Virginia Tech

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, 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).[26]

VPI admitted its first female students in 1921 as civilian day students, 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 (now Old Dominion University).[27] 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.

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 is a co-educational research university and enrolls nearly 10,000 students and offers more than 150 undergraduate and graduate programs.[28]

Corps of Cadets on campus ca 1952

Jaguar Mark VII (left) and Chevrolet Deluxe cars parked in front of Patton Hall, ca 1952

In 1953 under the leadership of President Walter Stephenson Newman, 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 and largely practiced racial segregation 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, 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.[29]

VPI President T. Marshall Hahn, whose tenure ran from 1962 to 1974,[30] 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.[30] During Hahn's tenure, not only did the university graduate its first Rhodes Scholar, W.W. Lewis, Class of 1963,[31] 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.[32]

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.

During the Vietnam War students on college campuses across the nation protested the draft and U.S. involvement in the conflict. Despite its long history as a military school, 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.[33]

Tensions on campus reached the boiling point several days following the Kent State Shootings 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.[34] The administration responded quickly calling in law enforcement and early the following morning Virginia State Troopers 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.[33]

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. During his tenure as president, Lavery emphasized research, and expenditures in support of research totaled more than $70.2 million by fiscal year 1987, moving the university into the top 50 research institutions in the nation. He enhanced research opportunities by initiating the Corporate Research Center (CRC) and Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties (VTIP). During his 12-year term, the first two buildings were begun at the center and two more were planned. The CRC received an antenna to link Virginia Tech to the world via satellite, and the Extension division developed a series of 26 downlink sites throughout the state. Installation began on a new ROLM telecommunication system for the campus, the university purchased a supercomputer, and the first proposal was developed for what later became the Blacksburg Electronic Village.[35] Lavery placed a high priority on alleviating shortages of classroom, laboratory, and office space, and during his term the total inventory of available space increased by 50.1 percent. A $108 million construction program during his presidency included additions to Newman Library and the War Memorial Gymnasium and construction of Litton Reaves Hall, Johnston Student Center and a new dormitory to house 333 students with an attached dining facility, Cochrane Hall. Another $17.5 million funded a complex to house the Virginia–Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, which opened to students in 1980.[35]

Lavery hired the university’s first vice president for development, Charles Forbes, who launched a campaign to raise $50 million — then raised more than $118 million. Large contributions during his presidency included gifts from John Lee Pratt of $11 million to support engineering and agricultural programs and Marion Bradley Via of $3 million to establish the Harvey W. Peters Research Center and $5 million each to support the departments of civil engineering and electrical engineering. Robert B. Pamplin Sr. and Robert Pamplin Jr. gave $10 million to support the College of Business. Assets of the Virginia Tech Foundation grew from $6.2 million to $140.1 million during his term.[35]

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 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.[36]

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, Gerald Baliles 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.[37]

Lavery developed a reorganization plan for the troubled Athletic Department, and Frank Beamer was hired to replace Bill Dooley 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.[38] He was succeeded as president by James Douglas McComas who served until 1994.

Due to the unpopularity of US involvement in the Vietnam War enrollment in the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets spiraled downward through the 1970s and 80s. In 1991 through the efforts of Harry 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. During the mid 1990s, the corps alumni organization set an aggressive 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. Although the goal was not reached, membership in the corps did increase substantially by the end of the decade. [39]

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 the Virginia Tech campus increasing the College Farm to over 3000 acres.[40] The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Research Institute was created with a strategic partnership with the Carilion Clinic 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 a half-billion in research expenditures in 2014.[41]

The establishment of scholarships for cadets and a resurgence of national patriotism after the events of September 11, 2001 helped the corps to recruit new cadets increasing the ranks to 1127 by 2018 — the largest corps the university has seen since the mid 1960s.[39][42]The Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets is poised to increase enrollment to 1400 cadets in coming years.[43]

VT's 6th president, Dr. Paul Barringer

Following Amazon's unveiling of their second headquarters in Crystal City, VA, Virginia Tech announced plans to build a $1 billion graduate research center adjacent to Amazon's facility. The Virginia Tech Innovation Campus will be housed at a 1 million-square-foot campus in Alexandria. It is expected to educate hundreds of graduate students. The Virginia Tech Innovation Campus will be focused on computer science and software engineering, with specializations in areas including artificial intelligence, cyber-security and data analytics.[44]

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.[45] Expecting a larger-than-planned class size, the university budgeted $3.3 million for the endeavor. Virginia Tech also eliminated the requirement that all freshmen live on campus for the 2019-20 school year and leased an off-campus Holiday Inn, and converted its on-campus hotel to house students for the 2019-20 school year.

