Category: Fall 2007

By Jimmy Young

The University of Richmond goes to great lengths to ensure that handicapped students enjoy college without accessibility problems.

One such student, Chris "Buddy" Cassidy, a freshman from Annandale, Va., benefits directly from the improvements made on campus. These improvements can be as significant as a ramp at the entrance to a building and as minor as gliders placed on desk drawers.

Cassidy suffers from a form of muscular dystrophy that forces him to rely on a motorized scooter for mobility, he said. He has benefited directly from the proactive approach by the university staff, he said.

"I can't see any other school working as hard to meet my various accommodations and to ensure a comfortable academic and home environment," he said. "Because the staff takes care of virtually all of my needs, I am able to focus on my studies without having to worry about inaccessibility."

Unlike most universities, which often have an office that processes the concerns of handicapped students, Steve Bisese, vice president for student development, processes all students with disabilities. This comprises students with limited mobility such as Cassidy, students with sensory problems, students with temporary physical injuries and about 90 additional students with learning disabilities.

Bisese begins working with these students as soon as the admissions office contacts him to let him know that a student is interested in the University of Richmond, he said.

When Bisese received word that Cassidy was coming to tour the university, he met him and his family when they arrived on campus and twice before the first semester began.

"We're committed to personal attention," Bisese said.

Bisese has served in his current job since last year, and he's always enjoyed working with students, he said. He served as a resident assistant as a sophomore at the College of William and Mary, and when he got out of school, he realized that he could have a job outside of college working with students, he said. He thinks that the University of Richmond has a good plan in dealing with disabled students, he said.

"What might attract someone like Buddy to come here, especially with him being mobility impaired, is that when we hear [that someone is coming here], we just develop a personal plan," he said. "We don't know what they want to major in, we don't know what we're going to come across, but we will do virtually anything we can within reason."
Bisese says the university isn't fully accessible, and that some buildings, such as Ryland Hall, because of their age, never will be made accessible. He makes sure that handicapped students understand the limitations of the university.

"You should only feel comfortable if you really know the campus," he said. "We wouldn't want to hide what we are. €¦We need to let [disabled students] know."

Bisese contacts outside organizations that offer him advice as to what amenities disabled students may require, he said. He also works closely with Joan Lachowski director of housing, Mary Churchill in CAPS and Susie Reid in facilities, in what he describes as a close-knit group.

Lachowski is kept apprised of changes in student  dorm rooms, but doesn't play a direct role in determining the students' needs, she said.

If disabled students need an attendant to aid their everyday needs, Lachowski will make the university community aware in a newsletter or SpiderByte, she said.

Reid plays a much more significant role in this process, addressing specific needs of each student, she said.

"We pride ourselves in working one-on-one with our disabled students," said Reid, director of operations and maintenance.

Reid met Cassidy on his first day here to make certain that he was comfortable, she said.

"I have thoroughly enjoyed doing whatever I can to help these folks achieve their goals," Reid said. "I have so much respect for them for going against the odds and accomplishing what they want to accomplish in life.

"Anything that we can do to remove barriers to that end, we are more than happy to do. And that’s the attitude everybody at the university has."

Bisese shares this view. He spent all last summer preparing for Cassidy's arrival, and was upset when he learned that an elevator that Cassidy needed in the Tyler Haynes Commons had broken on his first day on the campus during orientation.

"I was heart-broken that we had looked at every single thing possible. €¦It was his first day and I didn't want him to become scarred by [the experience]," he said. "I didn't want him being the only one [of 800 students] walking around with an administrator in a tie."

Cassidy's mother, Grace, is well aware of the problems that come with accessibility, she said.

"We've always raised Chris that he can do anything that he wants," she said.  "He may just have to peel back some layers of the onion to get where he needs."
The university still has some work to do, Cassidy says, especially when it comes to publicity regarding accessibility. The university website doesn't publicize specific information regarding accessibility, which makes it difficult for handicapped students to know what to expect before they arrive on campus, she said.

Such information would else help change the mindset of the campus community and make people more aware of problems that disabled students face, she said.

"Richmond could benefit from increased awareness," she said.

When her family came here to visit Buddy during parents' weekend, they went to the football game, but had to sit on the other side of the stadium, away from the home fans, because of accessibility problems, Cassidy' mother said. The seats wee good, she says, but if her son wants to go to a game in the future, he won't be able to sit with the rest of the students, which isn't right, she said.

She hopes that handicap accessibility will be taken into account and addressed when the new football stadium is built.

She has seen Richmond make significant improvements from the first time she came here, which she described as a "disaster." She came here for Accepted Students' Day and no one was able to adequately assist them in finding their way across the campus, she said. Now, her perspective has changed, she said.

"We could not be happier with the accommodations," she said.

Gene Anderson, a music teacher at the university for 25 years, has seen the university make modest improvements during his tenure, such as creating ramps for sidewalks. Major improvements haven't come until recently, he said.

The music department used to teach a piano class on the third floor of Booker Hall, but this became impossible as more handicapped students began to attend Richmond because the only elevator in the building had to be accessed through a set of stairs, he said.

"The issue has never been completely addressed because of the lack of handicapped students here, so making the campus handicap accessible has never been a burning issue," Anderson said.

Music professor Jennifer Cable oversees the Richmond Scholars program and serves as academic adviser to the Oldham Scholars program, which Cassidy is a member of, she said. She worked with a travel agent to plan a trip to Chicago last month with the Oldham Scholars, which included ensuring that Cassidy was able to participate in all the planned activities, she said.

Still, there were problems with hotel room accommodations and the bus that the group used, she said. Cable had worked extensively to make sure that Cassidy had the proper accommodations, but those on the other end didn't do what they were asked, she said.

"No matter how much preparation work you do, things can still absolutely go wrong," she said. "I'm confident that we did all that we could do."

The greatest problem is getting people to understand what specific needs that Cassidy and other handicap students need, she said.

Annie Kennedy, vice president for student advocacy for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, says that many universities don't understand what it means to be accessible until a student with a physical disability is actually enrolled.

"Accessible means different things to different people," she said.

Many times, a university will be well-intentioned and will try to make itself accessible, but it won't make the proper modifications to do so, she said. Institutions need to understand that the unique needs of a student must be met, she said.

