Students
Three students named Goldwater Scholars
Three Richmond students have won Goldwater scholarships, the premier undergraduate scholarship in mathematics, science and engineering.
The students are Bryan Der, ’08, a biochemistry major from Chester, Va., Alex Moore, ’09, a biochemistry major from Chesapeake, Va., and Evan Wang, ’09, a chemistry and math double major from Midlothian, Va.
Der works with Dr. Jonathan Dattelbaum, associate professor of chemistry, to develop a biosensor that someday might monitor glucose levels in diabetics. Der gave a poster presentation on their research at the American Society for Microbiology meeting in May. He previously presented their findings to the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges. Der attends Richmond on an Ethyl and Albemarle Science Scholarship.
‘How is it connected?’
Adrian Bitton, ’09, won the $25,000 cash prize in the Richmond Quest V competition.
Richmond Quest is a biennial program to select a broad and compelling question that will be explored by all academic disciplines on campus for two years. Bitton’s winning question is “How is it connected?”
The competition encourages students to collaborate with faculty or staff mentors to formulate their questions and 1,500-word rationales. Bitton worked with Dr. Kevin Kuswa, director of debate. He will receive a $5,000 professional development grant for his role in formulating the winning question and rationale.
Bitton is from Hanover County, Va. She is double majoring in leadership studies and in rhetoric and communication studies, and she is a member of the University’s synchronized swimming team.
Her winning question, she writes, “is about the links, contacts, arrangements and relationships that define and surround us. … The ‘it’ could refer to anything—the earth, a melody, the human body, Baghdad, a solar panel, love, civilization—and everything is connected, if only through language and our capacity to know. Connections gain meaning through the elements they draw together.”
A record-breaking 627 students—22 percent of the undergraduate student body—participated in the Quest competition. Their 947 questions (some students submitted two) eclipsed the previous high of 436 entries in the first Richmond Quest.
Moore conducts research with Dr. Scott Knight, assistant professor of biology, on RNA interference and how it applies to the regulation of genes essential for human development. Moore presented some of their findings at the annual meeting of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in April. He attends Richmond on an Ethyl and Albemarle Science Scholarship and a National Merit Scholarship. He conducted summer research last year with grant support from the Thomas F. and Kate Miller Jeffress Foundation.
Wang conducts computational chemistry research with Dr. Carol Parish, associate professor of chemistry. They use supercomputers to study anticancer drugs called enediynes in an attempt to make the drugs more cancer specific. They gave a poster presentation at the American Chemical Society’s national meeting in Chicago in March. Wang recently received a Beckman Fellowship supporting 15 months of research that begins this summer. He attends Richmond on Oldham and National Merit scholarships.
Goldwater scholarships honor Barry Goldwater, the late Arizona senator. This year the Goldwater Foundation selected 317 undergraduates nationwide from among 1,110 students nominated by their college faculties. All of Richmond’s nominees were chosen for the scholarships, which pay up to $7,500 a year.
Students promote peace with $10,000 grants
Two Richmond students—one from Ethiopia and one from Tanzania—have won $10,000 grants to establish peace projects in their home countries this summer.
The grants are from the Kathryn Wasserman Davis 100 Projects for Peace program, which Davis recently established with a $1 million donation on her 100th birthday.
Dereje Gudeta, ’09, plans to use his grant to address the conflict between Muslims and Christians in the city of Kemissie, Ethiopia. He hopes to recruit 20 high school and college students from both religions to participate in workshops and discussions that will foster mutual understanding and suggest peaceful ways to resolve differences between the two groups.
“We hope the experience will have a positive impact on the lives of the participants, as well as the life of their highly divided community,” Gudeta says.
Agatha Mushi, ’09, plans to work with Good Hope Trust to construct a facility for HIV/AIDS counseling, treatment and education in the village of Kibosho, Tanzania. Most villagers
cannot afford transportation to Kilimanjaro, where free HIV/AIDS services are
available.
“Construction of a counseling facility will not only target people who are HIV-positive, but also will provide HIV/AIDS education to everyone they can reach in the village,” Mushi says. “Peace for Tanzania is getting rid of this human misery.”
Summers wins award to study at Mayo Clinic
Matt Summers, ’07, has won a full-tuition Dean’s Award to study medicine at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minn.
The Mayo Clinic College of Medicine is one of the most selective medical schools in the country, accepting only 2.3 percent of applicants. It grants Dean’s Awards to students who show great potential.
Richmond College’s new dean
Dr. Joseph Boehman became the new dean of Richmond College on June 1. He was previously assistant director for housing and residential education at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Boehman brings more than 15 years of experience in higher education administration to Richmond, says Steve Bisese, vice president for student development. “He has an excellent record of creativity at UNC and has demonstrated specific interest and accomplishment in the areas of residential theme programs, crisis management and collaborative learning initiatives.”
