Collegiate Times

The National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC) recognized Virginia Tech for its involvementwith the community, giving the university a $20,000 donation at the opening plenary session of its annual national meeting in New York City.

The Peter Magrath Community Engagement Award was given to Tech by other universities and land grant colleges on Nov. 11.

John Dooley, vice provost for outreach and international affairs, said that NASULGC first launched this award last year through the Kellogg Foundation, which is the largest philanthropic organization in the country.

Mort Neufville, executive vice president for NASULGC, said that this is the first year that universities were competing for the award Neufville said the award was created to provide incentive and encouragement for public universities to become more engaged with their community.

Neufville said the main criteria for the award was the ability to "demonstrate the extent to which they are engaged in their constituents" and "show how they are committing to economic developments or social developments," along with exhibiting "how the partners are benefiting from engagement of the universities."

"Tech's nomination centered around a very ambitious project that the university has been leading in Southside, Virginia over the last six years," Dooley said.

"This is a comprehensive initiative that is focused on helping restore the economy of Southside, Va. through distributive research."

Four major research initiatives were created with the intent to build economic capacity around the projects including polymers, high value forestry and horticulture products, robotics, and high performance engines and motor sports.

"I think this reflects very well on the university and its commitment to its outreach efforts," said university spokesman Mark McNamee, who accepted the $20,000 donation and trophy at the ceremony.

McNamee said he had no idea that Tech was going to win the competition and that this award is a milestone for the university.

Approximately 34 institutions were competing this year and the presidents of the University of Cincinnati, North Carolina State University, Lincoln University of Missouri, University of Wisconsin, and Oregon State University selected the winner from the top five institutions.

The other finalists competing against Tech were Portland State University, Ohio State Universty, University of Connecticut, and University of Maryland Eastern Shore.