News

Meant to provide learning opportunities as well as coffee, sandwiches and more, Saxbys, a completely student-run eatery opened in Snead Hall in late August. (Jonathan Haff, Enterprise Marketing and Communications)

Here’s what’s new at VCU for 2026-27

Sept. 3, 2026

Dining options, safety upgrades, academic programs and more are debuting this fall.

VCU Momentum Fund grants four transformative interdisciplinary research awards

Sept. 2, 2026

The awarded projects, which tackle topics ranging from health disparities to clean energy, receive seed grants designed to help accelerate groundbreaking discoveries and position the teams for national research funding.

VCU to celebrate 15 notable alums at biennial Alumni Stars event

Sept. 2, 2026

Honorees will be recognized at an Oct. 9 event at the Science Museum of Virginia.

The Virginia Government Simulation program, which had nearly 100 participants last year, puts students in the role of state legislators as they research positions, elect party leadership, propose laws and debate legislation – all inside the state Capitol’s House of Delegates chamber. (Dean Hoffmeyer, Enterprise Marketing and Communications)

Talking across the divide

Sept. 1, 2026

Americans are more at odds than ever. The Baldacci Institute for Civil Discourse aims to bring us back together.

The Distinguished Faculty Awards honorees will be recognized at the VCU Faculty Recognition Gala on Tuesday, Oct. 27.

VCU honors seven with 2026 Distinguished Faculty Awards

Aug. 27, 2026

Their work touches on medicine, the humanities, public service and education.

This summer, Aarushi Rao worked with Guangwei Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in the School of Medicine, to develop a tool that helps researchers analyze screening images from experiments more efficiently. (Dean Hoffmeyer, Enterprise Marketing and Communications)

In VCU neuroscience lab, undergraduate Aarushi Rao brought brainpower to new software

Aug. 27, 2026

The sophomore Honors College student and biology major spent her summer with researcher Guangwei Zhang, developing a tool to improve analysis of images.

The VCU Convergence Team Planning Grant Program is reserved for projects of three or more full-time faculty from at least two different schools or colleges that focus on problems that defy single-discipline solutions. (Adobe Stock)

VCU Convergence awards nearly 70 faculty members $150,000 in seed grants

Aug. 26, 2026

The projects supported through the grants bring different perspectives together to tackle complex, ‘wicked problems’ that no single discipline can solve.

VCU’s third annual Humanities Week to explore the theme of repair

Aug. 26, 2026

Hosted by the Humanities Research Center, the Sept. 8-11 program examines reckoning with history and moving toward healing.

Iresha Picot started a cycling group for Black women and girls in Philadelphia, and it quickly grew in popularity. She also teaches bike maintenance and bike cycling classes because she said, “I want the women to feel like cyclists.” (Contributed photo)

Meet-a-Ram: Iresha Picot makes a mark from mental health to media, from self-care to cycling

Aug. 26, 2026

The 2007 alum has established deep roots and a wide footprint in Philadelphia.

The entrance to Auschwitz I. As an intern with the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, Michael Farfan worked in Block 24, the brick building directly to the left. (Photo by Michael Farfan)

Michael Farfan explores history in the heart of inhumanity at Auschwitz-Birkenau

Aug. 25, 2026

The VCU senior embraced his summer internship at the Holocaust memorial and museum in Poland.