Richmond has a willingness to learn what needs to be done to make itself more accessible and addresses more than just the basic needs of a student, Kennedy said.

Cassidy's mother feels that Richmond has gone above and beyond to help Cassidy. For example, it would be acceptable for the university to provide a handicap-accessible ramp at the back entrance to Gray Court, she said. The university had no obligation to provide Cassidy with a second, and more convenient, entrance, she said.

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 prohibits discrimination based upon disabilities. Under Title III of the ADA, public accommodations, including educational facilities such as the university, must meet certain standards that allow all people to use the goods and services that the facility provides.

The act requires that any new buildings or buildings that are undergoing major renovations anyway to be outfit with handicap accessible facilities. Buildings that were constructed before the act became law don't have to meet ADA standards.

This is why new buildings on campus, such as Weinstein Hall and Lakeview, are fully accessible, while older buildings, such as Ryland Hall, are not, Bisese said. If Richmond, as a private institution, doesn't comply with ADA standards, it will lose access to federal student loans, he said. This would be devastating to students attending the school, he said.

Since Cassidy committed to the school,  Richmond has spent $75,000 to $80,000 to ensure that the campus meets ADA standards, Reid said.

This includes $20,000 to completely renovate Cassidy's bedroom and bathroom, $600 to construct an asphalt ramp at the entrance to Gray Court, $19,200 to install five automatic door openers (two in Gray Court, two in Jepson Hall and one in Booker Hall) and $12,000 to renovate the elevator in Gray Court, Reid said.

Funds are readily available if improvements are needed, Bisese said, but they must be within reason. Most of the time, requests are granted, but some improvements are simply too costly, such as making all residence halls handicap accessible.

"We can only do a little at a time," he said.

Many of the alterations to the campus have come recently because Cassidy is the first four-year student with limited mobility at Richmond, Reid said. The school has had two other handicapped students in the past five years – a law student from 2002 to 2005 and a transfer student from 2005 to 2007.

The transfer student, Jason Blackwell, spent two and a half years here and lived in the University Forest Apartments, which are completely handicap accessible, Bisese said. Blackwell's biggest problem during his time at the university was accessing his academic adviser, Bisese said.

Blackwell was an English major and his adviser's office was in Ryland Hall, which he  couldn't reach because he was confined to a wheelchair.

Another one of Blackwell's problems was deciding which was more important – being able to access public areas or residence halls, Bisese said.

The registrar's office played a role in ensuring that Blackwell could take the classes he wanted. If a class he wanted to take was located in a building that wasn't accessible, the class was moved to a building that was accessible, Bisese said. The same procedure is followed now with Cassidy, Reid said.

Other than meeting Cassidy's basic needs, the university ensures that he is able to partake in activities that he enjoys, Reid said.

The pool lift had been malfunctioning for some time, which posed a problem because of Cassidy's love of swimming, Reid said. The university spent $2,800 on a new lift this October.

"If we didn’t have a student here that we knew would use it, we might have just kept repairing it for a while longer," Reid said.

Cassidy was also able to participate in the university's production of "Macbeth" when a role was modified specifically for him, he said. The director, Walter Schoen, wanted Cassidy to  be cast in his show, and he assured him that nothing would hinder him from being on stage, Cassidy said.
The play was set in the World War I era, so Cassidy's character suffered injuries, allowing him to be carried around stage on a stretcher or by the other actors, he said. A wheelchair was also designed for use at other points throughout the performance. For those in the audience that didn't know about Cassidy's disability, there was no
way to determine that he had one, he said.

Bisese and Reid call Cassidy to check up on him whenever they feel it necessary, Bisese said. Both are expected to respond to whatever problem Cassidy may have, but neither is required to take the initiative in contacting him, Bisese said. Still, some problems exist in making sure Cassidy is comfortable.

"What I find challenging is finding the balance between being a support and not being overbearing," he said.

Cassidy feels as though he is living a normal life here, without the hassles that came with being a high school student. The situation was so poor that he fought nearly three years to obtain a single electronic door opener for his use, he said.

"In high school, I had to put up with the angst and frustration of having to make sure that even my most basic needs were met," Cassidy said. "It was so bad that I had to ram my scooter into the front door of the school every time I wanted to open it."

The staff of the university is what makes the difference for handicapped students, Cassidy said.

"I remember Buddy's mom telling me that when they were looking at other campuses, there may have been some that were more accessible, but nowhere did they meet people with the attitude of the University of Richmond," Reid said. "They just felt comfortable with him here and were satisfied that he would be taken care of.

"We’re proud they feel that way."

By Leigh Donahue

There are definite patterns to excessive drinking on campus and to those who receive emergency treatment for alcohol-related injuries, University of Richmond student emergency medical technicians and staff members say.

"Most of the intoxicated calls I've gotten have been underclassmen, …, mostly freshmen," Senior Meghan MacNeal said.

MacNeal is a Virginia certified emergency medical technician and a member of the Spider Advanced Medical Emergency Service, or SAVERS, which is made up of certified student emergency medical technicians.

Calls received by SAVERS members during the day are usually emergencies involving faculty and staff, said MacNeal, a four-year veteran of SAVERS.  "During the day, we can also get sports injuries, but usually at night it'll be drunken calls or injuries caused by intoxication," she said.

Most of the cases that SAVERS workers see are in freshmen dorms, especially Gray Court, MacNeal said.  "I haven't gone to a single intoxicated call for any upperclassman, ever," she said.

In one Gray Court case, she responded to, she found a freshman sprawled out in his room with "puke down the front of his shirt, his fly unzipped," she said.

Many freshmen are testing their limits with alcohol in their new environments, said Juliette Landphair, dean of Westhampton College.  "They're not sophisticated in really their understanding of the dangers of drinking," she said.

According to a memo released by the Westhampton College dean's office, 11 women were hospitalized in the fall semester of 2006.  Of those 11, eight were freshmen and three were sophomores.

"Typically the people we see go to the hospital are first years that haven't had a lot of experience with alcohol," said Angie Harris, associate dean of Westhampton College.

"The fall's always worse than the spring," said Steve Bisese, Richmond's Vice President of Student Affairs.  "It's usually worse with newer students."

There have been no deaths caused by alcohol consumption at UR, campus Police Chief Robert C. Dillard said.  There have been some close calls though.

