After reports Monday that VCU decided to join the Atlantic 10 Conference in time for the 2013-2014 year, the school confirmed today that the move will take place for all sports beginning July 1, 2012. Beginning in the fall, VCU sports teams will play their conference games in the A-10.

“VCU believes the A-10 represents the best opportunity to meet our long-term aspirations for national academic and athletic achievement,” VCU President Michael Rao said. “As a Division I, nationally competitive athletics program, it is critical that VCU seizes the opportunity to further elevate its athletics as it raises its overall academic profile as a national research university.”

VCU has been in the Colonial Athletic Association for 17 years. The CAA includes VCU’s in-state opponents ODU, GMU, William & Mary and JMU.

Rumors have circulated for weeks regarding VCU’s possible departure from the CAA. Proponents have cited increased television coverage in the A-10 and both the CAA’s lack of success in receiving at-large bids to the men’s basketball NCAA Tournament and the A-10′s success in doing so.

The A-10 has received multiple at-large bids each year for five consecutive seasons, including three this past season. Since Richmond left the CAA for the A-10 in 2001, the conference has received 18 at-large bids to the CAA’s four.

The departure from the CAA will cost VCU $250,000 and it will pay $700,000 to enter the A-10, bringing the total fees to $950,000. The school will also give up $5 million in revenue from the CAA for its men’s basketball NCAA Tournament runs in 2011 and 2012.

“The Atlantic 10 is a conference that gives us an opportunity to not only build our national brand, but also be associated with and compete against great institutions with tremendous profiles, both athletically and academically,” Interim Director of Athletics David Benedict said. “We believe that the transition to the A-10 allows us to enhance the experience of all of our student-athletes.”

Head men’s basketball coach Shaka Smart acknowledged the advantages in the league presents in basketball.

“It is a phenomenal league, made up of programs with both rich traditions and recent track records of success,” Smart said. “We are very appreciative of the time we spent in the CAA, the experiences we had and the relationships we gained. We plan to maintain our key rivalries with CAA teams, now and in the future.”

CAA member Georgia State announced in April it will move to the Sun Belt Conference. ODU is consideringjoining Conference USA which would upgrade its football program to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). GMU stated last week it will stay in the CAA.

VCU joins Butler as the second recent addition to the Atlantic 10. However, Butler will move to the conference in 2013.

There will be 15 schools in the A-10 for this academic year, including cross-town rival, University of Richmond. Two institutions will  leave the A-10 in the 2013-2014 year: Temple will depart for the Big East and Charlotte will switch to Conference USA.

VCU joins the following schools in the A-10 this year: Duquesne (Pittsburgh, Pa.), Fordham (New York, N.Y.), George Washington (D.C.), La Salle (Philadelphia, Pa.), Massachusetts (Amherst, Mass.), Rhode Island (Kingston, R.I.), Richmond, Dayton (Dayton, Ohio), St. Bonaventure (Allegany, N.Y.), Saint Joseph’s (Philadelphia, Pa.), Saint Louis (St. Louis, Miss.), Temple (Philadelphia, Pa.), UNC Charlotte (Charlotte, N.C.) and Xavier (Cincinnati, Ohio).

The Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament will take place March 14-17 in Brooklyn, N.Y. at Barclays Center.

VCU Nursing graduates Amanda Neely (left) and Marirose David. Neely said despite the perception that nursing offers job security, she's not convinced. Under new Virginia law, students like Neely will be able to see employment rates of state colleges' graduates starting in August 2013.

Brad Fulton and Claire Porter
Capital News Service

Amanda Neely, a 22-year-old nursing student, graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University on Saturday. She is anxious about finding a job.

“There are so many students graduating from the same nursing program that I am, and such a disproportionately small number of positions available. People assume that because I chose this field, I’m protected from unemployment, but I’m not convinced,” Neely said.

She has reasons for concern: Half of young college graduates are unemployed or underemployed, stuck in jobs that don’t use their skills and knowledge, according to recent research by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University.

Degrees in such fields as nursing, accounting or computer science used to be a ticket to a high-paying job. But now, even those degrees are vulnerable – and graduates who majored in the arts and humanities are really struggling, according to the data analysis, which was conducted for the Associated Press.

Moreover, a 2011 survey found that young college graduates had an unemployment rate of more than 9 percent – higher than the national average and double the rate of other college graduates.

Some economists blame the recession for the dismal job prospects of today’s college graduates. Other experts say students choose impractical majors, such as history or philosophy, over subjects like science or engineering. However, little attention has focused on the schools themselves and how well they prepare students for jobs.

That will change next year. Under a new law, state officials will publish online the employment rates and average salaries for graduates from each institution of higher education in Virginia. Prospective students and their parents will be able to see the statistics for each program and type of degree at each school.

