Assembly declares July 1 ‘VCU Day’

Mark your calendars, VCU students, faculty
and alumni, because “Virginia Commonwealth
University Day” is coming this summer.

The House of Delegates unanimously voted
Monday to declare July 1 as VCU’s special day in
Virginia. The Senate had approved the designation
two weeks ago.

VCU Day, commemorating the university’s
40th anniversary, is contained in Senate Joint
Resolution 41, sponsored by Sen. A. Donald
McEachin, D-Richmond.

McEachin did not attend VCU (he received
his bachelor’s degree from American University
and his law degree from the University of
Virginia), but his resolution commends VCU
for its “commitment to provide quality higher
education and exemplary programs and services
to the citizens of Virginia.”

VCU is the product of a merger between the
former Hampden-Sydney medical department,
founded in 1838, and the Richmond Professional
Institute, founded in 1917. These two institutions
came together in 1968 to establish VCU.

The resolution notes that VCU, which includes
the Monroe Park Campus and the Medical
College of Virginia, is now the commonwealth’s
largest public university with almost 32,000
students.

VCU offers 196 degree and certificate programs
through its 15 schools (such as social
work, business and the arts) and one college
(humanities and sciences), the resolution states.
According to the resolution, the university has
21 nationally ranked graduate programs.

During the past four decades, VCU has
expanded significantly, creating satellite facilities
in other parts of Virginia and internationally,
with a campus in the Middle Eastern nation
of Qatar. VCU has 15 partnerships with other
universities in the Middle East, Europe, Africa
and Asia, the resolution states.

The resolution commends VCU for “starting
the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park with
more than 1.2 million square feet of research
space and employing more than 2,000 scientists,
researchers, engineers, and technicians in
fields that include drug development, medical
diagnostics, biomedical engineering, forensics,
and environmental analysis.”