Office of the Provost

Dear VCU Faculty: As you likely know, VCU’s Board of Visitors today, exercising their authority to determine university graduation mandates, signaled their support for the courses created to implement VCU’s Racial Literacy requirement but voted against mandating the requirement. Obviously, this is not the outcome for which we worked. As I told the Board, I […]

The VCU Board of Visitors Academic and Health Affairs Committee is meeting on Thursday, May 9, 2024 at 2:00 pm. The meeting’s agenda includes a discussion of, “General Education Curriculum and Graduation Mandates.”

Thanks to the dedication and expertise of our faculty, VCU has the capacity to support a Racial Literacy requirement for incoming students as part of the General Education curriculum. I greatly appreciate and support our faculty’s work to develop these courses.  In March, the VCU Board of Visitors requested more information about the Racial Literacy […]

The VCU Board of Visitors meeting scheduled for April 11 was cancelled due to a lack of an in-person quorum.  The enrollment and budget workshop meetings were held as scheduled, as was a meeting of the board’s Academic and Health Affairs Committee (AHAC). The committee heard a presentation about the history and future of Focused Inquiry […]

The VCU Board of Visitors will hold in-person enrollment and budget workshop meetings on April 11, beginning at 8:30 a.m. Immediately following the workshops, the Academic and Health Affairs Committee (AHAC) of the Board of Visitors and the full Board of Visitors will meet consecutively. As the BOV indicated at its March 22 meeting, it […]

During its meeting today, the VCU Board of Visitors asked for a presentation about the university’s racial literacy graduation requirement at a future meeting of the board’s Academic and Health Affairs Committee (AHAC). The board made clear that it was not discussing the content of any individual courses, only the requirement. We will continue to […]

We’re writing with updates regarding the Racial Literacy requirement. Our most recent update is located here to refresh your memory. Approval timelineThe racial literacy work group is providing assurance that they are working with faculty on 15 new courses, which could bring our total to 17. If the total number of available seats across all […]

Dear VCU Faculty and Staff, We write to share with you our progress in implementing VCU’s racial literacy requirement. You can read previous updates on the collaboration between faculty leaders and administrators to launch this requirement for fall 2024. Here is the latest. 1. The University Undergraduate Curriculum Committee (UUCC) recommended at its October 19 […]

Dear Council of Deans (copy Associates Forum) and Faculty Senate Leadership: The University Undergraduate Curriculum Committee (UUCC), consistent with its responsibility for facilitating implementation of strategic initiatives related to undergraduate curricula, including responsibility for general education requirements, is issuing a call for courses to fill the racial literacy requirement. The need is urgent and it […]

Dear VCU Faculty and Staff: I write today to share with you a student-centered decision to extend the implementation of VCU’s racial literacy requirement and the steps we will take with our faculty, through the University Undergraduate Curriculum Committee (UUCC) to better position the institution to enact this requirement. Two years ago, the UUCC adopted […]