Up, up and away

VCU is growing up and out.
The university’s Board of Visitors
met for its quarterly meeting this past
Thursday. The board discussed the
rapid growth and expansion facing the
Monroe Park Campus as the university
approaches its 40-year anniversary.

Board Rector Thomas G. Rosenthal
began the proceedings with congratulations
for the men’s basketball team’s
victory over James Madison University.
Then, VCU President Eugene P. Trani
gave his report to the board.

Trani focused mainly on admissions
demographics and how they are changing.
Trani’s report set the course for the
rest of the meeting.

“We’re going to have a lot of applications
this year,” Trani said.

VCU already has received a total of
17,370 freshman and transfer applications
for the fall 2008 semester as of Feb. 13
with an acceptance rate of 62 percent. The
number of applications received increases
daily, sometimes by the hundreds, according
to a document about freshman
admissions released by the board.
VCU is receiving a record number of applicants
and mainly from Fairfax County.
Of the 25 high schools in Fairfax, 14 high
schools currently contain more than 100
VCU applicants for the fall semester.

Trani said he thinks those numbers
are amazing.

In fall 2007, 1,848 Fairfax County
students applied to VCU and 375 were
accepted to the university. Eight of
those accepted ended up at VCU. So far
for 2008, 2,336 Fairfax students have
applied, 670 have been accepted and 18
of those offers have been accepted.

“We certainly have become socially
acceptable in Fairfax County,” Trani
said.

Although the university is drawing
large numbers from Northern Virginia
and other surrounding areas, very few
students in the Richmond area are
sticking around post-high school to go
to VCU.

Of all the high schools in Richmond
City and Chesterfield, Hanover and
Henrico counties, as well as area private
schools, the number of VCU applicants
is barely higher than the number of
Fairfax County applicants.

“We have got to get more aspiration
from the people at Richmond City
schools,” Trani said.

The university constantly is pushing
toward being part of the greater Richmond
community. The board requested
Trani find more data involving the
graduation rates and post-college paths
of Richmond high school students.

One initiative of VCU and the Richmond
Police Department aims to help
bring the community and the university
together.

Robert Holsworth, dean of the College
of Humanities and Sciences, discussed
the program, which finds students who
are interested in law enforcement in
some of the city’s poorest neighrhoods.
The students both work and take classes
at VCU and J. Sargeant Reynolds Community
College and eventually would
become criminal-justice majors.

“We clearly want VCU to be absolutely
in the middle of this,” Holsworth said.

To get more involved with Richmondarea
students, Trani said the university
needs support from Richmond schools.

Thomas G. Snead Jr., chair of the
academic and health affairs policy com-
mittee, proposed the establishment of a number of new Ph.D. programs, including
tracks in chemical biology and neuroscience.

“This will enable some really smart kids to enter into this new and exciting
field,” Snead said, referring to another proposed Ph.D program in nanoscience
and nanotechnology.

Snead said all his proposed plans have one thing in common.

“If you’ve picked up a theme,” Snead said, “it’s the interdisciplinary theme.”

Through interdisciplinary tracks, students are exposed to and are taught a
broader spectrum of skills and ideas.
Snead – who with his wife donated $1 million to the school in 2004 – is the
namesake of the newly opened Snead Hall, the School of Business Building for
which his donation was utilized.

Snead Hall is just one of the expansions VCU planned for this year.
“In the spring, we’re going to have a number of new buildings coming online,”
said John M. Bennett, senior vice president for finance and administration.

According to Bennett, there will be an additional residence hall open by August
2008 – in time for the start of the fall semester.

The number of first-year freshmen enrolled in fall 2007 was 3,882. Trani said
2008 would be similar.

“It’ll be somewhere between 3,700 and 4,000,” he said.

According to Carol Shapiro, chair of the Student Affairs Committee, the number
of incoming students has risen.

“Not only are we getting more students, but higher SAT scores,” she said.

Shapiro said incoming VCU freshmen are averaging 10 points higher on their
SATs than in previous years.

One issue on the horizon for the Board of Visitors is how to deal with balancing
large incoming classes with those that are already present. According to Stephen
D. Gottfredson, provost and vice president for academic affairs, 83 percent of
freshmen return to the university the following year.