Talk:Virginia Union University/Archive 1

Archive 1

History

What was the story behind the school's fiscal bail-out in the '70s? In the Richmond Times-Dispatch series called "Who Runs Richmond?", one of the articles describes the "old guard" of the city's elite leadership; it included this anecdote about James Wheat: "And Wheat, chairman of Wheat, First Securities, was one of the four men who invited about 40 friends to a luncheon in the mid-1970s to help Virginia Union University out of a cash crunch. His co-conspirators were D. Tennant Bryan of Media General, E. Claiborne Robins of A.H. Robins & Co. and Sydney Lewis of Best Products. They left the luncheon with $750,000 for the university."

Two comments: 1. During the student protests of the 1960's, students burned one or more buildings on campus, which stood unused and unusable for some time, I recall. Hard to believe an encyclopedia article would overlook that.

2. The tone of this article seems to be unencyclopedic. "Enlightened individuals"? It's like a press blurb from somewhere. Turtle Falcon 19:49, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

I've changed that section - it also obscures the freedmen's own desire for education, which they started working on before the war was over.--Parkwells (talk) 17:59, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

Theology School

Is the Theology program the only graduate program at VUU? It used to be. Might be worth mentioning.

Notable Alumni

This from a Style Weekly list of Richmond's most powerful. "18. Dr. Frank S. Royal - He may be known as a family physician, but Royal is one of the corporate world’s most wanted. He’s a board director for six publicly traded companies: Chesapeake Corp., CSX Corp., Dominion Resources Inc., HCA Inc., SunTrust Banks Inc. and most recently, Smithfield Foods. Royal also leads the board of trustees at his alma mater, Virginia Union University, which is tackling financial challenges and a leadership transition. One of his big goals is to ensure its future, he says, “that it be there for my grandchildren — and I have eight of those, ranging from 2 to 14.”

Needs photo

Some building is on the National Register of Historic Places, so photos would be good.--Parkwells (talk) 17:58, 10 January 2008 (UTC)