"We have two or three a year that the alcohol content is so high that it's kind of touch-and-go as far as if they're going to make it," Dillard said.
"Most of them €¦ will be €¦ drunk," she said, "but we've actually had some really bad ones where they were either not really breathing at all or breathing so slowly we had to assist them in breathing."

The worst case MacNeal has seen happened this semester, she said.  A freshman female was unconscious and barely breathing when the paramedics arrived at a residence hall after a group of friends had called 911.

"When the ambulance came, you could see it on the medic's face," she said.  "It was definitely not, €˜Oh yeah, she'll be fine,' you know, it was definitely, €˜We'll hope she pulls through.'"

Many of the alcohol poisoning cases on campus are attributed to binge drinking, Dean Landphair said.  Binge drinking is defined as consuming five or more drinks for male and four or more drinks for a female in the span of two hours, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, or NIAAA.

The proportion of current drinkers who binge is highest in the 18- to 20-year-old group at 52 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More and more students are coming to Richmond with experience in excessive drinking in high school, said Bisese, former dean of Richmond College.  "People are coming having some of these issues," he said.  "It's not all developed in college."

Another factor in binge drinking is the popularity of pre-gaming or pre-loading before events, Dillard said.  Pre-gaming has contributed to many of the cases of alcohol arrests and injuries, members of deans' offices said.

"They're trying to get in as much alcohol as they possibly can before they go to an event," said Joe Boehman, dean of Richmond College, "and that's where we see students getting into trouble."

Bisese said: "Sometimes people say, €˜Well, is that because you're enforcing the rules more so that people are afraid of getting in trouble so they're drinking in private before?'

"We've had really no change in the rules.  In fact, the same sanctions for underage violations are basically in effect now that were in effect when we set them up in 1986."

Many students are using hard liquor as a way to become intoxicated.  "That's a real danger zone for me," Landphair said, "knowing that often our women will gather in their rooms and do shots of vodka, you know, heavy, hard stuff."

Deans of other institutions across the country are dealing with the prevalence of pre-gaming before big events. Brandeis University's yearly event, Modfest, was canceled because three students were taken to the hospital as a result of pre-gaming, according to a Boston Globe article.
Boehman previously worked for the housing department at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  "We had similar numbers, in terms of percentage of the number of students that were involved," he said.

The worst case that Chief Dillard could recall was one involving a Richmond College student who fell in the ditch near the intersections of UR Drive and Westhampton Way last year.  Students saw the student stumble into the ditch and were unable to pull him out.

When police pulled him out, his blood alcohol level was measured and found to be above 0.5 percent, the highest recorded from a student on campus.  People are considered legally drunk when his or her blood alcohol content is above 0.08 percent, according to the NIAAA.

The student was taken to the trauma unit at the Medical College of Virginia and was put on a ventilator.  He did recover, Dillard said.  "If they had not told us, or if they had not happened to be behind him when he fell, it would have been fatal," he said.

In another case, a female student submitted to peer pressure and drank, even though she was allergic to alcohol, Dillard said. "She ended up in the hospital on a ventilator," he said.  "She almost died, she was that allergic to it," he said.  "She lived, and would you believe it, within a few weeks later, she did the same thing."

Before the national drinking age changed from 18 to 21 in 1984, students were not binge drinking as much as the do now, Dillard said.  "Did we have students get intoxicated?" he asked.  "Yes.  But until recent years we never, ever, ever took a student to the hospital.  Never.  Just never had to."

Another topic of concern at many universities is alcohol and how it  is used in  hazing.  Hazing is "any ritual required by a newcomer to get into an organization," former Richmond professor Hank Nuwer said.  Many hazing cases involve binge drinking, he said.

The Greek system at Richmond does not have as many problems as other institutions, Nuwer said, because of the strong involvement of the Greek system in education and awareness.  Some of the rules put in place, such as the outlawing of kegs on campus, have led to fewer alcohol incidents with the fraternities, Richmond police Lt. John Jacobs said.

"Fraternities are more worried about liability and so they're more cognizant of rules," Bisese said.

One recent incident involved the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.  The fraternity held an off-campus party at Center Ridge Drive, near Three Chopt Road, the night of Oct. 21 of this year after the football team defeated the University of Rhode Island.  Thirty-five people, mostly UR students, were arrested for underage possession of alcohol, according to a recent article published by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

No sanctions were brought against the fraternity because it was considered outside of the control of the fraternity or university, according to the article.

Another issue that arises with the consumption of alcohol is the possibility of a student consuming date-rape drugs, Dillard said.  One case he recalled involved a "nearly perfect student," he said, who went to a bar at Shockoe Slip and got into an altercation.  Police believed that she had been slipped a date-rape drug because of her behavior.

"She goes totally ballistic," Dillard said.  She went to a restaurant next door and started beating a cook, he said.  She then assaulted ABC investigators who arrived.  "She ended up getting one of her teeth knocked out," he said.

There are three types of date-rape drugs: GHB, Ketamine, and Rohypnol, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.  GHB (gamma hdroxybutyrate), when combined with alcohol, can cause nausea and breathing difficulties.  Ketamine is an anesthetic used by doctors and veterinarians.  It is also knows as "special K" or "vitamin K" and can cause dream-like statues and hallucinations, according to the NIDA.

Rohypnol, also known s "roofies," which can cause €˜anterograde amnesia,'which means individuals may not remember events they experienced while under the effects of the drug," according to the NIDA.  All three drugs may cause death, especially when combined with alcohol.

One of the worst cases SAVERS President Rachel Dillon has seen involved a Westhampton College student who had problems walking on her own after ingesting too much alcohol as well as other substances.

"We found out that she actually had like two or three date-rape drugs in her system," Dillon, a junior, said.

The work hard, party hard mentality held by many students is also a factor in binge drinking, Landphair said.  "The idea is that drinking heavily is somehow going to relieve your stress when of course it just does the opposite," she said.

The majority of the arrests made by the campus police are liquor-law violations.  The police department's website lists annual statistics, and it states that there were 157 alcohol arrests made and more than 1,200 alcohol referrals to the dean's office from 2004 to 2006.  Eight of the 157 arrests were in residence halls; the other 149 arrests were on campus.  More than 1,000 of the referrals were made after incidents in residence halls; the other 154 were on campus.

