By Tonia Moxley, The Roanoke Times
Original publication date: July 29, 2011

BLACKSBURG, Va. — Forget the campus map. Over the next year, visitors to Virginia Tech can find Burruss Hall by typing 800 Drillfield Dr. into Google.com/maps. Or, enter 645 Tech Center Dr. into a mobile phone GPS app to find the seismograph building.

In the past, university buildings were assigned only four-digit mail codes, and visitors were left puzzling over paper or Internet versions of the campus map. But now, for every university facility there is a standard U.S. Postal Service street address. The change is expected to help visitors and mail and package delivery drivers more easily navigate the ever expanding campus — although it may take up to a year for major services such as Google to update maps.

Parents and their first-year students now in Blacksburg for summer orientation may also benefit. In announcing the change Thursday, officials “hope to make incoming freshmen aware,” Tech spokesman John Jackson said. Classes begin Aug. 22.

But more importantly, the change is expected to improve campus emergency response, and was accomplished in collaboration with Blacksburg officials and campus and town police. While Tech police officers generally don’t need street addresses to find campus buildings, Chief Wendell Flinchum said it should make it easier for off-campus police, fire and rescue agencies to assist in an emergency.

Implementation of street addresses was initiated in 2009, during planning for a new regional 911 dispatch center, Jackson said. Planning for the center, which would serve Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Montgomery County and Virginia Tech, has been ongoing since 2008, and has received state support.

The dispatch center task force has chosen to locate the joint center in the soon-to-be remodeled Montgomery County Courthouse in Christiansburg, Flinchum said. Once the new courthouse opens next door, the old courthouse is slated for renovation as a new public safety building.

Currently, localities maintain their own dispatch and communications centers and can’t easily coordinate with one another during emergencies such as the April 16, 2007, shootings at Virginia Tech. A regional system would integrate and standardize all emergency response, allowing agencies access to one another’s data and records and facilitating radio communications between all first responders, officials have said.

The new university street addresses should help emergency personnel unfamiliar with Tech more easily navigate the campus, thereby reducing response times. Offices across campus are expected to begin using their new addresses immediately, according to a university news release. But departments and other Tech divisions have until next year to issue new stationary and business cards reflecting the new addresses. Visit http://goo.gl/ol4lE for a list of the new street addresses. 

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