The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, which oversees colleges and universities, will post the data on its website by Aug. 1, 2013. The data will include “the proportion of graduates with employment at 18 months and five years after the date of graduation for each public institution and each private nonprofit institution of higher education eligible to participate in the Tuition Assistance Grant Program.”

The reports will include “the percentage of graduates known to be employed in the Commonwealth, the average salary, and the average higher education-related debt for the graduates on which the data is based.”

The data will provide a report card of sorts for Virginia colleges and universities – showing how successful each institution’s graduates have been at landing jobs.

The new law was sponsored by Delegate Chris Stolle, a Republican from Virginia Beach. His proposal, House Bill 639, passed 95-5 in the House and 40-0 in the Senate. Gov. Bob McDonnell signed the bill into law on April 9.

A federal law, the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, already requires schools to collect this information. It says colleges must make available to current and prospective students “information regarding the placement in employment of, and types of employment obtained by, graduates of the institution’s degree or certificate programs,” as well as the types of graduate and professional education in which their graduates enroll.

But some officials question the validity of the data collected under the federal law, and it is not widely disseminated. Few schools post their statistics online, and no website aggregates the data and makes it searchable.

Under Virginia’s new law, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia will be largely responsible for the collection of college graduate employment data. With help from a $17.5 million federal grant, SCHEV will combine information from schools with data from agencies such as the Virginia Employment Commission and the state Department of Education. The data will be merged into a central database and identifying information will be removed to protect the graduates’ privacy.

The final result: Before enrolling in a school or declaring a major, prospective students will be able to see the job outlook for recent graduates.

“When people are looking into certain majors, they should be able to go and say, ‘Well, how many of these people are employed?’ ” said Kirsten Nelson, a public relations official with SCHEV.

Nelson said the data collected under the federal Higher Education Opportunity Act is flawed. When schools survey their graduates about employment, the response rates are notoriously low – about 6 percent. So the surveys don’t accurately capture the overall picture of graduates’ employment. Moreover, while the federal statute requires schools to college the data, they can get by without publicly reporting it.

Much of the graduate employment information collected under the federal law is useless, said Kevin Carey of EducationSector.org, a nonprofit think tank based in Washington, D.C.

Carey and Andrew Kelli published a report in 2011 called “The Truth Behind Higher Education Disclosure Laws,” examining colleges’ compliance with the Higher Education Opportunity Act. They found that only about 60 percent of schools provided any information at all about the employment of recent graduates.

According to the report, a number of colleges said the graduate employment information was available from their career services office – but only to students who had already enrolled. Others said they surveyed graduates about their employment status but would not share the results.

To provide a more accurate picture, Daniel said SCHEV plans to track students’ progress through secondary education and into the workforce. However, this method also may have problems.

SCHEV will track only students who complete primary and secondary education in Virginia and then seek employment in the state. It will not track students who move to other states for jobs after graduation.

Even so, any information may be better than nothing. Some recent graduates who are struggling to find work say they wish they had known more in advance about the job prospects associated with their degree. That information might have affected their decision about where to go to college or what to study.

“I think that finding a job after college is simple; it’s finding a job in your field that is the difficult part,” said Moretta Browne, who graduated from VCU in 2011 with a degree in advertising.

“Food service and retail are always looking for new hires, but that isn’t what I went to school for. I’ve spent a lot of energy trying to put together the perfect portfolio and résumé, and send it out, but with no success. I recently landed a job as a bank teller, but I also just read in a news article that my position may be non-existent in the near future.”

VCU is slated to leave the Colonial Athletic Association to join the Atlantic 10 in 2013, according to CBS Sports.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that VCU has not officially commented on the move. ESPN’s Andy Katz says that the CAA is witholding comment as well.

CAA member Georgia State announced in April it will move to the Sun Belt Conference. Old Dominion is consideringjoining Conference USA which would upgrade its football program to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). George Masonstated last week it will stay in the CAA.

With Butler’s recent commitment to the A-10, the addition of VCU would fill the gap left by two schools departing the conference. Temple switched to the Big East and Charlotte moved to Conference USA.

In 2013, the 14-member A-10 will consist of Butler (Indianapolis, Ind.), VCU’s cross-town rival Richmond, Dayton (Dayton, Ohio), Duquesne (Pittsburgh, Pa.), Fordham (New York, N.Y.), George Washington (D.C.), La Salle (Philadelphia, Pa.), Massachusetts (Amherst, Mass.), Rhode Island (Kingston, R.I.), St. Bonaventure (Allegany, N.Y.), Saint Joseph’s (Philadelphia, Pa.), Saint Louis (St. Louis, Miss.), and Xavier (Cincinnati, Ohio).

