VCU Insight

Back to Previous Stories

Previous Stories: Fall 2005

Building a Family Through Adoption

Each year in the United States thousands of couples who can’t have children on their own turn to adoption. The 2000 U.S. Census found that more than 1.7 million adopted children are part of households. Millions of other households know family and friends who have adopted. People considering adoption have two basic options: domestic and international adoption. Thirteen percent of the adopted children are born outside of America.
Read More...

Students Who Just Say No

Beer bottles clinking together, shot glasses slammed down onto the tables and shouts of “Cheers” resonate from most college campuses on a Friday night. However, that’s not always the case on Virginia Commonwealth University's campus.
Read More...

Does It Pay to be President?

A recent study in the Chronicle of Higher Education looked at presidential compensations at public and private universities throughout the country. The presidents of Virginia's four largest public universities make between $364,000 and $659,000. VCU President Eugene P. Trani is paid $470, 205 from a combination of public and private funds. The highest paid college president in Virginia is UVA's John Casteen who makes nearly $650,000.
Read More...

ROTC: A Reporter’s Tale

It was three days in the woods with no electricity, no running water, no beds and no way to get home. It may sound like a torture retreat but participants actually voluntarily signed up for this no-frills vacation. In order to gain an insight into what cadets in the ROTC go though, Jessie Chapin and myself packed our bags and traveled with the Spider Battalion for its first mission of the year.
Read more...

Crossing the Line?

The People for Ethical Treatment of Animals call their latest project, “Animal Liberation.” It’s designed to make you take notice, and on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University, the designers got their wish.
Read More...
See slide show

Soaring High, Saving Lives

All day, every day, Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center's Life Evac helicopter is on stand by, ready to take off and take care of some of the most critically injured patients in the metro Richmond region. According to VCU, the new medical chopper is the first in the Richmond region with night vision capabilities, and that's just one of the features that's helping the Life Evac crew save lives.
Read More...

Responsible Holiday Drinking

Holiday parties often include alcohol. Many organizations work throughout the year to remind people that drinking and driving are a dangerous combination. MADD was established by a group of women in California who were outraged after the death of a teenage girl killed by a repeat-offender drunk driver.

A Season of Giving

Students and faculty at VCU are getting into the holiday spirit this year by spreading it throughout the community. In addition to the lights and wreaths that decorate campus are posters and donation boxes for charity drives for those in need this season.
Read More...

Richmond's Grand Illumination

The cold weather didn’t stop Richmond from celebrating the 20^th annual Grand Illumination Night downtown at the James Center in early December. The tradition has been a favorite for a lot of Richmonders since 1985. Thousands of people crowded around the tree, anticipating the moment when millions of lights shined on the city.
Read More...

Holiday "How To"

If you're looking for a way to give back during this holiday season, look no further than The Central Virginia Food Bank. In existence for more than 25 years, CVFB provides more than 809,000 pounds of food to families in need every year. The food bank serves 31 counties and six cities in the Central Virginia region. The food is distributed through a network of 549 partner agencies, which includes 135 child-care providers.
Read More...
Then click below for more holiday advice:

HOLIDAY SAVINGS

A few tips for thrifty gift giving.

STAYING FIT

Suggestions for keeping off the pounds at holiday parties.

Your Vote

Election Day is Tuesday, November 8 and Virginia is just one of two states in the nation to be electing a governor. Other statewide races on the ballot include the office of lieutenant governor and the office of attorney general. VCU students working for Capital News Service put together comprehensive overviews of the statewide candidates and their races at the links below:

The Governor's Race
The Lieutenant Governor's Race
The Attorney General's Race

Questioning the Candidates

With elections right around the corner on November 8, many people are wondering what Virginia’s candidates for governor have to offer. That’s why VCU hosted a forum on September 15 with gubernatorial candidates Tim Kaine, Jerry Kilgore, and Russ Potts.
Read More...

Campus Crime Concerns

Two recent incidents have raised concerns about crime on the VCU campus. Over the summer, a maintenance worker found the body of Iris Anderson, a resident of Hanover County, behind VCU’s Temple Building. Police are still investigating her murder and have made no arrests. Then on August 31, just after the start of the fall semester, a student was robbed near the Main Street Parking Deck. He was not badly hurt, but the news of these events has some people shaken.
Read More...

Crossing the Line?

Breast Cancer Awareness

For more than 20 years, health care professionals and others have worked to educate women on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer during October, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. According to VCU’s Department of Radiation Oncology, breast cancer is one of the most frequently diagnosed cancers among women, with more than 211,000 new cases reported each year in the United States. The good news is, while more women are getting the disease, deaths due to breast cancer are beginning to decline.
Read More...

Behl's Body Found

From candlelight vigils to words of sympathy from the university president, VCU is reacting with sadness to the death of Taylor Marie Behl. The 17-year-old student had been missing from the VCU campus since Monday, September 5. On Thursday, police confirmed that it was her body they discovered in a remote area of Matthews County Virginia.
Read More...

