The Virginia Commonwealth Times is featuring an editorial on Trani’s plan to create a VCU campus in Martinsville.

Here is an excerpt that I think the neighborhood can relate to:

For all the opportunity this offer holds for VCU, the university would be wise to turn it down. While it does offer a chance to cover more students in the state of Virginia and truly move toward becoming a state-wide university, with the degree of expansion and work on the MCV and the Monroe Park campuses, it would be unwise for VCU to shift attention away from its core in Richmond.

This is particularly true in light of VCU’s financial issues, which include Gov. McDonnell’s plan to withhold $17 million in state funds from VCU in fiscal 2012 that he announced earlier during this year’s General Assembly session.
No matter where the blame lies, the fact is that VCU is strapped for cash. The partnership with NCI currently works well for VCU, chiefly because VCU faculty teach from afar while holding none of the financial responsibility of the institute. If possible, it would seem that this is the relationship VCU should strive to maintain with NCI.

It appears that VCU is constantly focused on growth. Every day around campus we hear the bulldozers and construction workers outside VCU’s next dormitory or parking garage. The VCU Monroe Park and MCV campuses educate more than 30,000 students. While a Martinsville branch would be a great opportunity to spread the VCU brand, the additional 400 students’ tuitions it would supply to VCU is almost certainly not worth the financial responsibility it would require.