An arrest is made by a police officer, and a report is filed for each arrest.  A residence life staff member or a faculty member can make a referral to the dean's office.
The Richmond College dean's office saw 450 students in the 2006-2007 school year, according to a memo released by the office.  Out of those 450 cases, 289 involved alcohol.

There are more referrals each year to the Richmond College dean's office than the Westhampton College dean's office.  "The men are a lot more willing to host parties in their rooms and their apartments so they do bear the brunt of the responsibility a lot of the times," said Patrick Benner, the Associate Dean of Richmond College.

"We do tend to see more males get arrested for alcohol consumption, because their behavior tends to be a little more over the top," said campus Police Capt. Beth Simonds said.  "They tend to get in fights or become belligerent or more aggressive."  Westhampton students tend to get transported to the hospital more than Richmond College students, she said.

Each case is looked at on an individual basis, Dean Boehman said.  There are three sanctions for a first-time offender that are given by both colleges, Harris said.  They are a disciplinary warning, a fine and an alcohol education program.

The warning remains on the student's record until graduation, Harris said.  It stays on the student's judicial file but is not released to parties outside the dean's office, she said.

A student will receive between a $25 to $50 fine for their first offense.  If the charge was public intoxication, an underage student will have to pay $50, while a student of legal age will have to pay $25, according to the university's alcohol policy.  A $25 fine is given to an underage student possessing alcohol.  The collected fines fund alcohol education programs.

The student will also have to meet with the area coordinator, if the event took place in a residence hall, or with the dean if the action took place outside of a residence hall or apartment, Boehman said.

An online education course called Third Millenium has to be completed by a first-time offender.  The class takes less than two hours to take.  "The idea is that they're learning from their mistakes," Harris said.

"The sanctions are at the discretion of the dean's office," Benner said, "and we look at the severity of the incident, what the student's involvement was, what their past record was, things of that nature."

There are different levels of consequences for students who are arrested or referred to the dean for an alcohol violation.  Second-time offenders are put into the RISK, or Reduced Impairment Through Supplemental Knowledge program.

The RISK program is a six-hour course completed by a student off-campus, Boehman said.  It is taught by trained counselors and involves education on alcohol and drug abuse.
In even more serious cases, a student can be referred off-campus to Family Counseling Center for Recovery, or FCRR, the for inpatient or outpatient care, Boehman said.

"If we feel a student has a concern over the amount their drinking, the level that they're drinking, things of that nature," Boehman said, "we will have them go do a formal assessment and do extensive counseling through them."

Community service may be awarded to offenders in the Richmond College system.  These assignments have ranged from 10 to 100 hours, Benner said.  Students may work for UR facilities, campus recreation, the Boys & Girls Club and others.

"A second offense could mean termination of their housing contract and it could possibly mean suspension," Boehman said.  Suspension is usually for one semester, he said.  Occasionally students are asked to leave campus permanently for excessive alcohol use.

"Our disciplinary system is not meant to put a dagger in somebody for a first offense," Bisese said.  "It's really designed to have there be some kind of involvement so that you don't have a second offense or you learn about what you need to learn to take care of yourself."

Even if they're underclassmen, students shouldn't worry about the consequences they could face later when they see that a fellow student is in need of aid, Dillon advised.  "We're here to help; we're not here to get you in trouble," she said.

SAVERS members urge students to seek help if they need it.  "If someone's seriously ill, especially with alcohol poisoning, call 911," Dillon, a former resident assistant, said.  "Don't try to take care of them yourself because people can die very easily.  There are people to take care of you."

By Jill Cavaliere

Jack Bell was undecided about his career plans, like many University of Richmond seniors, during the months before his graduation in May 2007. He was certain he wanted to teach in the Richmond area for a year or two, but none of the private schools he looked into seemed right.

"My heart wasn't really in any of those places," Bell said.

One February day Bell was talking about the situation with Percy Strickland, the CEO of Church Hill Activities and Tutoring in Richmond.  CHAT, according to its website, is a Christian organization seeking to transform the Church Hill area by opening homes, and providing programs such as life-skills training and after school tutoring.

Bell volunteered as a CHAT tutor since freshman year, and lived in the area one summer.

"My heart was really here," he said, and so when Strickland suggested Bell start a school for CHAT, he did.

On Sept. 4, 2007, almost seven months after Bell's conversation with Strickland, the Church Hill Academy's first school year began.

The academy, a provisional private school in the process of accreditation, provides free education to nine Church Hill residents – six girls and three boys – all in the 10th grade. The students heard about the school through CHAT, and chose to enroll in the academy for this year.

Although Bell and Strickland formed the idea for the academy, many other people soon joined the cause, including Dan Fisher and Taylor Winters, both UR seniors at the time.

Fisher and Winters had volunteered with CHAT since their junior years, and individually sought different ways to work with inner-city children after graduation.

Fisher said he originally applied to Teach for America, but started looking into Richmond public schools when he was not accepted. One day he was telling Bell, his apartment-mate at the time, how his job search was going when Bell excitedly told him about the academy. The idea interested Fisher, and after praying about it, he agreed to help.

For Winters the decision to join the academy was a bit different. She had worked as a CHAT intern the past summer, and during that time met her husband, who lived in Church Hill.

The two were engaged while Winters was finishing her senior year, she said, so she knew she would be moving to the neighborhood after graduation. Winters said that through the relationships she built during her internship she developed a passion to help the neighborhood.

Winters said she wanted to help in whatever area CHAT had a need, so when Bell approached her with his idea, she agreed to help.

The three then worked during the summer to develop the details of the school. Because the academy is nonprofit, much of the time was spent fundraising from private donors.

So far they have raised about $81,000, but Winters said they were still collecting donations because they are $10,000 short for the year.

About $72,000 of the money goes toward salaries for the three founders, while the rest goes toward things such as supplies and mortgage for the building, which is rented from CHAT.

Bell said the money came from churches, friends and family, members of the Richmond and Church Hill communities, and others. He described how overall support for the academy has been overwhelming, and singled out Third Presbyterian Church, on Forest Avenue, as one of the major contributors.

"It really has become sort of a community project," Bell said. "So many people are behind the scenes helping us."

