Year in review: 2009’s greatest albums

Asher Roth loved college, with arguably the most obnoxious single of the year in “I Love College.” Newcomers Kid Cudi and Drake established fan bases, with their differing branches of hip-hop (and varying levels of talent). Mos Def’s “The Ecstatic” garnered favorable reviews, Raekwon showed the newcomers up with the strongest Wu-Tang Clan affiliated release since Ghostface Killah’s 2006 release, “Fishscale.”

Music Review | Tall tales from a big man

Clarence Clemons, the saxophone player for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, just finished the talk show circuit promoting his new autobiography, “Big Man: Real Life and Tall Tales.”

Student organizations discuss funding, university focuses

About 200 members from VCU’s Monroe Park campus’ student organizations gathered in the University Student Commons Wednesday, Dec. 2 to discuss the university budget, green initiative and several upcoming events in the spring of 2010.

Q&A with President Michael Rao

Michael Rao started as the president of VCU in July. While he has been here for less than six months, Rao said he is working to understand what the university needs. In Wednesday’s interview, he spoke about the progress of his goals and plans for the university. He spoke of the changes necessary for the university to survive the down economy as well as the need for unity and pride among the VCU community. The following are questions from Wednesday’s interview with audio responses from the president.

Possible funding adds solar projects

The state might fund VCU solar projects, generating new ideas for more on-campus thermal panels and adding to existing solar projects on campus.