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Good morning, Blacksburg.
It’s Monday and maybe it’s the Pumpkin Spice Latte talking but it’s starting to feel like football weather to me. Which is perfect timing seeing as it’s 5 days to kickoff for the Hokies in Blacksburg. Cheers to that!
In today's Blacksburg Connect:
⚛️ A million dollars for reactor safety research at Tech
🏗️ 1,200 new beds between the Inn and the Duck Pond
Let’s get to it.
Upcoming Events
Monday, August 31st
Marlington Street / Grayland Drive partial closure — 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. (Atmos, flagging; through Thursday, September 3rd)
Spanish Conversations — 6:30–7:30 p.m. (Blacksburg Library, 200 Miller St)
Tuesday, September 1st
Parks & Rec fall registration, wave 1 — 9:00 a.m. (Active Adults and Joy Rides; youth / general fall wave is Tuesday, September 8th). 540-443-1100
Town Council work session — 11:00 a.m. (400 S Main)
Brick Blast — 4:30–5:30 p.m. (Blacksburg Library, 200 Miller St)
Planning Commission — 6:30 p.m. (300 S Main)
Wednesday, September 2nd
Blacksburg Farmers Market — 2:00–6:00 p.m. (Market Square Park, Roanoke St & Draper Rd / 100 Draper)
September Bluegrass Jam — 6:00–9:00 p.m. (Rising Silo, 2351 Glade Rd)
Market Square Jam: Indian Run Stringband — 7:00–9:00 p.m. (Market Square Park)
Sounds of Simon and Garfunkel — 7:30 p.m. (The Lyric, 135 College Ave) — $28 advance / $32 day of
Thursday, September 3rd
The Red Ferns at The Farmhouse, 6:00–9:00 PM (285 Ridinger St., Christiansburg)
Midnight Margaritas Mixology Tasting, 7:30 PM (1614 S. Main St.)
⚛️ A million dollars for reactor safety research at Tech
Rep. Morgan Griffith's office announced three federal awards to Virginia Tech over the last few weeks, including money for nuclear reactor safety, health technology research, and a NASA aviation project.
Here’s the breakdown
$1 million from NIST for a project called "Enhancing Nuclear Reactor Testing and Safety Through 21st Century Technologies." The nuclear money fits a regional pattern. Six days earlier, Griffith announced $1.415 million for the Energy DELTA Lab in Wise, which is studying whether former mine land can host advanced nuclear reactors.
$563,970 from Health and Human Services for research into technologies to improve human health. Griffith chairs the House Health Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over the agency that issued it.
Finally, NASA selected a Tech team as one of four university groups in the country to work on the future of flight, through its University Leadership Initiative. The three-year project, led by Darshan Sarojini, takes on aircraft certification — the safety-approval process a plane goes through before it's cleared to fly. Right now that happens late in development, so problems surface after a design is already built, and redesigns at that stage get expensive. Sarojini's team is building tools to fold those requirements in at the drawing-board stage. The other three awards went to Stanford, twice, and the University of Minnesota, for work including a Mach 4 propulsion system and machine-learning avionics. NASA is spending about $30 million across all four but didn't break out each school's share.
🏗️ 1,200 new beds between the Inn and the Duck Pond
Virginia Tech's Board of Visitors approved a new on-campus housing plan Wednesday, Cardinal News reports, replacing the Student Life Village the board scrapped last year after three years of planning. The university is doing several smaller projects instead of one big one.
New dormitories totaling 1,200 beds will go up between the Inn at Virginia Tech and the Duck Pond. Campbell, Hoge, Pritchard and Slusher halls get renovated in phases over the next nine years. Cardinal puts the total above $400 million, with Hoge and Pritchard not yet priced.
The same meeting scaled back Living Learning Communities, which group first-year students in shared halls by major or interest. Operating costs and auxiliary funding get cut in half. According to Cardinal, the board discussed eliminating the program entirely amid a debate over diversity, equity and inclusion before deciding against it. Three programs are exempt: Casa Maderni in Switzerland, the Corps of Cadets, and the Honors College residential program. The program drew more than 4,400 applications last year.
Blacksburg has been pushing for this. Undergraduate enrollment past 30,000 has strained off-campus housing and put the town and university at odds for years. Mayor Michael Sutphin told Cardinal the town has "been supportive for quite a while," and wants beds added in proportion to enrollment.
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