Category Archives: schools

At VCU Tuesday: A Public Forum on The Cost of War

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From RPEC announcement:

Join the Richmond Peace Education Center for a timely community forum, “The Cost of War: Dismantling the Military-Industrial Complex and Building a Peace Economy,” Tuesday, March 19th, in the VCU Commons Theater on the Monroe Park Campus. The timing of the event–as Tax Day approaches–is intended to underscore the large proportion of tax dollars that go towards military spending.

The forum will focus on the history of U.S. militarism and the current defense budget and address possible strategies for converting a military-oriented economy to a peace economy.

Speakers will include VCU professor Mark Wood, PhD, and Miriam Pemberton, Research Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. There will be a Q&A session following their presentations. The evening will close with break out groups for follow-up action, for those who wish to participate. The program will be moderated by Adria Scharf, PhD, director of the Richmond Peace Education Center.

“The Cost of War” is part of the Richmond Peace Education Center‘s
programming on global peace/antiwar issues. The forum is free and the
public is invited to attend.

For more information: www.rpec.org, 232-1002, or rpec at rpec.org

Crisis of a Country: A U.S. Civil War Musical Retrospective This Friday

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From event description:

March 14, 2013 at 7:30 p.m. This work by student composer Allen Wittig will be performed by the combined forces of the VCU Orchestra and Commonwealth Singers at the W.E. Singleton Center for the Performing Arts. The concert will be conducted by Maestro Daniel Myssyk, augmented by the Williamsburg Choral Guild and narrated by Christy Coleman, president of the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar. Free to VCU students with ID; $7 in advance, $10 on the day of performance for non-VCU students. For tickets, visit www.showclix.com/events/1320.

VCUramnation Forum Reveals Continued Falsehoods and Arrogance

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Fighting them off forever, and believe me, I have no desire to keep rehashing this controversy. It’s unfortunate that a few VCU boosters and sports fans continue to put their school in such a bad light.

From VCUramnation.com :

VRam said: ↑
Whatever happened to those abandoned barns that were falling down? Did they relocate them?

(vcu2008hsep replied:)

If I remember correctly, the stables were dated back to the late 1800s. There was no historical significance to them and were essentially derelict and used for storage. When the Cary St was expanded, those old buildings were torn down….

vcu2008hsep, Feb 26, 2013

All I can do to counter the lies and misinformation is keep posting the truth:

https://www.oregonhill.net/2007/09/03/antrim-photo/

https://www.oregonhill.net/2007/09/04/more-stable-history/

https://www.oregonhill.net/2007/09/12/1994-dhr-letter/

https://www.oregonhill.net/2007/09/23/vcus-parking-lots-alternative-sites/

https://www.oregonhill.net/2009/01/13/no-alternatives/

There were other posts too, but not all of them have survived over time. Thanks to misconceptions spread in the local media, many people have no idea that one of the livery stables, before it was taken by VCU, was completely renovated and occupied as a living space. It was even admired in an article that appeared on the front page of the Times Dispatch’s real estate section (of course the link to that story is long gone).

I would not care so much about responding to this VCUramnation drivel, but in addition to the revisionist history-making, there seems to be constant scheming about how to destroy more of our historic neighborhood. Again from VCUramnation:

“And, this is a contemporary thought – since Williams Mullen built thir skraper on top of the RMA parking deck that was built over the Expressway. Not sure why in our latest athletics complex plan (which seemingly mapped out all of the possibilities in the world) did not include one like this. Parkwood is already pretty much a dead street pass Harrison. Cumberland can be re-routed as a tunnel underneath the new athletics complex. Do the same for Grayland, with impressive entrance/exits to the Expressway.

The new complex, Ram Village, would be bordered by Cary to the north, Harrison to the west, Linden to the east, and Idlewood to the south.”

I am perfectly happy to allow VCU to bask in its continued success and improvement, and I have nothing against good-natured school spirit, but the intellectual dishonesty and continued threats of encroachment are dishonorable and unfitting for an institution of higher learning.

In the end, its up to the VCU administration to set the tone for their community relations, and yet they refuse to recognize it, again and again.

Trash/Recycling Pickup Tomorrow

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This Wednesday is a red Wednesday, which means trash and recycling pickup. Please make sure you pick up containers after pickup tomorrow night. They do not belong on the sidewalk after tomorrow night.

Also, look for winners of the Sierra Club Falls of the James group’s 2012 Recycling Breakthrough contest to appear at the RVA Environmental Film Festival this weekend (it’s free to attend!).

In other local recycling news, VCU continues has begun to compete in RecycleMania. From Commonwealth Times article:

Competing to collect the most trash isn’t your typical varsity sport, but VCU has entered a nationwide competition to compare collected recyclables to the national average during the RecycleMania challenge this Spring.

In a 10-week competition, VCU and an estimated 630 schools will be racing to collect the largest amount of recyclables, least amount of trash and highest recycling per capita. The competition is set up similar to basketball brackets and continues weekly elimination rounds until one school is left. This is the second year of the RecycleMania competition. Winners of the competition ultimately receive bragging rights among university rivals, but can also win a recyclable trophy: a bowling pin made to appear like a tin man for the Waste Minimization Trophy.

Stephen Heinitz, the recycling and reuse coordinator for the Department of Environmental Conservation at VCU, said RecycleMania is “a way to educate the students, faculty and staff about recycling.”

Heinitz said he is committed to educating and empowering people about their contribution to recycling. He wants to give every person at VCU the opportunity to recycle along with educating them on why it is important.

“We are an education institution and we want to give everyone the opportunity to develop good recycling habits. If you want change, then make change,” he said.

That change is already taking place. According to the VCU Department of Environmental Conservation, the university community recycled 507 tons of paper, 266 tons of cardboard, 132 tons of scrap metal, 37 tons of computers and electronics in 2009 alone.

Junior English major Angelica Kennedy thinks the programs will motivate VCU to recycle even more. “I think (RecycleMania is) a fabulous thing because hopefully it will inspire people to not only recycle when they’re out and about, but also when they’re at home.”

Continue reading →

Congratulations to Ram Bhagat

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Ram Bhagat, celebrated Open High teacher, founder of Drums No Guns and the Richmond Youth Peace Project, recently received one of this year’s Pollak Awards. (Click here for article).

Here is a an earlier profile from a Richmond Magazine article on standout teachers:

Although Ram Bhagat’s students don’t always relish their time in his demanding science classes, the Open High School teacher says “99 percent” of them like him after the classes are over. In his large classroom lined with windows, Bhagat teaches chemistry and AP environmental science.

Open High, part of the Richmond Public Schools system, has always taken an expansive approach to education, allowing students to follow their interests and learn subjects in creative ways. So, when Bhagat’s students study how water molecules behave, they may invent a dance or go to the James River. A teacher for 27 years, Bhagat is a Virginia State University graduate who grew up in New Haven, Conn. In college, Bhagat says, he became engaged in learning, particularly about microbiology, his major. The teachers there were “very inspirational by the way that they taught and cared.”

VCU Officials Predict 5.5% Tuition Increase Next Year

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In the Nov. 26th issue of the VCU Commonwealth Times, there’s an article on page 5, written by Assistant New Editor Liz Butterfield, entitled “Officials predict rise in tuition, expenditures.”
I cannot find the same article online yet.

Excerpt:

Hanson’s office has predicted around a 5.5 percent increase to in-state tuition for undergraduates next year with no foreseen budget cuts and an emphasis on hiring new faculty. This could mean an increase of about $430 for in-state, full-time students if the increase is proposed and the Board of Visitors approved it.