“I think this is a good time for VCU,” Eugene P. Trani, VCU’s president, told students and SGA members attending Monday’s roundtable meeting.
VCU, he said, has generated about $18 million that will go for classes and faculty plus another $500,000 for financial aid.
“That means more money for things that matter for you – like classes,” Trani said.
The president described the new business building to be constructed east of Belvidere Street between Cary and Main streets. The business building will be conjoined with phase II of the engineering building. Other construction, he said, includes the Warren W. Brandt Hall, a dormitory scheduled to open in fall 2007, which will be situated next to Rhoads Hall on West Franklin Street.
Referring to the renovation of the Hibbs Building, Trani said the changes will cost $12 million. During its 15-month closure that begins in June, the building will be completely gutted and modernized, he said, so a different Hibbs will open in fall 2006.
Besides listening to Trani, the student organizations’ representatives and SGA heard from two SGA officers, Katie O’ Leary, the special assistant for political affairs, and Mariam Hashim, the deputy assistant for development.
O’Leary told the group about Virginia 21, a nonpartisan political action student group. She urged students to help with the group’s latest project by supporting the textbook legislation now in the Virginia General Assembly. The legislation, she said, would help create a free and fair market for textbooks, so students don’t have to spend “outrageous” amounts of money on their textbooks.
Hashim discussed “Where is the Love,” a charity for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. The SGA, she said, will collect donations and old cell phones until Feb. 23. Students can go to a table in the University Student Commons to donate money or old cell phones.
The phones, Hashim said, will be given to the police department to be modified into tracking devices for victims of domestic violence to use whenever they’re in trouble. The victims can call the police so officers can locate them.
The SGA, Hashim said, plans to sponsor a special event in honor of the charity. The event begins at noon Wednesday, Feb. 23, in the Commons Plaza.
For more information about the textbook legislation, students can log on to www.fightforcheaperbooks.com or www.virginia21.org.