VCU to open $125M STEM building next week
Virginia Commonwealth University will open its $125 million College of Humanities and Sciences’ 168,000-square-foot STEM building during a ribbon cutting scheduled next week. The six-floor building, located at 817 W. Franklin St. in Richmond, will expand lab, classroom and office space for the college, which is home to 17 departments, two schools and three programs. […]
Hampton Roads consortium opens research HQ
The Hampton Roads Biomedical Research Consortium opened its headquarters at Old Dominion University’s Tri-Cities Center in Suffolk Friday. The consortium is a partnership between ODU, Norfolk State University, Eastern Virginia Medical School and Sentara Healthcare Inc., and was founded in June 2020. Its goal is to address health care disparities, jumpstart scientific research and advance [&h[...]
Tech students dig into high-tech mock mine
Robots don’t belong on volleyball courts, but for more than a decade Virginia Tech students had no other large, sandy place to test out mining robots. It was “a real lost opportunity” that students didn’t have a dedicated space to work with mining machines, says Erik Westman, a professor and interim department head at Tech’s […]
Building an ecosystem
Even though William & Mary is best known as a liberal arts “public Ivy,” it’s also a research university where professors are quietly producing innovative technology — and are less quietly trying to create an entrepreneurial network to support it. Local capital isn’t as available in the Williamsburg area as it is around larger state […]
U.Va. commerce alum donates $10M for scholarships
A University of Virginia alumnus, John Connaughton, and his wife, Stephanie, have donated $10 million to fund need-based undergraduate scholarships for McIntire School of Commerce students, the university announced Thursday. U.Va. will match the couple’s gift, which establishes the Connaughton Bicentennial Scholars Fund. Portions of the Connaughtons’ gift will go toward the launch of &[...]
UR alumni couple donates $25M for student learning center
Carole and Marcus Weinstein, alumni of the University of Richmond, have donated $25 million — the second-largest single gift in the Richmond university’s history — to support a center focused on student learning, UR announced Wednesday. The Carole and Marcus Weinstein Learning Center will be located in the Boatwright Memorial Library. The gift will enable […]
Civilian life
Paul Valentine is on a winding career path. After leaving the Army more than a decade ago, he got his commercial driver’s license at Blue Ridge Community College in Weyers Cave. He was taking classes to try to get an engineering degree as well but quit to take full-time work at trucking companies after his […]
The big freeze
Given pandemic-caused interruptions, college students have been through a lot so far this decade, but one silver lining at many Virginia schools has been frozen tuition. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin made it a priority to keep costs flat this academic year, and he succeeded in getting all 15 of the state’s public colleges and universities […]
Angela and Carl Reddix donate $1.1M to JMU
James Madison University alumni Angela and Carl Reddix have made a $1.1 million commitment to their alma mater to support first-generation college students, JMU announced Friday. Founder, president and CEO of Norfolk-based ARDX, a health care management and IT consulting firm, Angela Reddix studied marketing at JMU and graduated in 1990. Her husband, Carl, studied […]
Va. Tech names College of Architecture, Arts and Design dean
Virginia Tech has named a new dean to lead its College of Architecture, Arts, and Design (AAD) following an international search. Tsai Lu Liu will start July 1. He has led the Department of Graphic Design and Industrial Design at North Carolina State University, in Raleigh, since 2012 and has a background in industry and […]
Emory & Henry receives $2M gift for equestrian expansion
Emory & Henry College will use a $2 million donation from The Bill Gatton Foundation to help construct a new equestrian center and boost its equine studies program. The private college, based in Emory, announced the donation Monday. The Bristol, Tennessee, foundation’s lead gift for the project was to Emory & Henry’s Collective Connections Campaign, […]
CNU chooses next president, Coast Guard Academy chief
U.S. Coast Guard Academy Superintendent Rear Adm. William G. Kelly will become Christopher Newport University’s sixth president on July 1, the Newport News-based public liberal arts school announced Thursday. CNU Chief of Staff Adelia P. Thompson has been serving as interim president since former President Paul S. Trible Jr.’s retirement at the end of the […]