Listed below are explanations of VCU Division of Administration major projects.
CoStar Center for Arts and Innovation
The new CoStar Center for Arts and Innovation will be positioned on the southeast corner of Broad and Belvidere Streets, across from the Institute for Contemporary Art at the Markel Center at VCU and steps away from Fortune 500 companies and local startups. It will provide a launchpad for critical digital and creative economy initiatives both on campus and in the city. Also, it will optimize VCU’s arts innovation programs by bringing them together under one roof.
Transformative Learning Space and Laboratory Building
The new Transformative Learning Space and Laboratory Building will be located on Linden Street in the heart of VCU’s Monroe Park Campus, the building will provide about 200,000 gross square feet of modern interdisciplinary classroom and class laboratory spaces, including innovative "hyflex" capabilities" that allow faculty to seamlessly address both in-person and remote students in new and engaging ways, and serve as a significant contributor to discovery and innovation.
Front Doors Phase 2
Front doors play an important role for an urban campus. For VCU, they serve as identifiable campus markers and provide a clear sense of arrival to campus without separating us from our wonderful city. Front Doors include VCU letter signage as well as landscape features, improved lighting and intersection improvements that slow vehicular traffic and alert pedestrians. The Phase 2 project will include these elements at the corners of Cary and Belvidere Streets, Leigh and 12th Streets, Broad and 10th Streets, and Broad and College Streets.
STEM Building
The demolition of the former Franklin Street Gym began in early 2020 to make way for a new STEM Building. The state approved funding for VCU to construct a 168,000-square-foot, six-floor building dedicated to science, technology, engineering and math education on the Monroe Park Campus. The building will house lab, classroom and office space for the College of Humanities and Sciences.
Engineering Research Building
The new Engineering Research Building opened in February 2021. This 133,000 square foot, four-story building connects to the Engineering East Hall and contains 24 flexible research laboratories and associated support space, plus a vivarium on the basement level. Support space includes researcher office space and workspace for graduate students and postdoctoral staff. It also offers collaboration space, conference rooms, and a collaboration hub to support Engineering outreach efforts such as employer and student work fairs.
Learning Gardens
In an effort to contribute to our community both on campus and off, VCU Sustainability has committed to managing two gardens on VCU’s campuses. As growing space for students, staff and faculty on campus, VCU Learning Gardens provide access to hands-on, educational opportunities related to gardening, food access and food systems. The gardens help alleviate food insecurity at VCU and in Richmond via regular produce donations to our community partners as well as create universally accessible spaces that enrich the lives of those in our community.
Flexible Work Arrangements
The university recognizes that flexible work arrangements (FWA) are an important part of being a Great Place to work with options for remote work, hybrid remote/on-campus work, compressed scheduling and job-sharing. FWAs allow flexibility in work schedules so staff are better able to balance their work and home life while still meeting the needs of the university and supporting an engaged living, learning and working environment. For more information, visit HR flexible work arrangements page.
VCU HR Work, Life and Well-being programs
Each month, the Work, Life and Well-being program coordinator brings VCU employees programs like strength training, meditation/mindfulness sessions, financial wellness seminars, investment tips, and other programs focused on building a healthy work/life balance. See the most recent programs on the work/life page as well as monthly employee events at RamStrong.
HR Service Support System
VCU HR utilizes a robust self-service ticketing system for employees to submit HR service requests, search HR information, and find answers to questions. This system provides easy access to HR teams and a real-time look at the timeline of a service request.
HR Service Delivery
The second phase of the Great Place: HR Redesign puts policy into practice by evolving how HR services are delivered throughout the university. The intention is to equip schools and departments with the tools they need to deliver HR services locally, and have VCU HR provide strategic services such as executive search support, career and leadership development, and succession planning.
Career Development
Career development is an important component in creating a culture of appreciation at VCU. As part of VCU's performance management process, all employees and managers must work together to identify and plan for career development opportunities throughout the year. Employees and managers can now track career development plans using Talent@VCU, the university’s performance and talent management system. VCU HR will also work with employees to expand career communities, a professional development opportunity for employees who are doing similar work or who have similar career interests to connect, strengthen competencies, promote innovation and share best practices.
