Virginia Tech
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University ("Virginia Tech," "VPI") is a public land-grant university founded in 1872, serving, according to its mission statement, "the Commonwealth of Virginia, the nation, and the world community." It is taxpayer-supported.
It has 26,370 students on-campus, about 17% of whom are graduate students. It has a strong sports and engineering programs, resulting in much larger percentage of male students than most colleges: 58.1% male and 41.9% female. Many of its students are from foreign countries.
Its English Department has received some attention after one of its seniors, Seung-Hui Cho, massacred 32 students and faculty on April 16, 2007. Cho had written and submitted as coursework disturbing papers that, in hindsight, appear to reflect an unstable person obsessed with violence.
Virginia Tech was founded in 1872 as the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College, with 132 students, a president and three professors: one each in English; natural philosophy and chemistry; and technical agriculture and mechanics. Great expansion took place between 1890 and 1895, and at that time the student body had grown to 400 and the name was changed to "The Virginia Polytechnic Institute."[1]
The name change rendered the previous school cheer obsolete, and in 1896 a contest was held to create a new one. The winning entry was written by one O. M. Stull, and was:
- Hoki, Hoki, Hoki, Hy.
- Techs, Techs, V.P.I.
- Sola-Rex, Sola-Rah.
- Polytechs - Vir-gin-ia.
- Rae, Ri, V.P.I.
Stull said later that the word "Hoki" was a pure invention, meant to be an attention-grabber. An "e" was later added to the word, and Hokie became the nickname for Virginia Tech students. 1896 was also the year in which the school colors were changed from black and gray to burnt orange and Chicago maroon, and in which the college seal and school motto—Ut Prosim, "That I May Serve—were adopted.[2]
Military training has always been a feature of Virginia Tech, which is one of six designated senior military colleges in the United States.[3] All students were cadets when it opened in 1872.[4] VPI is
Notes and references
- ↑ Heatwole, Cornelius Jacob (1916), A History of Education in Virginia, pp. 204-7. Note: the Virginia Tech website says the name change was in 1896 and the new name was "Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College and Polytechnic Institute."
- ↑ What is a Hokie?, Virginia Tech website: origin of "Hokie," school colors, seal, motto
- ↑ The others are Norwich University in Vermont, North Georgia College and State University, Texas A&M, The Citadel in Charleston, SC, and Virginia Military Institute.
- ↑ Tech Corps of Cadets: History
