Here’s a selection of news that broke over winter break
Hillary Huber
Contributing Writer
Turnage finds new job in D.C.
Wayne Turnage, who has served as VCU President Rao’s chief of staff for the last year, has found a new job in Washington, D.C. as Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s director of health-care finance. Turnage’s new job comes after what Rao called a “reorganization” of administration, leaving Turnage out of his chief of staff position. The decision to reorganize left Rao in a whirl of controversy, causing the board of visitors to hire an outside consultant to review his performance. Turnage’s contract expires January 31. His new job starts Feb. 1.
New Arts School Dean
Joseph H. Seipel, the professor largely credited with the ascendance of VCU’s sculpture department to the No. 1 program nationwide, will be returning to become the new dean of the Arts School. Seipel, 63, left VCU after 34 years as a professor, senior associate dean and director of graduate studies. He left after a job as vice president of academic services at Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia. Seipel will be replacing Richard Toscan, who served as dean of the Arts School for 14 years. Toscan told the university he will remain in Richmond and focus on community service ventures. Seipel will be back at VCU under his new position on March 15.
Construction at Grace and Shafer
VCU’s latest construction project on Grace and Shafer is set to be a new parking deck, which will include an IHOP and two other restaurants. The construction is projected to be completed by August of 2011. The decision to include an IHOP was announced in early December, in hopes of expanding the types of restaurants available to students and faculty on campus. While there are already late-night diners, like the perennial VCU hotspot The Village, students will now have additional choices to please their after-hours palates.