Health Advisories
Safety and Risk Management works with schools and departments across the university to provide leadership for VCU's health advisories response and recovery plan. SRM has also prioritized on-site staff to support both the health system and university’s continuity of operations in the following areas: fire safety, industrial hygiene, emergency response, chemical waste disposal and radiation Stay informed with current health advisories, including information about COVID-19 and monkeypox on the Health Advisories page.
Incident Rate Reduction
Safety and Risk Management worked collaboratively with Human Resources to improve employee incident rates at VCU. Incident rate metrics help VCU compare its safety performance against national and industry averages. Through targeted education and better reporting, VCU’s incident rate is now well below the national average incident rate as well as the state average incident rate (as reported by the North American Industry Classification System).
SRM is also engaged in activities to assess, mitigate and reduce the number of injuries that occur among the employees of the university. These include, but are not limited to trend analyses to determine highest incidence cause and highest incidence group; implement training plans targeting groups with highest incidence rate, and assist leadership in designing workplace safety solutions resulting from job hazard analyses.
Fire Prevention Through Education
In cooperation with the Richmond Fire Department, VCU Fire Safety conducted a series of educational events to inform the VCU community of fire safety practices and procedures. The fire safety team kicked-off the fire prevention through education series by working with the Richmond Fire Department to build a “Burn House” to highlight the need for sprinkler systems. To see our team in action visit NBC12 or News 8.
Mature the Enterprise Risk Management Process
Enterprise Risk Management is the process VCU has undertaken in order to identify key areas of risk that can keep the university from achieving its strategic vision. The ERM Steering Committee, risk owners and process owners have completed their assessment and identification of the enterprise risks. In the coming year, the VCU ERM Steering Committee Charter (PDF) will focus on developing recommendations to the cabinet about the level of acceptable risk for the university.
Reboot your commute
VCU Parking & Transportation strongly supports efforts to reduce campus emissions and is committed to providing alternative transportation options for the entire VCU community. In addition to taking advantage of our free intra-campus transit options like RamRide and RamSafe, we also encourage students, faculty and staff to utilize other modes of "green" travel whenever possible. In an effort to increase sustainable transportation and physical distancing measures, 12 new RamRide Buses were added to the fleet. Various other alternative options such as carpooling, ridesharing, and RamBikes are also available to our VCU community members.
VCU-GRTC Partnership
VCU partners with The Greater Richmond Transit Company (GRTC) to provide unlimited transportation access on the GRTC Pulse Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) with regular local and express fixed-route bus service for all VCU, VCU Health System, and Virginia Premier ID holders at no cost to the rider.
Five Year Plan
Parking and Transportation continues to move forward with the development of a Five Year Plan, which will address several issues including the development of an interim solution for the space reduction on the MCV Campus, a detailed financial plan and an inclusive maintenance schedule.
Alternative Transportation
To meet the long-term parking demand across the Monroe Park and MCV campuses, VCU needs to convert four percent of employees and two percent of students to alternative transportation modes, an insight revealed in a comprehensive university parking and transportation study. Moving forward, we will strengthen our focus on alternative transportation across both the university and health system.
Pedestrian Safety
In 2023, VCU and the City of Richmond released the findings and recommendations of a Pedestrian safety study on VCU's campuses in downtown Richmond. The study identifies and prioritizes improvements to enhance existing infrastructure within city-owned right-of-way, encourage collaborative enforcement and community outreach, and ultimately support a safer campus community.
SWAC
Following recommendations by the university’s independent Safety and Well-being Advisory Committee in 2021, VCU Police leaders created internal work groups to implement each recommendation. Projects include increasing training opportunities for officers, enhancing the review process for complaints, creating an alternative response team for individuals in crisis and redesigning the department’s website.
IACP’s Bridging Perspectives
In 2022, VCU Police will partner with VCU’s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs for the International Association of Chiefs of Police program, “Bridging Perspectives: Critical Conversations for Students and Police.” The course will bring together VCU students with VCU Police officers in a shared space where they can take part in facilitated dialogue. The goal is to build trust between police and the community members they serve.