Student Still Missing

Taylor Marie Behl, 17, has been missing from the VCU campus since Monday, September 5. An $11,000 reward has been announced for any information leading to Behl’s return. The case is now being considered a criminal investigation and has been turned over from the VCU Police Department to Richmond Police. There has been no luck finding her yet. However, on September 17, Behl’s car was found on North Mulberry Street in the Fan district. The FBI has begun a forensics investigation. So far, there is no sign of foul play.
Read More...

A New Battle for the Museum

Waite Rawls, executive director of the museum said that it’s very important to Virginia’s history. “It’s the biggest and oldest museum devoted to the Civil War,” Rawls said. “It was started in 1890. We read today about people wanting to have a legacy in a presidential library and this was the first legacy for the confederates.”
Read More...

Keeping the Lights On

As the temperature outside drops, heating bills are on the rise. VCU spend millions of dollars each year on energy. The VCU Energy Challenge was started with the hopes of raising awareness about conserving energy both on campus and off. There are a number of things you can do this winter which will cut costs on your heating bill.
Read More...

The Evolution Debate

The majority of Americans do not believe in evolution, the scientific theory taught most frequently in public schools. That’s just one of the findings in a recent nationwide survey of 1,000 adults by VCU Life Sciences. The survey found that 42 percent of Americans favor a creationist view of how the world was created; 26 percent indicated intelligent design and 17 percent evolution.
Read More...

Bird Flu Concerns
Avian influenza, or bird flu, is a "contagious disease of animals caused by viruses that normally infect only birds and, less commonly, pigs." Avian influenza viruses are highly species-specific, but have recently crossed the species barrier to infect humans. Here at VCU InSight, we decided to sit down with Richard P. Wenzel, M.D., professor and chairman of VCU's Department of Internal Medicine, to discuss the bird flu and how we can deal with the influenza in a proactive way.
Read more...

Living on the Cheap

From packing your lunch to paying off credit cards before interest rates accrue, saving money as a college student, or as a young professional, is easier than most people think. According to Kirsten Hirsch, the organizer for a “Living on the Cheap” seminar at VCU, there are five simple ways to live on a budget while still enjoying life.
Read More...

"First Step” to Fitness

Whether walking, running, biking or lifting weights, Mary Jo Sawyer, nutritionist at MCV, said it’s simply important for people to exercise. In order to get her patients motivated for activity, she is heading up the First Step Walking Program, held every Tuesday morning at 9:30 at the MCV Physicians at Stony Point in Richmond. She said the premise of the program is to get people motivated and moving by encouraging them to increase the number of steps they take each day. But she said anyone can start a walking program on their own.
Read More...

Credit Check Up

On September 1, Virginia residents joined a growing group of Americans guaranteed free access to credit history checks. Thanks to new federal regulations, citizens can now check their credit reports once a year using the website www.annualcreditreport.com. The site gives citizens the opportunity to keep track of all credit accounts in their names and alerts them to their positive or negative credit standing.

Christopher Reeve Contribution

Michael Chenail hopes that a grant to VCU from the Christopher Reeve Foundation will help make spinal cord injury patients' lives better. Twenty years ago, Chenail sustained a spinal cord injury from a motorcycle accident that changed his life forever. Chenail was thrown off the cycle and paralyzed from the waist down. But Chenail has continued to live his life to the fullest, in part, by helping other spinal cord injury victims.
Read More...

Virginia Tech and Cultural Awareness

In July of 2005, dozens of students from Saudi Arabia came to Virginia Tech to enhance their English and computer skills. Special single-sex computer classes were created for the visiting students. Controversy arose when some faculty at the Blacksburg campus complained that the computer classes should not be segregated into men and women. Eloise Coupey, a marketing professor at Tech, said she wanted the segregated classes to integrate immediately.
Read more...

Accelerate to Success

This semester 24 VCU students started their freshman year earlier than their peers. The 24 students are taking part in the first year of the university's Acceleration Program. VCU's Acceleration Program is designed to recruit and retain underrepresented minority students. These students often come with socio-economic or educational disadvantages, and the program is designed to help keep them on track as they pursue degrees in the health sciences at VCU.
Read More...

VCU Expansion Begins

It’s the largest construction project in Virginia Commonwealth University’s history, and by 2007, significant changes across from Monroe Park should be complete. Phase one of VCU’s construction plan include an expansion of the existing school of engineering as well as a brand-new school of business.

Fed Challenge Champs

VCU’s School of Business College Fed Challenge Team has won the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond’s College Fed Challenge Competition for the second year in a row. The College Fed Challenge Competition is a national academic competition, which encourages business students to gain a better understanding of the nation’s central bank. Read More...

Inquiring Minds Want to Know

VCU Insight Reporters, Ashlee Thomas and Bree Sison went out around campus to find students with common but significant questions that they would like President Trani to answer. Once the questions were compiled, Ashlee Thomas sat down with the President to get those questions answered and this is what he had to say:
Read More...

Virginia Commonwealth University | VCU InSight 2
Contact Us