On April 16, 2007, Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho fatally shot 32 faculty members and students and wounded 17 others in two locations on campus before killing himself as police breached the doors of Norris Hall which Cho had chained closed before starting his killing spree. The massacre is the deadliest mass shooting on a college campus, surpassing Charles Whitman's rampage at the University of Texas 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.[46][47][48] It is the second deadliest school massacre in U.S. history surpassed only by the Bath School bombing in 1927 that killed 44.[49]

The Virginia Tech massacre led to an intense nationwide debate over gun rights, gun safety and efficacy of gun free zones. The mass shooting prompted many states to introduce legislation to prohibit public colleges and universities from banning concealed weapons on campus for permit holders. In 2013, at least nineteen states introduced legislation to allow concealed carry on campus in some form and in the 2014 legislative session, at least fourteen states introduced similar legislation. Tennessee passed a bill in 2016, permitting faculty members to carry handguns on campus after notifying local law enforcement. In 2015, Texas became the eighth state to allow concealed weapons on college campuses. In December 2016, Governor John Kasich signed a bill into law which lifted Ohio's statewide ban on firearms on college campuses leaving the decision to individual institutions.[50] In 2017 Georgia became the tenth state to prohibit colleges and universities from banning concealed weapons on campus.[51] Although Virginia law allows individual institutions to make the decision regarding whether to allow concealed weapons on campus, Virginia Tech continues to ban concealed carry permit holders from carrying guns on campus.[52]

On January 21, 2009 Virginia Tech graduate student Xin Yang was murdered by fellow graduate student Haiyang Zhu in the Au Bon Pain cafe in the university's Graduate Life Center on campus. Zhu, 25 was pursuing a doctorate in agricultural and applied economics. Yang, 22, had just arrived at the university two weeks earlier to study for a master's degree in accounting. Both were international students from China. Witnesses told police that Zhu and Yang were drinking coffee together and had not been arguing before the attack. By the time police arrived at the scene, Zhu had decapitated Yang and was holding her severed head in his hand.[53] Haiyang, a native of Ningbo pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in connection with the death of Xin Yang, of Beijing in December 2009. In April 2010 Zhu was sentenced to life in prison without parole.[54]

In 2011, another shooting occurred on campus which resulted in two deaths. The gunman, who was a part-time student at nearby Radford University, shot and killed Virginia Tech police officer Deriek Crouse and then committed suicide. The officer was killed after pulling a driver over in a traffic stop. The gunman, who a day earlier had stolen a Mercedes SUV at gunpoint, but was not involved in the traffic stop, walked into the parking lot and ambushed the officer.[55] The shooting took place on the same day Virginia Tech officials were in Washington D.C., fighting a government fine over their alleged mishandling of the 2007 massacre where 33 people were killed.[56][57][58]

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. 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, 18 percent accepted under the Early Decision Plan.[65] The Office of Undergraduate Admissions is located within the Visitor and Undergraduate Admissions Center.[66]

Virginia Tech offers a highly selective Honors College, 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 3.5 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.[67]

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.[68]

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.[69]

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.[70]

Virginia Tech received the following rankings by The Princeton Review in its 2017 Best 380 Colleges Rankings:[91]

• 
  Cowgill Hall
• 
  The Graduate Life Center at Donaldson-Brown
• 
  Davidson Hall
• 
  Lane Hall
• 
  Patton Hall

The Biocomplexity Institute of Virginia Tech has facilities in Blacksburg and in the National Capital Region.

Norris Hall houses the Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention and some offices for the Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics.

• Fralin Life Science Institute
• Institute for Creativity, Arts and Technology (ICAT)
• Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS)
• Institute for Society, Culture, and Environment (ISCE)
• Biocomplexity Institute of Virginia Tech (disbanded and absorbed into Fralin Life Science Institute)[93]
• Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC
• Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI)
• Hume Center for National Security and Technology

The Fralin Life Science Institute is an expansion of the Fralin Biotechnology Center, which was established in 1991.[94] 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.[95]

The Biocomplexity Institute of Virginia Tech, formerly known as the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, is a bioinformatics, computational biology, and systems biology 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.

