When Joseph H. Seipel became chairman of VCU’s sculpture department in 1985, the department had so few majors that the State Council of Higher Education put it on the chopping block. “They were threatening to cut us off at the knees,“ sculpture professor Lester Van Winkle, now retired, recalls.

Where does Virginia Commonwealth University stand among American graduate programs in art and design? Look no further than the rankings published last March in U.S. News & World Report. The newsmagazine periodically asks deans and other high-ranking officials at 220 American art schools to rate their peers across the nation. VCU’s sculpture department has emerged No. 1 in every list since 2001.

Four street robberies in three hours yesterday around Virginia Commonwealth University’s Monroe Park Campus have police searching for a knife-wielding culprit. The holdups—three of which involved five student victims—are the first spate of robberies to plague the university community since VCU police and Richmond police arrested two suspects a month or more ago, acting VCU Police Chief Carlton Edwards said yesterday.

Virginia Commonwealth University’s engineering school and the Qimonda memory chip manufacturing plant in eastern Henrico County have had a symbiotic relationship for more than a decade. Shutting down the Qimonda plant will be a minor blow to the school, but it is not a major setback, Dean Russell D. Jamison said. “It’s going to have an impact but not so much of an impact that we’ll have to reconfigure the program,“ Jamison said.

Virginia Commonwealth University’s enrollment growth has cast a long shadow over Richmond’s Carver neighborhood. Residents are fighting a proposal to build 46 homes on North Lombardy Street out of concern that they’ll end up being rented to students at VCU or nearby Virginia Union University. Charleen Baylor, president of the Carver Area Civic Improvement League, said community and city leaders have worked for more than a decade to revitalize Carver as a neighborhood of homeowners. Historic Carver is part of the city’s Neighborhoods in Bloom program, which encourages owner-occupancy and provides incentives for home renovations.

The ConnectNetwork will expand and improve with a three-year $240,000 grant. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation recently awarded half the grant, $120,000 to the Community Foundation Serving Richmond and Central Virginia. The foundation, which operates in partnership with the ConnectNetwork and Virginia Commonwealth University, will match the grant.

As an aspiring biologist, Nancy B. Stutts conducted research in a Venezuelan cloud forest. But after moving to Richmond in 1980, she knew a career in tropical biology wasn’t likely. She shifted her attention to nonprofits and eventually conceived a Web-based networking system that links nonprofit, business, government and civic-minded leaders.

Where: Siegel Center (cap. 7,500)
  On the air: TV—ESPN2; radio—WBBT (107.3), 3:30 p.m.
  Tickets: Adults $15, youth $10 (call (804) 828-7267 or go online to http://www.vcuathletics.com)
  Projected starting lineups:
  Notable: Showdown to retain at least a share of first place in the Colonial Athletic Association. VCU (7-1, 14-5), George Mason (7-1, 14-4) and Northeastern (7-1, 12-6) are tied at the top. Winner will get a tiebreaker edge since this is the only regular-season meeting. The Rams have not trailed in their past two games. VCU point guard Eric Maynor has 15 assists and no turnovers in those games. Maynor needs two assists to become the Rams’ career leader and 19 points to take over fourth place in career scoring. VCU is using its trademark press a little less, but in six straight wins, it has ramped up its defense and allowed an average of 55 points. Opponents are shooting just 35.7 overall and 26.2 percent from behind the 3-point line during that stretch. Six consecutive opponents had shot under 40 percent against George Mason before Northeastern shot 54.8 percent in a 58-57 win.

Virginia Commonwealth University’s swelling enrollment could help attract development to Richmond’s North Side. A Georgia-based company is proposing to build a 192-unit apartment complex along Chamberlayne Avenue that would be geared for students at VCU and Virginia Union University. The gated complex would be built on 11 acres east of Chamberlayne, just north of its interchange with Interstates 95 and 64, between Mitchell and Bacon streets. The industrially zoned property includes the vacated, fenced-off remains of the Usry mobile-home court.

Employees at VCU Health System were told yesterday by administrators to tighten their belts or layoffs might be necessary. Health system administrators have been holding town hall meetings with employees this week to ask for cost-cutting. “The unprecedented economic recession is presenting financial challenges across the nation and in all industries, health care included,“ said Dr. Sheldon Retchin, VCU Health System chief executive officer.

A teenager who admitted he would routinely rob drug dealers, but said he took good care of his 2-year-old child, will spend 29 years in prison in the death of a Virginia Commonwealth University student. Richmond Circuit Judge Beverly W. Snukals yesterday sentenced Howard R. Scott III near the low end of sentencing guidelines in the robbery and shooting of Tyler J. Binsted, noting that the defendant was 17 when the crime took place.

Virginia Commonwealth University runner and artist Tim Rusterholz will have one of his sculptures displayed during this week’s NCAA Convention in Washington.

Former Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder doesn’t have to worry about a freeze on his salary from Virginia Commonwealth University. Wilder got a raise to $150,000 when he returned to VCU full time this month.

Forty-three Richmond-area teachers will be honored today by Virginia Commonwealth University for achieving certification from the National Board for Professional Teacher Standards. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and VCU President Eugene P. Trani are scheduled to address the teachers from schools in the city of Richmond and the counties of Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico.

Two weeks into teaching, Erin McCoy, a first-year fifth-grade teacher at Hopkins Elementary School in Chesterfield, was ready to quit. It seemed like students weren’t listening, and some students were testing the boundaries because they knew their teacher was new.