Office of the Provost

VCU Community Engagement: new $5K Data Dissemination Grants, Reading Buddies launch, CERSC cohort, and Health Hub progress—translating faculty research into community impact.

Virginia Commonwealth University’s October 2025 Academic Report highlights transformative faculty-led initiatives, national recognition for online learning, and groundbreaking research in health, psychology, and violence prevention. With record-breaking COACHE survey engagement, VCU is advancing interdisciplinary collaboration, inclusive scholarship, and mentorship across career stages.

VCU’s Convergence Labs initiative launches a university-wide effort to foster interdisciplinary research, experiential learning, and community impact. With three enterprise themes—AI, Neurosciences, and Health Outcomes—this signature program reflects VCU’s commitment to innovation, collaboration, and preparing students for the future of work. Led by nationally recognized faculty and supported by hundreds of contributors across campus, Convergence Labs marks a bold shift in how higher education structures discovery and engagement.

VCU’s Division of Community Engagement highlights a season of co-created scholarship, youth development, and civic partnerships. From planning grants to pickleball, this post explores how academic inquiry and community wisdom are building something powerful—together.

Maghboeba Mosavel, Ph.D., the current head of VCU’s Division of Community Engagement is being promoted to vice provost, effective immediately, said Fotis Sotiropoulos, Ph.D., VCU’s Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs. “Dr. Mosavel has done an outstanding job of both reorganizing and energizing VCU’s Community Engagement team after it was moved into the […]

Message from the Provost Dear Colleagues, I hope by now you have read the message from university leadership regarding the steps VCU is taking to remain in compliance with the policy guidance from the U.S. Dept. of Education. That guidance in DOE’s recent letter compels VCU to balance the university’s priorities. VCU prides itself on […]

VCU has a complete draft of the Carnegie Community Engaged University Reclassification Self-Study report. It has been a tremendous effort across the campus. We want to take this opportunity to recognize what we have accomplished and share highlights of what we have learned. The ProcessOver the past year, we conducted two unit-level surveys and one […]

VCU defines community engagement as “The collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in the context of partnership and reciprocity. It can involve partnerships and coalitions that help mobilize resources and influence systems and serve as catalysts for initiating and/or changing policies, programs, […]

VCU was one of the first universities in the nation to receive the Carnegie Community Engaged University Classification in 2005, and one of very few R1 institutions. We earned reclassification in 2015, and are in the midst of reclassifying for the designation now.  One of the reasons we do this is to keep growing – […]

Message from the Provost Dear Colleagues, As we begin a new academic year, some information from the 2023 Faculty Data report is encouraging: A lot of work remains, however, when it comes to attracting and retaining a diverse community of highly-qualified faculty members. For example, we know that we must retain more VCU faculty members […]