Rumors have circulated for weeks regarding VCU’s possible departure from the CAA. Proponents have cited increased television coverage in the A-10 and both the CAA’s lack of success in receiving at-large bids to the men’s basketball NCAA Tournament and the A-10′s success in doing so.

Drexel won 27 regular season games while recording a 19-game winning streak this past season but failed to make the NCAA Tournament. The A-10 has received multiple at-large bids each year for five consecutive seasons, including three this past season. Since Richmond left the CAA for the A-10 in 2001, the conference has received 18 at-large bids to the CAA’s four.

President Barack Obama spoke at the Siegel Center on the first day of his re-election campaign Saturday. Head men’s basketball coach Shaka Smart emceed the event in front of a crowd of 8,000.

Produced by Tommy Lopez

Photo By Amber-Lynn Taber

President Barack Obama took aim at likely GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney in an address to a crowd of 8,000 supporters at VCU today on the second stop of his 2012 re-election campaign tour.

Obama urged Virginia voters to move his vision of America forward by supporting his campaign. Support for his opponent, the president said, would push America backward.

“This isn’t just another election. This is a make-or-break moment for America’s middle class,” he said. “We’ve come too far to abandon all the change we’ve fought for over these past few years.”

In remarks nearly identical to those he gave to a crowd of 14,000 people at Ohio State University earlier Saturday morning, Obama told the crowd of supporters that Mitt Romney and congressional Republicans “think the same bad ideas will lead to a different result.”

Obama criticized Romney’s stance on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Romney’s proposed $5 trillion dollar budget cut. The president also rebuked his opponent’s assertion that corporations are people, much to the delight of the Siegel Center crowd.

“Corporations aren’t people,” Obama said. “People are people.”

Outside of his criticism of Romney, Obama highlighted policy victories relating to the economy, healthcare and the automotive industry. He attempted to touch on all the major issues in his 40 minute speech.

But he missed one.

Despite his choice of venue, the President did not focus on federal financial aid or student loans in his address to the crowd of supporters, many of whom were college students.

At a rally Thursday at Washington Lee High School in Arlington, Va., Obama did encourage students to lobby Congress to pass a bill that would keep the interest rate for student loans from jumping to 6.8 percent.

Photo by Amber-Lynn Taber

The non-mention at Saturday’s rally did not bother Sai Iyer, a VCU senior and the youngest of 35 national co-chairman for Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.

“I think if you look at what the president has accomplished in terms of college affordability, it speaks for itself,” Iyer said. “For me, there’s no real argument for who has been leading on college affordability. It’s this president.”

In her introduction of the President, First Lady Michelle Obama addressed college students directly. She reminded them to register to vote at their new addresses if they move over the summer.

“Barack needs you to join one of our neighborhood teams and start organizing in your own communities,” she said.

Both the President and the First Lady acknowledged the likelihood of a close race with GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. A Washington Post poll from May 3 has Obama leading Romney in the commonwealth 51 percent to 44 percent.

Obama won Virginia by six percentage points in 2008. He was the first Democrat in more than 40 years to claim Virginia’s electoral votes – something Virginia Democratic Senate nominee Timothy Kaine is confident Obama can do again in November.

“We’re at a crossroads again,” Kaine said. “We can come together as we have so many times to focus on moving forward and that’s exactly what we’ll do when we elect President Obama for a second term.”

Obama also earned the support of Richmond mayor Dwight C. Jones and VCU Men’s Basketball Coach Shaka Smart.

Smart opened the program by endorsing Obama because of the “genuine care and concern” Obama displays for the people he leads, he told the crowd.

Varinder "Vick" Chahal leaving the courthouse following his hearing. Photo by Amber-Lynn Taber.

The manslaughter trial for the VCU student accused of drunken driving and killing a fellow student in February is scheduled for July 18.

Varinder “Vick” Chahal, a senior accounting major at VCU, and half a dozen members of his extended family looked on as the judge set the date.

Chahal is the accused driver in the drunken-driving crash that killed VCU sophomore Carolina Perez and injured two other VCU students. He is charged with aggravated involuntary manslaughter and faces up to 20 years in prison.

Chahal’s lawyer, Ed Riley, requested a trial by judge on Chahal’s behalf, because “the coventional wisdom in Virginia is that jury means sentence,” he said after the hearing.

“Either way, there’s still an inherent loss of life you’ve got to contend with,” he added.

The judge granted Chahal special travel privileges in June and July to attend family weddings in Maryland with the condition that he does not consume alcohol. His driving privilege is still revoked.

Chahal declined comment after the hearing.

Nationwide Series Virginia 529 College Savings 250/ Sprint Cup Series Capital City 400 at Richmond International Raceway

Photos By: Chris Conway

Assistant News Editor

Forty seniors will don rainbow tassels on their caps to self-identify as members of the LGBTQ community at May commencement after participating in the first Lavender Graduation at VCU.

