Around Campus

Children's Defense Fund founder to speak at forum next month

Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund, will speak at the second annual Great Expectations Education Forum next month.

Great Expectations is an initiative of the Virginia Foundation for Community College Education to improve education and employment opportunities for youths in foster care.

First lady Anne Holton also will speak at the forum, which will be held Oct. 23 at 10 a.m. at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden.

The forum is free, but reservations are required. Register by Oct. 19 at http://www.vccs.edu/Foundation or (804) 819-4961.

HU summit next week will focus on family, effective parenting

Hampton University will hold a National Summit on Marriage, Parenting and Families next week to explore the declining status of marriage and the importance of effective parenting.

The event, which will be held Sept. 29-30 in the Student Center Ballroom, will be streamlined live on the Web at http://www.hamptonu.edu.

Panelists will include Joshua DuBois, head of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships; clinical psychologist Jeff Gardere; Paula Parker-Sawyers, director of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy; actors and producers Tim and Daphne Reid; and former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder.

Mary Washington starts work on convocation, athletic center

The University of Mary Washington has broken ground on a new two-story center for convocation and athletic events.

The center, to be named for former President William M. Anderson, will provide seating for more than 3,000 people for convocation events and about 2,000 spectators for athletic events.

The 52,000-square-foot facility is expected to be completed in mid-winter 2011.

Two UR professors receive art and science support grants

Two University of Richmond professors have received grants to support their work in art and science.

Carol Parish, a chemistry professor, has received a $90,280 Department of Energy grant for research to increase understanding of the feasibility of extracting oil from shale.

Parish will conduct theoretical studies of the structure and reactivity of molecules in sand and shale oil. The funding is for the first year of what is expected to be $273,000 in grants over three and a half years.

Tonja Softic, professor of art, has received a $22,000 grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation to support her work on "Migrant Universe," a series of large-scale art pieces. She will work on her project at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, which awarded her a fellowship for a residency at its Amherst County retreat.

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