Radford University's Web site will be upgraded over the next year through a contract with Digital Wave Technologies Inc. of Philadelphia, according to a university news release.

The company specializes in Web site design for colleges and universities.

The project is set to get under way in early December.

Coal demonstration draws crowd at VT

About 60 people protested Virginia Tech's use of coal-fired energy for heating and cooling university buildings last week.

Tech professor Richard Rich and student and former Blacksburg Town Council candidate Bryce Carter spoke at the rally in front of Squires Student Center on Tuesday.

"As an environmentalist and community organizer, I know a solution isn't as easy as flipping a switch, but in light of global climate change, we must jump ahead in our pursuit of a sustainable and just future. We must be a leader in this transition," Carter said, according to a Sierra Club news release.

The rally was part of the statewide "No Coal Day" organized by students at several colleges and universities across Virginia, including Tech, William and Mary and Roanoke College, the release stated.

Some of the organizers plan to meet with Tech officials next month to discuss a timeline for phasing out coal energy on campus.

The demonstration is tied to a national Sierra Club campaign that calls on universities to discontinue coal-fired energy.

About a dozen demonstrators gathered near campus in September to draw attention to a Sierra Club report on the issue. The report, titled "Breaking Coal's Grip On Our Future: Moving Campuses Beyond Coal," features Tech in its "campuses that should finish the job" section.

The report calls on Tech and 10 other major universities -- including the University of North Carolina and Pennsylvania State University -- to replace their coal power with "greener" alternatives.

YMCA looking for program director

The YMCA at Virginia Tech is looking for a student co-director to help organize and run its annual Y-Toss event.

Volunteers collect unwanted items such as furniture, appliances and clothing, from Tech students moving off campus and then resell the merchandise.

The event facilitates recycling and raises money for YMCA programs.

For more information or application instructions, visit tinyurl.com/ycfltbj or call 961-9622.

Pamplin, VCOM to offer degree program

Virginia Tech's Pamplin College of Business and the Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine have launched a dual-degree program for students wishing to attain both a D.O. and an MBA.

The program is designed to teach future doctors the business skills they need to run a private practice or become hospital administrators, according to a VCOM news release.

Under the program, VCOM students would complete the MBA requirements between their third and fourth years of medical school.

Officials expect to admit three to five VCOM students a year. Potential students would be required to meet certain academic benchmarks and to have passed their first round of medical board exams.

Tech partners with school in Costa Rica

Virginia Tech and the Costa Rica Institute of Technology have created a partnership that will provide online classes and study abroad programs for students.

The first official activity was an online course titled Business Process Management for the Manufacturing Systems Program, which was delivered in Spanish this summer by Henry Quesada-Pineda. The assistant professor of wood science and forest products in Tech's College of Natural Resources taught the course to students in Costa Rica, according to a news release from the university.

This fall, Quesada-Pineda is teaching a new online course at Tech called Forest Products Business Systems.

The partnership also sets the stage for additional collaborations, including a study abroad trip for Tech undergraduate and graduate students to Costa Rica during spring break.

Tech to study mine ventilation systems

The Virginia Tech Department of Mining & Minerals Engineering has received a $1.24 million, five-year contract from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to study the effects of roof falls, bumps or explosions on underground mine ventilation systems.

Kray Luxbacher, an assistant professor with the department, is the principal investigator of the study. She will work with professor Saad Ragab, research associate Robert Boggess and Professor Emeritus Harold McNair of the Department of Chemistry, according to a news release from the university.

The project will use gas tracers as a means of remotely gaining information about ventilation control systems after a mine collapse or explosion.

The grant will allocate $250,000 each year for five years. Phase one will consist of developing project tools, the news release said.

Social-networking research released

New research from Virginia Tech's Pamplin College of Business looks at how social-networking companies compete and how those decisions affect their performance.

In what they believe is the first systematic empirical study of its kind, faculty members Devi Gnyawali, an associate professor of management, and Weiguo (Patrick) Fan, an associate professor of accounting and information systems, found that social-networking companies reach out to third-party developers and other partners and "co-create value" to attract, retain, and satisfy their own users or customers and improve their performance, according to a news release from the university.

The professors, along with James Penner, a doctoral student pursuing a degree in accounting and information systems, have written an article about their work for a special "digital systems and competition" issue of Information Systems Research.

Gnyawali and Fan say they hope their findings will help managers develop appropriate strategies. "A better understanding of the nature of competition and implications of competitive actions will allow managers to think in nuanced ways about how to successfully compete in this rapidly changing industry," the researchers wrote.