ABLE
In 2021, VCU Police started new courses to address officers’ conduct. Officers are learning how to intervene safely when their peers escalate a situation unnecessarily, make a mistake or violate policy. The Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) project is a program developed the Georgetown University Law Center and reinforces officers’ intervention skills specifically for when they address a fellow officer’s behavior. The program has three pillars, which promote safe interactions and police accountability: reducing mistakes, preventing misconduct and promoting officer health and wellness.
Every Officer is a Leader
Also in 2021, VCU Police invited officers, employees and other agencies to take part in the nationally known course titled, “Every Officer is a Leader.” The goal of the training was to empower all officers and staff to initiate improvements to operations and to help deliver public safety services that best meet the community’s needs. Participants studied 60 research-based skills in areas such as self-management, interpersonal communication, conflict management, problem and opportunity management, team and organization development and versatility skills.
Telework @ VCU
VCU Technology Services offers resources and applications to manage teleworking at alternative work locations. Telework and collaboration while employees are working off-campus are made possible through resources such as secure login software, access to remote desktops and applications, as well as virtual meeting capability.
From Blackboard to Canvas
The migration from Blackboard to Canvas was completed on June 1, 2021. Blackboard will no longer be in service for VCU. University users will now login to Canvas with their VCU eID. For more detailed instructions for using Canvas, please visit the VCU Canvas Knowledge Base as well as additional help resources provided by Technology Services.
VCU Mobile
Download the VCU Mobile app, an on-the-go hub for all things VCU, connecting you to important university resources right from your phone. Students can view their course schedule, access their online Canvas content, reserve study rooms in the library, and other valuable resources. A new guest persona allows visitors to locate the various academic, athletic and art venues around the university via the enhanced map application as well as locate and navigate to available public parking around the campuses. Also, stay up-to-date on the latest news, view recent videos and locate upcoming events.
Enhanced Technology Tools for Teaching
Technology Services provides Lecture Capture software to enhance or replace Echo360, VCU’s current video education platform. A thorough evaluation led to a two-year continuation of Echo 360 for most lecture capture. VCU is also piloting Kaltura/Cattura technology in several schools with plans to migrate to that solution. Kaltura Classroom enables the VCU community to create high-quality classroom recordings and uploads for remote learning.
Identity and Access Management
The "I am" project involves implementing a new identity and access management system at VCU. This system will improve the way that identity information flows between the systems that identify you and grant you access. Your digital identity (e.g. your eID, VCUCard, V-Number, Date of Birth) is your way to digitally say "I am who I say I am" in order to access the VCU environment and beyond. IAM ensures safer and more efficient access to VCU information systems for faculty, staff and students.
ONE VCU Master Plan
CARE is engaged as a major stakeholder in the ONE VCU Master Plan, which will drive the development of the university strategic real estate plan. The ONE VCU Master Plan process began in Fall 2017 and is guided by VCU’s Quest 2025: Together We Transform strategic plan, and VCU Health’s Vision by Design strategic plan, as well as these six guiding principles: student success, patient experience, program synergies, placemaking, mobility and safety, and campus unity.
Leasing and other facility agreements
Various real estate leases serve VCU programs and provide community partnerships in these areas: health and wellness education, research laboratory spaces, support development of VCU Health academic medical center, Monroe Park office space for student services, and additional dining options. Leased spaces support VCU Health Systems, Medicines for All Institute, VCU’s Center for Urban Communities, Division of Student Affairs, Center for the Study of Tobacco Products, VCU Business Services, College of Engineering, the VCU community, and Richmond residents.
Load capacity assessments of leased space
CARE is analyzing the VCU leased portfolio to determine load capacity ratios. Analyses look at employee workspace utilization by unit; e.g., academic, research, administrative, etc. These metrics are vitally important to the university as higher education faces heightened pressure on cost and efficiency.
Acquisitions
Recent VCU property acquisitions include: 600 block of West Grace Street assembling ~70% of the half block on the north side of Grace; 906 ½ West Broad Street adjoining another university-owned property to allow expansion of critical programs and improved streetscape; 534 North Harrison Street adding to an assemblage of the city block bounded by West Grace, West Broad, Ryland and North Harrison Streets, where major investments by the university have been made in developing residential centers; and the land tract at the site of Snead Hall and Engineering East necessary for the construction of a state-funded 133,000-square foot engineering research building.