All graduating students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered or queer were invited to participate in the inaugural ceremony. The event served as a precursor to the official commencement ceremony, but was not meant to replace it, organizers said.

The 40 students who participated in the ceremony were honored for their achievements as students at VCU and given their rainbow tassels.

Amber McNeal, a freshman member of QueerAction at VCU, helped organize the ceremony. She acknowledges the possibility of judgment of the graduates for wearing the tassels, but said it’s nothing they haven’t faced before.

“There’s a bigger issue if people are going to be targeted because they are expressing their identity and sexual orientation,” McNeal said. “That just points at a larger problem.”

More than 100 guests attended the Lavender Graduation held at Scott House on the 900 block of West Franklin Street on Friday night. Leticia Flores, Ph.D., director of the VCU Center for Psychological Services and Development, said the ceremony is a show of solidarity from the VCU LGBTQ community.

“It’s very much done in the spirit of solidarity and celebration,” Flores said.

“We’re all just very happy to be able celebrate these individuals as they finish their college of graduate school careers.

In the long run, the Lavender Graduation will serve a greater purpose, Flores said.

“It allows everyone in the VCU community to identify and see this as a really great thing so that in the future, there’s no greater consideration of sexual orientation or gender identity as (there is) about what major you’re in,” Flores said. “It’s just another part of the individual’s life that we celebrate.”

The first Lavender Graduation was held at the University of Michigan in 1995. The tradition has since spread to schools across the country, including Virginia Tech.

The color lavender is used for the ceremony because of its importance in LGBTQ history. Lavender is a combination of the pink triangle gay men were forced to wear and the black triangle used to mark lesbians as political prisoners in Nazi Germany.

VCU Lavender Graduation was sponsored by the VCU Department of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies, VCU Office of the Provost, VCU and MCV Alumni Associations, VCU Committee for Equity and Diversity and the LGBT Subcommittee, QueerAction, MCV Health Collective and the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs. CT

Assistant News Editor

FEB. 22: 

At approximately 12:37 a.m., a Richmond Police officer witnesses a Mazda 6 run a red light at the intersection of Second and East Canal streets. The Mazda T-bones a Toyota Yaris; the Yaris spins into a nearby building after the collision.

VCU sophomore Carolina Perez is in the backseat of the Yaris at the point of impact. She is taken to VCU Medical Center, but dies a few hours later from her injuries.

VCU students Gabrielle Atkins and Jan Garcia are pulled from the Yaris. Both are taken to MCV for injuries that aren’t life threatening.

Varinder Chahal, a senior accounting major at VCU is the accused driver of the Mazda that collided with the Yaris. He is charged with felony involuntary manslaughter, driving under the influence and refusal to submit to blood and breath tests.

Neither Chahal nor any of the four other passengers in his car are injured in the crash.

FEB. 24:

Gabrielle Atkins and Jan Garcia are released from MCV. Atkins suffered two broken ribs, a bruised lung, liver and kidney. The whiplash from the crash fractured a vertebrate in Garcia’s neck. Both are expected to make a full recovery.

FEB. 25:

Family and friends gather at St. Luke’s Catholic Church in Virginia Beach for Carolina Perez’s funeral. More than 420 people attend, including about 40 VCU students. The university provides free transportation to the noon mass.

FEB. 27:

Chahal’s bail is set at $25,000 at the Richmond General District Court with the intent to allow him to finish his degree at VCU. Chahal surrenders his passport and driver’s license.

A university spokesperson confirms his enrollment at VCU but cannot confirm whether he will return to VCU to finish the semester.

MAR. 22:

Prosecutors raise Chahal’s charge from involuntary manslaughter to aggravated involuntary manslaughter at a hearing in Richmond Circuit Court. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Prosecutors drop Chahal’s lesser charges of involuntary manslaughter, driving under the influence and refusal to submit to a breath or blood test.

Ed Riley, Chahal’s attorney, said he plans to contest the charge.

“We’ll see how the case develops, how the evidence plays out,” Riley said. “At this point, we’re looking at the charges, and we’re going to see what the government can prove.”

APR. 18:

Mourners gather in the Commons Plaza to establish “Carolina’s Pledge,” a denouncement of drunken driving in the VCU community.

Students who knew Perez share their memories and admonitions with a crowd of about 60 people.

“Tonight is a reminder that drunk driving does not just come down to statistics,” Elise Isom said.

“Carolina was a real person. She had a real family. She has real friends. She had a real life. It was interrupted by a careless, reckless act that could have been prevented,” Isom said.

MAY 2:

Chahal hearing scheduled Wednesday. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for his role in the drunken driving crash that killed Perez.