Over the summer Fisher handled most of the planning, Winters said, because Bell was in Mississippi raising support for the school and she was planning their wedding.

Fisher said the planning process was not what he had expected, since he had heard about bureaucracy in school but had never actually dealt with it. He contacted Brian Brown, a lawyer involved with CHAT, and they worked on the details of the school together.

One of the issues the two worked on was acquiring a nonprofit, 501c3 status for the school. According to Fisher, the 501c3 status helps the academy because it makes donations tax deductible and exempts it from paying taxes at certain stores.

The academy also began looking into accreditation agencies, narrowing it down to a few options. It is leaning toward the National Association of Street Schools, which would provide structure, direction, funding and approval for the school.

Since accreditation typically takes from one to five years, Winters said the academy leaders wanted to make sure the school fit well with the organization it chose. The decision will be made by the academy's board of directors before the end of the year.

Board member Corey Widmer, associate minister at Third Presbyterian Church, in an email interview, said the board's purpose was "to bring structure, strength and accountability to the vision, support and operations of the school."

Fisher assembled the board of directors this summer, taking three principles into consideration while he searched: people in positions of influence and social networking, people with educational experience, and people who have a heart for the Church Hill area.
"[We wanted] people who know what's going on and could provide guides for us as we go down this process," Fisher said.

Seven people are on the Board of Directors, including three doctors, a teacher, a judge, a pastor and a director of admissions at the Medical College of Virginia.

Widmer explained the Board seeks "to draw from the knowledge of many others who have done similar things around the county and glean from their experience solutions to some of the challenges we are facing."

During the early stages of planning for the school, Fisher said he often felt overwhelmed.

"I felt like, €˜I don't know what I'm doing.' I felt totally incompetent," Fisher said, and often had moments when he doubted if the academy was going to work.

Fisher said he handled doubts by praying and discerning from God that the school was something that was needed in the neighborhood. Bell and Winters also see the students' needs as the driving force behind the academy.

"A lot of them are just in awful, awful situations academically," Bell said. "In tutoring them we've made an implicit promise to them€¦that we would see them through."

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 60 percent of people in the Church Hill area graduate from high school, and only 10 percent complete college. Bell also pointed out that 37 percent of people live below the poverty line, and the unemployment rate ranges from 38-40 percent.

Bell said as he tutored and built relationships, he saw a need for drastic intervention.

Winters views the issues in the area as small pieces of a larger systemic problem. "Poverty, malnutrition, the lack of resources around here – those are generational issues," she said. "They did not happen in one day and they aren't going to end in one day. So while we continue to fight for them, in the meantime, we want to save our kids."

She said they chose education because "if you try to think of everything that would solve poverty, you'll be so overwhelmed that you'll quit and you'll move to the West End."

Understanding the disadvantages caused by the students' backgrounds guided how the founders planned and designed the academy.

According to the school's mission statement, the academy seeks to provide the students with the skills needed "for becoming responsible, virtuous and articulate men and women." Explaining a diploma is not an "end-in-and-of-itself," but a means for students to develop character.

Bell, Fisher and Winters realized many of the students came from large classrooms where they tended to be overlooked. They set enrollment at 12 students, Bell said, to avoid this situation and enable the students to receive more attention.

The three also started brainstorming about what they could feed the students, Fisher said, since most do not eat at home, and good nutrition helps school performance.

The academy provides breakfast and lunch for the students, and a snack when possible. The goal, Winters said, is to provide the students with 75 percent of the nutrients needed per day.

"It's pretty exciting to be able to do that compared to what they are eating," she said.  The academy aims to keep the cost equal to a food stamp budget, which is close to the economic situation of the students' home life.

Winters said they have not reached that goal. Food stamps allot $1.66 per meal per person, and they often exceed that amount because of donated food or food bought at a discount.

The students also take a weekly, hour-long class on healthy living, which Winters teaches. The academy's other classes were planned out in April, Fisher said, when the three decided on English, math, science, history and foreign language as the school's major subjects. They then apportioned the subjects according to what each felt most comfortable teaching. Bell was chosen to teach English and Latin because he specialized in them while at UR, and Fisher selected math, although he majored in sociology major.

History and science were a bit more difficult to figure out, Fisher said, because none of the three felt entirely comfortable with the idea of teaching them. They sought to bring in more experienced people in those subjects, and eventually found Kathy White and Terrill Wade, who volunteer one day a week to teach U.S. history and biology.

For White, a middle-school history teacher for the past 10 years, the academy was a perfect opportunity to become involved in the neighborhood. White said she had always wanted to be a CHAT tutor, but was unavailable during the tutoring hours. She heard about the academy through church and figured out a way to work it into her schedule. White teaches once a week.

Both biology and history are afternoon classes, held every Monday and Thursday. The other afternoons are typically spent learning Latin, although sometimes special field trips occur on Fridays. All afternoon classes last an hour and 10 minutes, and are followed by an hour-long study period, which lasts until school ends at 2:30.

While the afternoons vary from day to day, the morning routine remains constant. Every school day begins with breakfast at 8 o'clock, and at 8:30 classes start.

At the beginning of the year, the students were divided between the weaker and stronger. The weaker group starts with math after breakfast, while the stronger group learns English. After an hour and a half the two groups switch, and remain in that class until lunch.
The students must participate in the after-school CHAT tutoring sessions twice a week, and although it is not a nominally Christian school, all of the students attend a weekly Bible study and attend church each Sunday.

"We don't have a Bible time," Winters said, "but all of us are Christians and we started this because we want to be examples to [the students] in our lives."

All three of the founders hope to see the academy grow, and according to Bell, they plan to add on an 11th and 12th grade as this year's class moves up. Although adding ninth grade is not something they have discussed yet, Bell said they have not ruled it out.

"I think the ultimate vision is to have a middle school at some point," Bell said.  He does not know how long he will remain with the academy, but he is committed to seeing this group of students through, he said.

Fisher had a similar goal for the academy. "I would love to see this place take off," he said. "I would love to see this be a school that would provide hope for our kids."

Fisher said he saw himself at the academy for at least the next few years, and hoped it not only takes root in the community, but acquired people who would continue it in the future.

Fisher also said he would like to establish more specialized roles, such as a principal, since currently the three founders wear so many different hats.

Although Winters does not know how long she will work with the academy, she is committed to serving the Church Hill community.

