Around Campus

VCU gets grant for anti-poverty alliance

Virginia Commonwealth University has been awarded a $190,580 grant to work with Richmond groups to reduce poverty in the region.

The Jessie Ball duPont Fund awarded the three-year grant to create the VCU-United Way Financial Stability Alliance. In addition to the United Way, the alliance includes The Community Foundation of central Virginia, the Greater Richmond Earned Income Tax Coalition and New Visions New Ventures.

Anthony J. Mallon, assistant professor in the School of Social Work, is principal investigator of the effort, which received an earlier planning grant from the fund.

The alliance will work to expand efforts of Volunteer Income Tax Assistance organizations to provide free tax-preparation services to low-income residents, while linking them to asset-building services in the area.

JMU to have chapter of Phi Beta Kappa

James Madison University has been granted a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.

The Phi Beta Kappa Society voted Oct. 2 to grant the chapter to JMU, Butler University, The College of Saint Benedict-Saint John's University and Elon University.

The nation's oldest academic honor society now has 280 chapters nationwide.

Booker Prize winner Byatt to read at UR

Novelist A.S. Byatt will read as part of the University of Richmond's Writers Series on Wednesday at 8 p.m. at Weinstein Hall, Brown-Alley Room.

Byatt's "Possession: A Romance," the story of a clandestine love affair between two Victorian writers and the two modern-day academics who unearth their secret, won the Booker Prize. Her latest novel, "The Children's Book," was published this month.

Kevin Young, a finalist for the National Book Award for "Jelly Roll: A Blues," will read as part of the series at 7 p.m. Oct. 27.

The Writers Series is free and open to the public.

Dobson to speak at Patrick Henry event

Patrick Henry College dedicated its new Barbara Hodel Center, a 106,000-squarefoot building that houses recreational and dining facilities, classrooms, a bookstore, music studios and offices.

James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, spoke at the ceremony on Saturday on the campus in Purcellville.

Also

• Salvatore Saporito, an associate professor of sociology at the College of William and Mary, has received a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to create a database of school attendance boundaries for the country's largest school districts.

University of Richmond President Edward L. Ayers has been named to the advisory board of the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education, which seeks to connect teaching, learning and technology among liberal arts colleges.

Karin Kapsidelis reports on higher education. Contact her at (804) 649-6119 or .