For only the second time in 27 years, accounting professor Marshall Geiger did not prepare for the coming school year at University of Richmond. Geiger will not be teaching at Richmond this year, but instead will work for the Securities and Exchange Commission in the Office of the Chief Accountant in Washington, D.C.
As freshman Tim Gruber opened his acceptance letter to the University of Richmond in December, he never imagined that he would share that moment with the nation during the London Olympics. The video of Gruber, 18, tearing open the letter, leaping in the air and screaming "boo-yah" first appeared on YouTube after his father, Chris Gruber, who served as the director of admissions at Richmond from 1985 to 2005, secretly recorded his celebration, he said. "It was my college counselor's idea to put it on YouTube," Gruber said.
University of Richmond student Manyang Reath was standing on a plot of farmland on the border of Sudan and Ethiopia this summer when he received a call from VH1. "They called my phone and said, 'Where are you?'" Reath said.
Beams, laboratories and nuclear detectors are something out of a sci-fi movie, but for Jerry Gilfoyle, a University of Richmond physics professor, and the students he employs, it is just another day at work. This summer, Gilfoyle received a grant renewal of $89,000 from the U.S.
For almost 31 years, longer than any undergraduate student has been alive, Jermaine Massenburg has been cleaning and maintaining the campus buildings. Massenburg has lived in Richmond her entire life and has been caring for the buildings on campus since 1981.
After four years of anticipation, the Class of 2013 commenced the festivities of their final year in college with the Senior Toga Social.
Research creates both a challenging intellectual environment and a social community for students who are a part of Carol Parish's molecular research team. Parish, a Richmond chemistry professor, recently received a three-year, $290,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for molecular research.
John Gupton, Ph.D., University of Richmond chemistry professor has been awarded a National Institutes of Health grant to continue his cancer-related research. The three-year, $348,572 grant from the National Cancer Institute will go toward his chemistry project "The Synthesis and Bioassay of Novel Pyrroles." "We try to do three things: find new chemical reactions to make molecules, we try to understand how these reactions work, and finally apply these reactions to what we think may be biologically interesting molecules," Gupton said of his work as a synthetic organic chemist. As a part of this process, Gupton and several colleagues have discovered a class of compounds that are potent anti-tumor agents.
Sarah Bruce Kelly, who holds a BA and MLA from the University of Richmond, is the 2012 winner of the Tyler R.
Two women entered the same college at different times, yet they both maintained a link to that school more than 50 years after graduating.
It's not uncommon to hear women say "I look so pale" with the same self-deprecation as the common "I look so fat," junior Savannah Gillespie said. Gillespie said most of her friends viewed tan as good and pale as bad. "My whole life, all of my friends have tanned, and I understand it; I really do," she said.
Amy Treonis, an associate professor at the University of Richmond, will be spending five months teaching and researching in Nepal after winning a Fulbright Scholar award. Treonis, who has taught at Richmond since fall 2005 and received tenure last year, will teach at a university in Katmandu while also researching the disparities between conventional agricultural soil and soil that Non-governmental Organizations and the Nepalese government have helped to improve. "I've been here for 20 years; we've never had anybody in the biology department get a Fulbright as far as I can remember," said Gary Radice, the chairman of the biology department. It is customary for a professor to take a sabbatical in the second year following their tenure decision, but the Fulbright allows Treonis to take off the entire year to focus on teaching and research, Radice said. After receiving her tenure, Treonis said, "Being one of those people who can't sit still for a minute, I'm like 'OK, that's done.
Most weekday mornings around 8:30, hundreds of University of Richmond students grumble and groan as they wake up and prepare for their morning classes. By this time, junior Jordan Furtado will have already woken up, gotten dressed and driven to campus for a 6 a.m.
After years of classes and outside work and a year-long senior thesis class, three University of Richmond senior studio art majors will display their work as part of the senior thesis exhibition. The artwork of the three seniors, Elizabeth Ygartua, Kellie Morgan and Jon Henry, will be displayed at the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art, located in the Modlin Center for the Arts from April 13 to May 3. More of their work will be displayed concurrently at the Wilton Companies Gallery at the University of Richmond Downtown, according to a university press release. Much of the work was produced during the two senior thesis classes, which consisted of a fall class of seven students, followed by the option to apply for entry into the exhibition class for the spring, Henry said. Morgan said the class, which was taught by a different professor each semester, had been a transformational experience for her and that she had appreciated having two perspectives help her find her voice in her work. Erling Sjovold, an associate professor of art, taught the class in the fall and said he had wanted to get students started over the summer in order to get them early feedback. "The art can be experimental or research-based," he said.
Students rush by the University of Richmond bookstore every day on the way to their next class, study session or appointment, but there's a lot more to the location than elaborate window displays and Spider gear. The bookstore officially opened in 1976 with the completion of Tyler Haynes Commons.
The Bulgarian dance club hosted an event on Tuesday to celebrate the Orthodox Easter, which is this Sunday, by serving traditional food and performing intricate dances. Senior Gergana Valcheva, who coordinated the event, said the group had planned it so everyone could celebrate Easter the traditional Bulgarian way. "Bulgarian Easter traditions are quite different from ones over here," she said.
Tyler Betzhold, senior catering chef for the University of Richmond, has completed the requirements for the certified Executive Chef accreditation from the American Culinary Federation. Betzhold prepares food for on-campus events including banquets, conferences and award ceremonies.
The Spanish and Latino Student Alliance (SALSA) hosted its third annual Noche Latina at Tyler Haynes Commons Saturday night, providing its audience with authentic food, dancing and even a Mr. Latin America competition. Isela Melendez, president of SALSA, said the event had been held to help bring awareness to campus about the Latino culture. "We feel there isn't a lot of Latino presence on campus," she said, "and this is a fun way to meet other Latinos.
Courtney Harvey, president of UR Fierce, and Ronwyn Pritchett, founder and president of Future American Men of Excellence, schooled audience members on fashion dos and don'ts at the UR Fashion Police show Friday. "It's an event where we wanted to show different things that we've seen on campus and also want to show what to wear and what not to wear in certain situations, " Harvey said.
Alexandra Hamlet, a University of Richmond graduate and Richmond, Va., native, will be returning to campus to sign copies of her first book, "The Right Guard," from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