"If the school is a place that there is still a need," she said, "then I want to be here to serve that. If we end up incurring multiple teachers, finance people and someone to do all the food stuff, there will be something else here in the neighborhood."

Although none of the founders took an education class while at UR, they still found aspects of their education valuable during this process.

Bell said his English major had helped him with his ability to communicate, while Fisher and Winters, both sociology majors, said the issues they discussed in classes helped them gain a deeper understanding of the inner city.

Winters said that with the understanding came more determination. "Sometimes we see these kids with a lack of motivation, or they're disorganized, or their family life sucks€¦but there are reasons that it's that way. So that tends to make me a little more patient."

All three of the founders said the process of starting a school had been a learning experience, and Bell described it as both terrifying and exciting.

For Winters, the experience has been a lesson in culture. Because she went to a school similar to those the students attended, she said, she understands the students' culture a bit more.

"But we are coming as an outsider," Winters said. "So it's learning how to be a part of the culture€¦but also trying to bring them out of the situation that they are in."

Because of their social situation, Winters said, many of the students, who are black, have not come in contact with many other white people besides the ones who come to help them.

Often times the students' perception of the teachers can pose difficulties, Fisher said. He described many of the differences as cultural, rather than racial.

Winters said acting superior is the easiest way to widen the cultural gap. "They already see you as white, so you're automatically classified as rich as and better than them."

"You have to be very cautious and be very relational€¦be very real with people so that you do continue that relationship," she said.

Fisher said his frustrations came from seeing a lack of desire in the students, and asked: "How do you create motivation in someone who doesn't believe in themselves? Who doesn't see their full potential? Doesn't see what they're capable of?"

Winters also gets frustrated, and tries to reevaluate the situation by reminding herself, "All day I get to spend with these kids that I have an incredible relationship with."

Fisher also appreciates his situation, saying, "This is such a privilege to be able to work with these kids because they are so wonderful. €¦They all have just wonderful gifts to offer the world, and it's great to be able to be put in a position to bring that out of them."

Bell said one student could not read a word when she started at the academy. The three noticed she worked well one-on-one, and redesigned the curriculum for her.

"A couple of weeks ago," Bell said, "I was talking to her grandmother, and she was saying how wonderful it was because now she could send the student to the store with a list of things to buy, and she could do it."

Bell described how encouraged he was when the girl came up to him one morning and said,  "Jack, this is awesome! I can read anything I want now! It's great!"

"That's definitely the most encouraging experience thus far," Bell said, "just to know that what we are doing is actually having some effect."

By Carly Vendegna

BusinessWeek's 2007 list of the best undergraduate business schools ranked the Robins School of Business number 23. A school that gets an A+ in teaching quality and A's in facilities, services and job placement on the list is bound to attract students.

But the wide attention and increasing number of business majors has no doubt posed for some the question: Are students going for the right reasons? Moreover, how do you know what the right reason is?

"Personally I am always skeptical as to whether they choose that for themselves," said Melanie Martin, a sophomore psychology major. "I wonder if their parents choose that for them or if they have the idea that B-school is the best way to make a lot of money. It worries me because I wonder if those students are really happy."

On this campus, it appears there is a general consensus about who will make more money and who will not easily find a job. In interviews with students in finance, accounting, environmental studies, marketing, biology, international studies, political science, Spanish and other majors, when asked about their study focus, this is what they said:
Business school students:
€¢ Will have better presentation, networking, group work skills
€¢ Will not have an open enough mind when approaching the world
€¢ Can get right out into the workforce and earn a competitive salary as opposed to having to continue education "to land a decent job"
€¢ Are trained in the real world
€¢ Are provided with a more focused life plan than A&S students
Arts and Sciences students:
€¢ Will have better written and communication skills
€¢ Their major will be more versatile and help land more kinds of jobs

How valid are these statements? How valid is, "do what you love and the rest will follow?" Who do you listen to when you decide your major, and how much is today's student affected by societal pressures.

What Gets You Hired

"Everything is business," said Lin Koch, the resource and operations manager for the Career Development Center. "Success is all about how you market skills you gained from your major."

Liberal arts majors have just as much potential after graduation, she said, and students need to understand that a degree in business will not always equal instant gratification after graduation.
Koch has worked in the career center since 1995 and is responsible for all marketing and communications, supervision of the administrative assistant and project team and manages the center's library and web resources. She urged students to look at the resources made available to them at the center, including the lists of traits employers seek.

The National Association of Colleges and Employers is a source of information on employment that is available at the center. NACE connects more than 5,200 college career services professionals at nearly 2,000 college and universities nationwide, with surveys on salary, the job market and conducts research on topics such as "The Perfect Candidate."

The NACE Research job outlook for 2008 had employers rate the importance of candidate qualities and skills. Communication skills topped the list, followed by strong work ethic, teamwork skills, initiative, interpersonal skills, problem-solving skills, analytical skills and flexibility.

Cory Cuje, a financial adviser at Merrill Lynch, said employers seek exactly what the NACE found in candidates.

"Communication skills, personality and professionalism," he said. "That’s what they are ultimately hired on.

"You can graduate at the top of your class in the business school, but if you can’t communicate with an interviewer, you’re not going to get a job."

Joe Testani, the associate director of the career center and liaison to the business school, said written and oral communication is key. "The growing proliferation of people working in teams, internationalization and online technology are fast becoming key components to workplaces to matter what industry," he said.

In the book, "Liberal Education and the Corporation: The Hiring and Advancement of College Graduates," Michel Useem surveyed 535 major business corporations and 505 middle and senior managers of large American corporation. He concluded that the most attractive qualities to employers of liberal arts graduates were their communication skills, ability to understand people, appreciation of ethical issues, and leadership skills.

Why should you do what you love?

A big part of the hiring process for graduates who are immediately entering the workforce is the ability to show passion in a job interview, said Katybeth Dreisbach, assistant director of the career center.

"The process of finding a job is kind of like dating," she said. "You don't want someone to walk up to you and say: €˜I need a date. Do you want to go out with me?' That's lame! Of course you don't!
"You want them to think you are amazing. €˜Let me tell you what I admire about you.' And that's what an interview should be like. €˜Wow, I see what you guys are doing and that's so awesome! That's so in line with this passion that I've found.'"

