His office is packed, his most recent book is finished, and Eugene P. Trani will serve his last day as president of Virginia Commonwealth University today. His successor, Central Michigan University President Michael Rao, takes over tomorrow as head of the state’s largest university. Board of visitors member Anne G. “Panny” Rhodes, who becomes rector tomorrow, said the transition has been going smoothly.

With cheers, tears, bouncing balls and happy calls, about 2,500 students celebrated their graduation from Virginia Commonwealth University yesterday. “It was worth the wait—30 years—to get this,“ said Valerie Mack of Chesterfield County, who received her bachelor’s degree in social work yesterday, a goal she started working on in 1979 and delayed while she raised five children.

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. On his first weekend on campus after being named president of Central Michigan University, Michael Rao attended a “war years” gathering of alumni from the 1940s and’50s. “Their stories were all about friendship,“ Rao recalled. Such memories weren’t surprising for alumni from a university that has amicitia—Latin for friendship—in its official seal.

Eugene P. Trani has been president of Virginia Commonwealth University for 19 years. Under his leadership, the university has become the largest in the Commonwealth of Virginia. A large part of the inner city of Richmond has been transformed from what was a rapidly decaying part of our city into a bustling, vibrant area. All of us should be eternally grateful. The transformation has been truly amazing.

Economic impact: VCU, with its affiliates, is the largest employer in Richmond and the Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its students and employees spend $796 million annually in the area.
  Demographics: Of 32,284 students, 53 percent are white, 17 percent are African-American, 10 percent are Asian, 5 percent are international, and 3 percent are Hispanic. About 12 percent do not list their ethnicity.

The defining moment in the relationship between the historic Oregon Hill community and VCU President Eugene Trani occurred sometime after the 2003 VCU Master Plan had been released. Oregon Hill residents could rest easy—for in that plan a reason ably sized natatorium was scheduled to be built on property VCU owned at West Cary and South Cherry streets.

Trani and his wife, Lois. Eugene Trani will begin his new role teaching in VCU’s Honors College in the fall of 2010 after a yearlong sabbatical. Trani, who will have the title of distinguished professor, also will conduct research as a 12-month employee. Under terms of his contract, he will receive about three-fourths of his presidential salary.

Family: wife Lois, two adult children
  Education: bachelor’s degree in history, University of Notre Dame; master’s and doctoral degrees in history, Indiana University
  Career path: teaching and administrative positions at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and the University of Missouri at Kansas City; Fulbright lecturer in the Soviet Union, teaching American history at Moscow State University in 1981; vice president for academic affairs and professor of history in the University of Wisconsin system

Eugene Trani is known for the big buildings that transformed the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University and revived the pulse of downtown Richmond. Even his critics acknowledge the impressive imprint Trani will leave when he steps down June 30 after 19 years as VCU’s president. From a basketball arena and residence halls that repopulated Broad Street to a business and engineering complex that expanded the academic campus east of Belvidere Street, Trani is credited with spearheading $2.2 billion in investment for a struggling city core.

Robert T. Skunda has no training in biosciences, technology or medicine. The 62-year-old does have a bachelor’s degree in architecture and a master’s in urban planning.

Virginia Commonwealth University could find out today who will succeed Eugene P. Trani as the school’s president. The VCU board of visitors has scheduled a closed meeting this evening, during which it is expected to choose from three finalists selected by the presidential search committee. Edward H. Bersoff, a board member who is chairman of the search committee, confirmed yesterday that the finalists have been presented to the board.

To Athleen Moore, yesterday’s commencement ceremony at Virginia Commonwealth University was just the icing on the cake for her graduate granddaughter, Nicole Williams.

There is apparently talk in Washington of Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine becoming the nation’s next secretary of education. But Kaine this morning on a radio appearance said it’s “news to me.“

A president who will look out for the arts. And who understands the needs of a research university. Someone who will build more topranked programs to raise the university’s national standing. The committee trying to find a successor to Eugene P. Trani has heard all that and more as it searches for a new president for Virginia Commonwealth University.