Muslim Student Association will host festival Thursday
Islam Awareness Week has expanded this year to
include a festival that offers free food, activities, prizes
and booths providing information about Islam.
Zaynah Qutubuddin, president of the VCU Muslim
Student Association, says the festival will be a new
feature in an already popular yearly event.
“I’m looking forward to (Thursday’s) festival,
because we’ve never done it before,” she said. “We’ve
had lectures before, and the coffee house has been
going on for years. (This year) we have a lot of new
people helping us out and a lot of freshmen.”
Zaneera Hassan, treasurer of the Muslim Student
Association, is coordinating both the festival and
Islam Awareness Week.
“Our main purpose is to educate both Muslim
and non-Muslim students about various aspects of
Islam,” Hassan said. “Many people have mixed views
as to what Islam is, and we want to clear up those
misconceptions, especially when it comes to more
sensitive topics.”
Brief by Catherine MacDonald
Student organization says ‘Funk The War’
Students for a Democratic Society will host an
Iraq War protest, dubbed “Funk the War,” Friday
at Monroe Park.
SDS members will be dancing around campus with
a mobile sound system, which group member Claire
Schoen hopes will draw attention to the cause.
“A giant dance party is a lot more positive and
fun than your typical protest,” Schoen said.
Schoen says the group hopes to draw a few
hundred people.
According to nationalpriorities.org, the Iraq War
has cost Virginia taxpayers $258 million, she says.
“We’re dropping beats not bombs,” Schoen
said.
The protest will begin at 2 p.m.
Brief by Veronica Garabelli and Roberto Curtis
Barnes and Noble College Booksellers to manage VCU bookstores
Barnes and Noble College Booksellers has signed
a five-year contract to manage VCU’s bookstores
beginning this summer.
Barnes and Noble will perform significant renovations
at both campus locations. Once completed, these
new stores will offer a greatly expanded selection of
general-reading books, magazines, gifts and VCU
clothing as well as textbooks, school supplies, computer
software and accessories and reference materials.
A committee of students, staff and faculty
representatives participated in the process to select
Barnes and Noble.
Barnes and Noble will be providing a Web site
that will enable students to buy books at any time,
including when they register for classes.
The company will be replacing Follett Corporation,
which managed the VCU Bookstores for 12 years.
Information provided by VCU News Center
Ukrop’s store will close May 10
The Ukrop’s grocery store adjacent to the Stuart
C. Siegel Center will close on May 10, according to
a letter sent to customers.
The store had been in operation since Oct. 2003.
The location has been occupied by various grocery
stores since 1980.
Ukrop’s has a lease on the site until 2018. No
replacement for the store has been announced.
Information from InRich.com
Virginia executions to proceed
In light of Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling
upholding lethal injections, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine
has lifted a suspension on executions in Virginia.
Kaine spokesman Gordon Hickey said executions
will proceed according to the procedures that were
in place before the court agreed to hear Kentucky’s
Baze v. Rees case in September.
The governor imposed the moratorium April 1 when
he delayed the execution of Edward Nathaniel Bell from
April 8 to July 24.
The U.S. Supreme Court also had stayed another
Virginia execution back in October.
Brief by the Associated Press