Psychology professor David Leary , dean of arts and sciences from 1989 to 1992, begs students to ask themselves, "What are you interested in? Whose life are you living? What is it that you want to do?" he said. "Pursue it, you'll be good at it."

In a July 2001 article of USA Today titled "Offbeat majors help CEOs think outside the box," author Del Jones wrote about CEOs' undergraduate degrees. He noted that Disney CEO Michael Eisner was an English and theater major and St. Supery winery's CEO Michaela Rodeno majored in French literature.

"Ambitious college grads peddling offbeat degrees in a job market gone sour can take heart that such success stories are far from rare," Jones wrote.

Economics professor David Dean believes that if you pick a versatile major, you may have to do a bit more work to get hired. "You go out and you look for econ jobs in the wanted ads, and it goes from DRIVERS to EDITORS, there's never anything that says economics," he said "But what employers like about economics is the way you've been trained to think about things.

"And that's true across a lot of different jobs. Economics majors get employed in a lot of different areas that b-school students, who are very narrowly focused, would not have a chance."

Become passionate, responsibly

Although the business school was ranked 23rd, the statistics have to be kept in reality, Leary suggests. There are only about 100 undergraduate business schools while the university was ranked 40 out of more than 3,000 liberal arts colleges in the country.

Leary said students now pick business majors at the request of their parents and have a skewed perception of what the rankings mean. This ranking has created an influx of students flocking to the business school who should not even be there, he said.

"Sometimes I feel as if some of the students are in the b-school just because they haven’t found a particular interest in anything else," said junior Lauren Pryor, a business administration major with concentrations in finance and accounting.

"Go if you're passionate about it." Leary said, "Don't go because you want to be in business and you think you've got to do it.

"It's pretty good if you realize that you're not excited yet. You should know the difference between being excited and not excited. And if you're not, you should keep looking." About 65 per cent of students change their majors, he said that is the benefit of a liberal arts education: There are other places to move to.

Testani reinforced the importance of passion in a career. "Overriding characteristics that match CEOs across the board is their passion for what they do," he said. "It's not that they all have finance degrees. It's that they're passionate about what they do, no matter what company or CEO, they just love working in the industry that they work in."

Accounting professor Joe Hoyle said, "The purpose of an education is to form a foundation to help you have a satisfying, well-developed life. At the same time though, you need to be able to go out and support yourself."

Hoyle said that it was vital students to be able to morph their major and passions into being a 28-, 30- and 32-year-old person. "Someday your children will need braces," he said, and you will realize how important it is to give children what they need or want. He wants to see more liberal arts majors attuned to that, he said.

Testani said the career center challenged students to ask the question, "Why?" in regards to their career path decisions. He understands that it is hard to follow your passion when you have a mortgage and three kids. The role of the career center, he said, is to prepare you to ask the right questions, as you get older. There is a large correlation between fulfillment and success, he said.

Why should you challenge yourself?

Hoyle wrote in his essay "Tips and Thoughts on Improving the Teaching Process in College," for most students this is their one chance at college. "They deserve nothing less than an excellent education, moreover, an academic experience that challenges them to excel from their first day to their last."

Leary, the coordinator of the freshmen Core program, hears many complaints from students that their professor is harder than other professors.

Students say to me, "Grading hard is unfair and I say, not at all," he said. "Grading easy is unfair to the good student knowing that 10 other students are getting the same grade for not doing very good work. Who's not being fair? It's the faculty member who's not demanding enough or holding you to high standards."

Leary tells his freshmen, "Send that student to me and I'll put them in a more challenging section."

He wonders how much a parent's influence of constant admiration and pride has influenced how students see grades. "A grade is not a comment about your character," he said. "People don't keep things in a bigger perspective. Maybe we don't do a good job telling you."
What's the best way to leave Richmond? Should you graduate with a high GPA, a job lined up right away or a sense that you learned a lot, had great professors that taught you how to challenge yourself? How overstated is that?

Dean, also known as "Dr. Death" in the business school for his daily quizzes and challenging tests, says he sees two kinds of students. There are some in his class for grade maximization and others who want to learn the material, he said. "My personal preference is that you go out and you learn," he said. "You get a benefit just from learning. Who cares about whether it's going to translate into the job market or not?"

Dean, a liberal arts major himself, values the concept of learning and would not sacrifice it even if it does not immediately translate into a job, he said.

Hoyle pushes students to take teachers and not classes. He believes that this would change everyone's college experience dramatically.

When you get out of school and when people ask you what you liked about Richmond," he said, "you'll never say, €˜I liked a particular course.' No, you'll say, €˜I had two or three teachers that were just so influential on me.'"

Hoyle teaches students more than just accounting material in the hopes that his students find a passion in life. He encourages students to see plays, ballets and read good books, he said, because college is the time to get introduced to new material.

"I like to think that in my classes, we're not just teaching accounting," he said. "We're teaching — you know you got 60 more years to live let's make the best of it — type of thing. To have a passion in your life is the absolutely best thing that you can have."

Millennial Expectations and Ambiguity

Leary has noticed that in the past 15 years, the number of students whose interest in self-discovery has changed dramatically. "People are not coming to college to think about themselves," he said. "They want to make money. A lot of people say, €˜I want to make money, a lot of money.'"

Dreisbach said there was a real adversity to risk across the board. Millennials have grown up very structured and always had something to be at a time they had to be there and were carted by their parents, she said. "Up until now, you've had this equation for a successful life," she said. "The really tricky part is there isn't really an equation after graduation and that freaks people out."

Millennials is the term for the generation that has come to age at the time of the year 2000 born between 1981 and 1999, said Lynne C. Lancaster and David Stillman, authors of the book, "When Generations Collide."

"Because they've worked the worker shortage by Gen Xers (born between 1965-1980), they've never had to search very hard to find jobs," said the authors. "And because the economy has been so strong as they've come of age, Millennials have had the luxury of working when they need to and not working when they don't."

Anyone today can see the relevance of that statement in young adults. College students are raised in an incredibly consumer-driven society.

The Millennials are some of the most career-orientated people and they all want to know "what" they are going to do with their major, said Dreisbach, who never asked that while in college.

What has sparked this career-orientated drive in students today?

