8:20-8:30 p.m. Harrington tries to re-enter arena near main entrance.
  8:30-8:48 A woman fitting her description is seen outside the arena at various locations.
  8:48 Harrington talks to friends by cell phone.
  9-9:10 A woman fitting her description is seen walking through University Hall parking lot toward Lannigan Field.

CHARLOTTESVILLE—Police are hoping a timeline of when and where a Virginia Tech student was last seen will help jog the memory of someone who can provide a key clue to her whereabouts. Authorities believe Morgan Dana Harrington, 20, was last seen at 9:30 p.m. Oct. 17 on a bridge in Charlottesville, Virginia State Police Lt. Joe Rader said today.

The parents of a Virginia Tech student who disappeared outside a Metallica concert in Charlottesville said yesterday on national television that they fear she is the victim of foul play. Morgan Dana Harrington’s parents said on NBC’s “Today” show that they are devoting all their energy to finding their daughter, who was last seen Oct. 17 outside the University of Virginia’s John Paul Jones Arena.

Metallica has added $50,000 to the reward for information in the search for missing Virginia Tech student Morgan D. Harrington, raising the amount to about $150,000, her father said. Troopers from the Virginia State Police passed out fliers Saturday in the area of John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville. Harrington, 20, attended a Metallica concert there Oct. 17, the night she disappeared.

Six Virginia schools made the National Science Foundation’s rankings of the top 200 research universities in the nation. Virginia Tech ranked 46th in the 2008 list based on research and development expenditures. Tech reported expenditures of about $373.28 million for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008. Virginia Commonwealth University was ranked 108th. It reported $148.65 million in expenditures, an 11 percent increase.

The father of a missing Virginia Tech student said yesterday that he thinks she has been abducted, and announced that the reward for information leading to her return will be at least $100,000. “I think Morgan was taken. I don’t think she ran away,“ Dan Harrington said. Staff at Carilion Clinic, where Harrington is vice president for academic affairs, raised the money, which will be administered by Crime Stoppers, he said.

CHARLOTTESVILLE—Police are treating the investigation into a missing Virginia Tech student as a criminal matter, though they say there’s still no evidence a crime has been committed. Officials say they have Morgan Dana Harrington’s purse and her cell phone but they have no idea where she is, though they’ve received more than 100 tips.

Virginia State Police and University of Virginia authorities are creating a timeline tracking a Virginia Tech student who was reported missing after attending Saturday’s Metallica concert at U.Va.‘s John Paul Jones Arena. Authorities spent yesterday following up potential leads. They are asking concert-goers to review pictures or videos of the concert to look for anyone resembling 20-year-old Morgan Dana Harrington.

Reserve seat tickets for the Virginia Tech-Virginia football game on Nov. 28 in Charlottesville have been sold out. Student guest tickets (general admission) are still available for sale to U.Va. students with a valid student ID or student online account at uvashots.com.

The sacrifices of law enforcement dogs are being memorialized in a statue installed at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech.

A flash drive containing personal information for more than 100,000 former adult-education students is missing, according to state officials who now are trying to notify all those affected by the security breach. As of late yesterday, there was no indication the flash drive had been found or that the information on it—including names, Social Security numbers, birth dates and other personal information—had been accessed, according to the Virginia Department of Education.

George Mason apparently has edged past Virginia Commonwealth as the state’s largest university. GMU’s unanticipated growth this fall—amid state and federal campaigns to increase the number of college graduates—should be a good thing.

BLACKSBURG—Virginia Tech is receiving a $27.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for infectious disease research at its Virginia Bioinformatics Institute. Rep. Rick Boucher joined university officials Monday to announce the five-year contract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. It’s the largest one-time federal award the school has received.

Police are asking hunters and hikers for help in their investigation of the slayings of two Virginia Tech students in the Jefferson National Forest.

Virginia Tech has acquired a collection of sheet music, memoirs and other memorabilia related to The Carter Family, Johnny Cash and other musicians of the Carter and Cash families.