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. It is the second largest university-level transportation institute in the United States, and the largest group of driving safety researchers in the world. Facilities include the 2.2-mile (3.5 km), two-lane, fully instrumented Virginia Smart Road; 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.[96] These laboratories include an asphalt lab, fully equipped garages, instrumentation bays, and a machine shop for working on VTTI's vehicle fleet.[97]

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[98] and commercial hour-of-service.[99]

VTTI conducts applied research to address transportation challenges from various perspectives: vehicle, driver, infrastructure, materials, and environment.[41] 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.[100]

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).[41]

The Institute for Society, Culture, and Environment (ISCE) was created in 2007 to support interdisciplinary research and scholarship.[101]

The Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC is in Roanoke, Virginia 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.[101]

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.[102]

A number of established Virginia Tech research centers and institutes are located in this facility[103]

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.[104]

• The School of Biomedical Engineering & Sciences partners with the College of Engineering, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, 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.[105]
• The Virginia Tech Applied Research Corporation (VT-ARC), is a private nonprofit corporation affiliated with Virginia Tech that was established in fall 2010. With offices in Northern Virginia and Blacksburg, VT-ARC fosters applied research and development, and management of large contract research projects. VT-ARC applies the university's scholarly research achievements, expertise, and collaborations across multiple disciplines to solve complex national challenges in intelligence, cyber security and information technology, national security, energy, and health care.[96]
• The Virginia Cooperative Extension 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 expertise of 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 reached $2.85 billion.[96]
• The Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center (VTCRC) is home to over 170 research, technology and support companies. The 230-acre (93 ha) park is located in a mountain setting, with easy access to the metropolitan areas of northern Virginia and the nation's capital. 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.[106]
• The Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance 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 (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 (SPIA) while also reaching beyond the boundaries of department, college, or university, to bring together the richest collaboration of thinkers to each research question.[107]
• 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 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 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.[108]

The university has established five branch campuses:[113]

• Virginia Tech Hampton Roads Centers, Newport News and Virginia Beach[114]
• Northern Virginia Center, Falls Church (National Capital Region)[115]
• Virginia Tech Richmond Center, Richmond[116]
• Virginia Tech Roanoke Center, Roanoke[117]
• Virginia Tech Southwest Center, Abingdon[118]

Virginia Tech's presence in the Washington Metropolitan Area 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.[119]

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, Arlington, Fairfax, Falls Church, 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.[120]

In 2014, the university opened a Language and Culture Institute location in Fairfax.[121] The institute offers intensive English language programs for college-age students, professionals, and diplomats.[122]

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 2,000-acre (810 ha) natural forest reserve, 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) of protected coral reef, freshwater lagoons and coastal mangroves.[123]

Renamed the Steger Center for International Scholarship in 2014,[124] 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, Ticino, the Italian-speaking canton of Switzerland, is also close to major northern Italian cities such as Milan.[123]

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.

Distinguished by a towering 180-foot-high radial brick smokestack, the university's 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 six miles (9.7 km) 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 2.76 miles (4.44 km) of inaccessible tunnel and 11.07 miles (17.82 km) of piping; 3.78 miles (6.08 km) of direct-bury piping in the ground; and 2.2 miles (3.5 km) of accessible tunnel and 12.27 miles (19.75 km) of piping.[125]

A July 2, 2018 article in the Collegiate Times reviewed the master plan for Virginia Tech's campus to change significantly in the coming years. The article indicates that the university plans for the Duck Pond to replace the Drillfield as the campus' center.[126] This finding was confirmed by President Sands on July 10, tweeting that "While the Duck Pond is becoming somewhat more central with respect to the flow of people (and ducks), the Drillfield will always be the cultural and historical center of campus, as well as the physical place that reminds all of us what it means to be a Hokie."[127]

Main Eggleston Hall

• Over 9,300 Virginia Tech students reside on campus.[128]
• Currently, there are twenty-eight residence halls housing undergraduate and graduate students. Several more are either in the planning stages or under construction now.
• The university has on-campus housing for graduate and professional students who are single; the housing may not accommodate families and spouses.[129]
• 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.[130]

Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets marching

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 and the University of North Georgia 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").[131] 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.

Virginia Tech hosts a number of fraternities and sororities across four governing councils. There are 23 IFC fraternities and 13 National Panhellenic Conference 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.[132] The Oak Lane Community[133] 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.[132]

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: Alpha Epsilon Pi, Center Club (formerly Sigma Chi), Delta Kappa Epsilon, Kappa Sigma, Lambda Chi Alpha, Omicron Alpha Kappa (formerly Kappa Delta Rho), Theta Delta Chi, and Sigma Alpha Epsilon.[134] While several of these chapters are still chartered by their national organization they are not currently recognized by Virginia Tech.[135]

There are over 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 Chapter.