and advocates—are not well understood, despite the fact that their efforts have been labeled as critical to advancing such efforts. This study examined the perceived motivating factors of faculty members heavily engaged in international activities at Virginia Tech, a university that created a strategic plan aimed at increasing such endeavors in 2004. Interviews with identified champions and advocates of internationalization in two colleges at Virginia Tech—the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences and the Pamplin College of Business—sought to explore the benefits and elements that led these faculty members to become and remain engaged in international activities. This study also investigated whether faculty members' involvement in international concerns could be linked to the influence of factors proposed in the faculty engagement literature as commitment enabling. Specifically, this research sought to test Wade and Demb's (2009) Faculty Engagement Model, which asserts that certain professional factors contribute to professors becoming involved in community engagement. This analysis found that five of the professional factors in Wade & Demb's (2009) model, discipline, status/rank, socialization, professional community and department support—are useful for examining faculty members' willingness and ability to engage in international activities. However, it also found that faculty member involvement is shaped by a convergence of professional, institutional and personal factors. These together enabled faculty members to begin and remain engaged in international activities. In addition, despite the rationales offered by leadership and through strategic plans for becoming engaged in international concerns, the most common motivating factors identified by champions and advocates were intrinsic or personal influences that are not captured in institutional efforts to internationalize. These findings suggest that although universities may create mission statements, strategic plans and policies to guide internationalization, the motivations of faculty members who undertake and implement such initiatives in their classrooms and through their research and outreach play a large part in whether and how such efforts will be realized. / Ph. D.