Bisese adds that Boehman is “very approachable and eager to meet with students on a personal basis.” Also, he has a history of working with residential learning communities, “which is an important topic at Richmond. He will be helpful in reaching our goals in this area.”
Boehman graduated from Ithaca College and earned a master’s degree in college and university administration from Michigan State University and a doctorate in education from North Carolina State University. Prior to joining UNC-Chapel Hill, Boehman was assistant director for residence life and coordinator of residence education at East Carolina University.
He has taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels and has been involved in several professional associations, serving a term as president of the North Carolina Housing Officers.
“I am honored to be invited into the University and Richmond College family,” Boehman says. “I was so impressed by everyone I met during my visit to campus. … My hope is that I will be able to work with the Richmond College students, alumni, staff and other stakeholders to explore what it means to be part of Richmond College today, and more importantly, what it could be. I’d like to develop a shared vision of the college that will bring out our collective best as a community.”
Summers is interested in several areas of medicine, including oncology, infectious diseases and global health. He worked last summer at the National Cancer Institute doing lung cancer research.
“I am really excited about going to Mayo because there are only 40 students in the class, and we will get extensive contact and exposure to some of the best physicians,” says Summers, a biochemistry and molecular biology major from Madison Heights, Va.
Summers is president of the Richmond chapter of the American Medical Student Association and helps raise money for World Tuber-culosis Day. He also has volunteered in the emergency room of St. Mary’s Hospital in Richmond and conducts biochemistry research at Richmond on a DNA lesion that has been linked to cancer.
Campus
Law conference attracts Supreme Court justices
In April, the School of Law hosted a conference that attracted U.S. Supreme Court justices and their counterparts from the United Kingdom.
The conference helped commemorate the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown by exploring the rule-of-law concept. To open the discussion, Rodney A. Smolla, the Law School’s dean, asked 10 prominent judges what the term “rule of law” meant to them.
Justice Stephen G. Breyer of the U.S. Supreme Court defined the term as a complicated system that satisfies citizens’ natural desire for fairness.
Rankings
Kiplinger’s magazine touts Richmond’s value
The April 2007 issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine ranks Richmond as the 22nd best value among private universities nationally. The magazine rated Richmond one notch ahead of Cornell on a list topped by Cal Tech, Yale, Harvard, Rice, Duke, Princeton, MIT, Emory, Columbia, Pennsylvania, Dartmouth and Stanford.
Kiplinger’s examined more than 1,000 private institutions and published two rankings—one for liberal arts colleges, which offer mostly undergraduate programs, and one for universities, which also offer graduate programs. The magazine placed Richmond in the university category.
Kiplinger’s based two-thirds of its assessment on academic quality and one-third on affordability. To rate each school, the magazine considered admission rates, SAT or ACT scores, student-faculty ratios, four-year/five-year graduation rates, total costs (including tuition, fees, room and board), cost after need-based aid, aid from grants and average debt at graduation.
“This ranking affirms that the University of Richmond offers a world-class education and provides generous financial aid to make it affordable,” says President William E. Cooper.
Robins ranks 23rd among business schools
BusinessWeek magazine has ranked the Robins School of Business among the top undergraduate business programs in the country for the second consecutive year.
In the magazine’s 2007 list, the Robins School ranked 23rd overall—up two spots from last year. The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School came in first, followed by business schools at the University of Virginia, University of California-Berkeley, Emory University and University of Michigan.
BusinessWeek ranked the Robins School as fourth best nationally for academic quality and gave it high marks for teaching quality (A+), facilities (A) and job placement (A). The grades for facilities and job placement reflect improvement from last year’s marks.
“We are very pleased that the Robins School continues to be rated by our students and corporate recruiters as one of the top business schools in the country,” says Jorge Haddock, the school’s dean. “This ranking reflects the superb quality of our students, faculty and staff.”
Commencement 2007
Find your passion!
Three commencement speakers delivered similar messages to Richmond graduates in May: Find your passion and go for it!
Steve Buckingham, R’71, told 756 undergraduate and 70 graduate degree candidates to believe in themselves, think big, be positive, swing for the fences, “and always look for the different voice, the different cure or the different way of doing things.”
That philosophy has worked for Buckingham, winner of four Grammy Awards and producer of 27 number one songs in 11 different musical categories. He also has produced six movie soundtracks, two CBS television specials and 30 albums that have gone gold or platinum.
The senior vice president of Vanguard Records and Sugar Hill Records learned this philosophy from some of the biggest legends in the music business. Ahmet Ertegun, co-founder of Atlantic Records, advised Buckingham to “find what you love and have a passion for, and success follows.” Ertegun also convinced him to “listen to that small, still voice inside of us that plants the seed of creativity.”
