Collegiate Times

In addition, there are college students from other universities doing research at Tech. Rather than stay at their home campuses, these students have decided to seek undergraduate research opportunities at Virginia Tech, working with interested faculty and staff.

One such program that provides these experiences is the Multicultural Academic Opportunities Program. MAOP is just one of several experiences provided by different departments for summer research opportunities. This summer research experience can be a tremendous springboard for these students to get hands-on research experience and exposure to Tech. This exposure could potential lead them to consider graduate opportunities or other experiences at Tech.

While we have spoken about the impact on people, we can't forget the importance of the summer on the university infrastructure. The physical shell of the campus is just as important, as we would not want to visit a campus with broken sidewalks, falling doors, or potholes in the roads.

Summer provides an opportunity to take care of needed maintenance work throughout the campus, whether it is on the roads, in the actual buildings, or on the actual grounds. We may think it is an inconvenience, but without the summer period, this work would happen during the academic year and cause greater inconveniences.

Unfortunately, funding and other pressures don't allow for all of the projects to be done in the summer, so they have to be prioritized. Without the summer, we would face a campus in disrepair.

In the end, summer provides an opportunity for the entire atmosphere to slow down. While it used to be said that the summer was a slow period, behind the scenes in administrative/academic offices, summer is not only the time to take care of those projects and efforts that were not done in the academic year, but also the time to plan ahead for the next one. Without summer, this needed planning time would be lost.

While we enjoy the less hectic nature and pace of the summer in Blacksburg, it is important to remember the valuable role that the summer period plays for the university and the community. The summer will be gone before we know it; soon it will be August and the start of another academic year.

Ray Plaza serves as the Special Projects Coordinator in Academic Support Services.

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