Board approves campus name change

Each semester flocks of Virginia Commonwealth University students embark on a new beginning to their college careers.

But this year it won’t take place on the university’s Academic Campus.

In a public meeting held June 15, the executive committee of the university’s Board of Visitors voted unanimously to rename the Academic Campus the Monroe Park Campus.

“We never had a name for the campus,” said Dr. W. Baxter Perkinson Jr., former rector of the Board and a graduate of the VCU School of Dentistry. “It was just time to give it a real name and not a generic term. I thought it was something that needed to be done and I was afraid it wouldn’t get done after I left.”

The Board’s decision to rename the campus was its last action under Perkinson’s leadership. The local dentist served on the Board for eight years and his second term as rector ended July 1.

In an April 29 Commonwealth Times news article, VCU President Eugene Trani described the Academic Campus name as “disgusting” and said that he planned to rename it either the Monroe Campus or Monroe Park Campus as part of the university’s new master-site plan.

“It was a non-descriptive name,” he said in a recent interview. “I didn’t know what it meant. We do academics on both of our campuses.”

VCU is comprised of the Medical College of Virginia (MCV) campus, which is adjacent to Richmond’s business and financial district and home of the VCU Medical Center and the Monroe Park Campus, formerly the Academic Campus, which is adjacent to the city’s Fan district.

The new geographic nomenclature is coined after Monroe Park, the oldest park in Richmond history, which is bordered by Main, Franklin, Laurel and Belvidere streets.

The city acquired the 7.5-acre area in 1851, said Larry Miller, general manager of community facilities with Richmond’s Department of Parks, Recreation & Community Facilities. In 1854, the land was used for the State Agricultural Fair, possibly the first state fair in Virginia, he said.
During the Civil War, it was used as campgrounds for the city guard and in the 1870s it developed into a city park as Richmond expanded west.

However, the more recent scene of homeless people sleeping on park benches clouded its rich history from the eyes of current VCU students who openly oppose the name change.

“I love that it’s named after a dirty park full of bums,” said Kelly Farrell, a junior Craft major in VCU’s School of the Arts.

She described Monroe Park as a place that resident assistants caution first-year students not to walk through at night.

Princess Lamont, 23, a senior foreign language major, also disagreed with the Monroe Park designation.

“The Academic Campus is distinguished by the fact that it’s everything but the medical campus,” she said. “Why do we need a name change?”

Originally, the recommendation for the name change was part of the VCU 2020 master-site plan approved by the Board at its Aug. 2 meeting, Trani said.

“I admire Trani’s ambition … but a name change is not going to bring prestige to the university,” Lamont said. “It could only be worse if they changed it to the Downtown Campus.”

Although the name change sparks student concerns and forces the university to make its own modifications to signage and publications, it will not directly affect retail in bookstores located on the Monroe Park or MCV campuses.

“Very little merchandise has Academic Campus on it,” said Dan McDonald, assistant director of business services. “It’s almost non-existent.”

What’s evident is the much-needed restoration of the park itself. But help is on the way.

Richmond City Councilman William “Bill” Pantele nominated 10 citizens from the Fan, Oregon Hill, Carver and VCU communities to form the Monroe Park Advisory Council, an advisory group that informs the city about specific issues related to the park.

“The improvements are to make the park a community-gathering and destination point to be enjoyed by all the citizens of Richmond,” said Pat Daniels, council chairperson. “VCU students are an element of that (population).”

Daniels said City Council will provide funding for improvement plans such as installing new benches, putting up bollards to prevent vehicles from entering the park and adding a Wi-Fi system – a wireless network technology that would allow students to obtain Internet access on their laptops while sitting in the park.

VCU paid for tree removal and trimming to eliminate places where individuals could hide or sleep. The women’s and men’s restrooms were repaired and the park’s fountain was sent to Alabama for restoration.

“The park of yesterday is gone. It will be more student-centered,” said Perkinson. “It’s going to lend itself to safety and freedom.”