Dean believes the baby-boomers see their children's success as ways to compete with each other.

Since you have had everything structured out, Testani said, when graduation comes and suddenly life become nebulous and grey, students perceive that first job as a security blanket. It is often the logical progression of an education, he said.

The harm in entering college with a career-orientated focus makes a student more vulnerable to trouble in dealing with an ambiguous world, said both Dreisbach and Testani.

"The b-school is more formulaic, Dreisbach said, "which is why it attracts this generation." Students can see where they are going with that, she said.

"Arts and sciences is more ambiguous, but honestly a lot of employers think that's a plus," she said. "The work world is ambiguous and you have to learn to deal with ambiguity."

The loss of individuality and the prominence of group think in this generation is dangerous, Testani said. He agreed that this trend could be a reason students uninterested in business are flocking to the business school.

Testani reminds those in higher education to look where the innovation in the world is originating. He said that it is not from the United States and that should concern educators and students. "When you lose that individuality," he said, "you lose the leadership and the creativity that's innovative in business.

"The better you're able to deal with that ambiguity and prepare yourself from experiences, I think that prepares you for whatever job you go into."

Millennials: Generation We, Generation Quiet?

Numerous studies, books, surveys and centers have appeared over the past few years in order to observe and make predication about how this generation will fare in the workforce and society in the coming decades. Of course, sweeping generalizations are impossible but trends are easily seen from generation to generation regarding work ethics, spending habits and leisure.

"I see the TV program €˜Friends' as a model your generation grew up with," Leary said, "very loyal to each other to a fault."

He sees bright students in his classroom that have things to say but there is a hesitancy at not to stand out. "On the one hand, you have people who really want to achieve and get rich, "he said. "But on the other hand, they don't want to do it in a way that offends anybody."

Thomas Friedman wrote in an October 2007 opinion piece in the New York Times, that even tough students study and volunteer abroad and show concern for world problems, he is surprised at the lack of their engagement in real politics.

"I am impressed because they are so much more optimistic and idealistic than they should be," he said. "I am baffled because they are so much less radical and politically engaged than they need to be."

Friedman continued: "Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy didn’t change the world by asking people to join their Facebook crusades or to download their platforms. Activism can only be uploaded, the old-fashioned way — by young voters speaking truth to power, face to face, in big numbers, on campuses or the Washington Mall. Virtual politics is just that — virtual."

So how can a generation be so drawn to groups yet lack a will to organize politically? Dependent and independent trends are clashing in new forms.

According to the Center for Generational Studies, "Over the past 50 years, Americans have become increasingly individualistic and therefore want to feel less dependent on each other. The "fear of strangers, the increased pace of life and the diversity of culture" may have caused this. It speculates "young people, growing up in this environment, have naturally emulated these practices and become detached themselves."

Everyone from Mr. Rogers telling a student he or she was special from a young age, to students' Baby Boomer parents wanting the best for them, to college seniors and friends, students picking their majors are bombarded with signals telling them what to do with their college experience and their life.

Hoyle asked why so many people go to graduate or law school right after graduation. "Do they want to be lawyers?" he said. "No, but they don't know what they want to do."

Dean, who went to graduate school soon after college advises students, "If you're not a serious student, you shouldn't be going to graduate school. You're just going to get blown out."

Faculty and staff agree on this: Students should not follow the crowd, expect everything to work out perfectly and live life without passion or else they will do themselves a great disservice.

"I didn't sit down at a young age and plan out my life," Leary said. "Some may do it, but I suspect it won't work out very well. My life made perfect sense as I lived it, but it wasn't anything I planned."

By Amy Mathis

Many children eat crayons, but not at this rate. The boy compulsively eats them in the corner. He and his sibling's stark black hair and emaciated faces add to their peculiarities. They are the only white children in the program.

The reality is that their hair is dyed and is a disguise against their abusive father. The two children, brother and sister, ran away from home to avoid the fate of their older, 11-year-old brother. He was sent to a mental institution after taking the abuse.

"The children are clearly so damaged, and beyond that, they're really shabbily dressed and unhealthy. They get picked on all the time for being white children and it's just€¦ it's just a horrific situation," Kate Shinnick, a University of Richmond volunteer, said.

Children like these come to the Peter Paul Development Center in Richmond to get help with school and other needs. Many live in poverty and are burdened by a wide range of home-life problems.

The center, which is in Church Hill, has been serving at-risk and economically disadvantaged youth since 1979. It is associated with the Micah Organization, which has helped engage volunteers among UR students and the academic community. The center, which helps children ages 10 to 18, has doubled its enrollment this year to 110. Center officials believe that number will rise by next year.

Essentially, the center acts as a second school for the children. The children come to the afterschool program everyday, as well as the weekends, to work on homework and see their friends. The center provides a comfortable environment conducive to completing schoolwork, one that they might not find at home.

"They'll help us, they'll play activities, just like the times tables, they'll call out the answer and you say what number times what number equals that number," said Miayalioni Person, one of the older students. She said coming to the center has helped her start to get A's on her report card.

The center's tutoring and after-school program has been so successful that organizers expanded the facility and have started the process to become an accredited school.

The center previously operated out of the parish halls of St. Peter's Episcopal Church on 22nd Street. The new center, which opened in the last year, is across the street.

"I think it gives a great deal of hope to this community that's often hopeless," said the Rev. Lynne E. Washington, the center's director. "It's a symbol of a new beginning, commitment and care."

Volunteer Colleen Farrell, a University of Richmond junior, believes that the new facility will establish the center's name in Richmond and allow for more resources and funding.

"There will be more community interest as it succeeds and grows and I think having a nicer center will make the kids want to come and find hope in themselves," Farrell said.

Farrell, along with faculty advisor and political science professor Rick Mayes, heads UR Buddies, which Micah set up at UR to connect students with the center. Farrell has been volunteering with Buddies since she was a freshman. She now helps to coordinate a minimum of five activities a semester with the center, as well as find volunteers.

Assistant Director Anthony Christian believes that having the older students, as well as African-American volunteers in general, acting as tutors fosters a leadership culture.

"Kids need to see themselves [as African-Americans] helping so that way they'll be able to mirror what they see. If they see themselves selling drugs on the corner, they don't see themselves doing community work," Christian said. "Encouraging each other, that's what we need."