During the ceremony, the University conferred honorary doctorates upon Dr. Alfred H. Bloom, president of Swarthmore College; Dr. William E. Cooper, president of the University of Richmond; John Fahey Jr., president and CEO of the National Geographic Society; Lila Harnett, founder of ArtTable and benefactor of the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art; Brian Lamb, CEO of C-Span; and Jorge Ramos, news anchor of Noticiero Univision.
Richmond also awarded seven honorary bachelor of letters degrees to alumni whose Richmond educations were interrupted for military service during the Korean War or Vietnam War. In addition, the University presented the Trustees’ Distinguished Service Award to Otis Coston Jr., who served as Richmond’s rector from 2002–06.
At the other commencement ceremonies, the School of Law conferred 166 juris doctor degrees, and the School of Continuing Students awarded 135 bachelor’s, master’s and associate’s degrees.
Robin Robertson Starr, L’79, told the law graduates to find and follow their true passion. After graduating from law school, she became a corporate lawyer, but in 1997, she decided to follow her lifelong dream of working with animals and became CEO of the Richmond SPCA.
“Finding your own true passion is hard work,” she said. “There is no manual, template or onboard navigation system.” The truly lucky, she said, find their passion when they are young. Others find it as a second career, and some never find it.
Provost June Aprille told the continuing studies graduates to focus on “the three P’s”—push, purpose and perseverance. “It usually takes a little push to get started,” she explained. “For some, I suppose encouragement came from other people—family members, friends, employers and so on. But for some … the push was from inside—a little voice saying, ‘You should do this, you can do this, go for it.’”
To identify the best undergraduate business programs, BusinessWeek polled undergraduate recruiters and surveyed nearly 80,000 business majors at top schools. The magazine also considered starting salaries for graduates and the number of graduates each school sent to top M.B.A. programs. Finally, an academic quality score—a combination of five measures including average SAT scores and faculty-student ratios—identified schools with the smartest, hardest-working and best-served students.
Staff
Richmond names interim leaders
On July 1, Dr. Joe Kent will become Richmond’s interim provost, and John Douglass will become interim dean of the School of Law.
The University has begun national searches to fill both positions following the departure of Provost June Aprille and Law School Dean Rodney A. Smolla. Both Aprille and Smolla have accepted similar posts at Washington and Lee University.
Kent has been Richmond’s associate provost since 2005. Previously he was associate dean of the School of Arts and Sciences. He began teaching at the University in 1973 as an assistant professor of mathematics. Kent chaired the mathematics and computer science department from 1982–92, and he became professor of computer science in 1987, with emeritus status in 2004.
Douglass joined the law faculty in 1996 after a distinguished career in private practice and government service. He was associate counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel during the Iran/Contra investigation, and he was an assistant U.S. attorney in Richmond and Baltimore. Douglass has continued to work as a mediator for The McCammon Group in Richmond while teaching courses in criminal law, evidence and criminal procedure. Douglass graduated from Harvard Law School, where he was editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Books
Millipedes and Moon Tigers
Steve Nash, associate professor of journalism, sticks up for Mother Nature in a collection of stories about timely environmental dilemmas—the invasion of snakehead fish, the loss of songbirds and the arrival of an Asian beetle that devours ash trees.
Published by the University of Virginia Press, Millipedes and Moon Tigers: Science and Policy in an Age of Extinction focuses on the southeastern United States, but it applies to the entire planet. Nash uncovers alarming environmental problems and presents possible solutions in both political and scientific terms.
The urgency he conveys is real. As one of his sources observes, it is much easier to maintain an ecosystem than to repair one.
More faculty books
Teaching the Ethical Foundations of Economics. Dr. Jonathan Wight, associate professor of economics and international studies, and John Morton. National Council on Economic Education (2007). Ten lessons that prompt students to think about ethical issues as they analyze economic scenarios.
The Stripping Point. Brian Henry, associate professor of English and creative writing (editor). Counterpath Press (2007). A collection of poems that are “immersed in the lust and language of the everyday.”
Virginia Criminal Offenses and Defenses. Ronald Bacigal, professor of law. West Publishing (2007). A discussion of strategies and tactics that apply to criminal cases in Virginia.
Faculty
Berryhill and Sholley retire after 30+ years
Two professors retired in May after teaching at Richmond for more than 30 years—Wade Berryhill, professor of law, and Dr. Barbara Sholley, associate professor of psychology and women, gender and sexuality studies.
Berryhill has taught courses in environmental law, land-use planning, law and religion, ocean and coastal law, property law, real estate transactions and secured credit. He graduated from law school at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville in 1972 and practiced law as a partner in Moore, Logan & Berryhill. He joined the University in 1976 after earning a master of laws degree from Columbia University.
Sholley joined the University in 1972 after earning her doctorate from Ohio University. In addition to teaching classes within her disciplines, she has taught the Core Course and served as a faculty advisor to University Scholars.
