VCU magazine (1991-03)

              MARCH/APRIL 1991 VOLUME 19, NUMBER 5
Inside this issue:
Research in Humanities and
Sciences 2
ROTC: Tomorrow's Leaders 3
Letter from the President 5
Alumni Profile: Dennis Danvers 8
A publication for alumni of the Academic and Medical College of Virginia Campuses of Virginia Commonwealth University
Get Back to Where You Once Belonged
/.iy Marilyn Scott
The ColJege of Humanities and Sciences
was established in 1966, two years before
d,e merger of Richmond Pro fessio nal
Institute (RPI) widl d,e Medical CoUege
of VUllinia (Mev). Then C' alJed d,e School
of AllS and Scie nces, it included the De­paltments
of Biology, Chemistry , English,
Foreign Languages,
and History and Politi­cal
Science.
Virginia, bur when it aniveci at VCU, it was
remarkably emphatic. Peace vigils and
protests were he ld in Shafer Court and
Monroe Park. 111e president's residence
was then directly aauss from Dr. Trani's
office today-Dr. Geo1lle Oliver lladlived
there until 1967. But when Dr. Warren
Brandt took on the preside ncy in 1970, he
didn't want to live on campus d uring ule
It ' '''l5 to RPI dlat
Jacques Haeninger 72
BA English and his
wile , Evelyn 72 BA
English, had applied
early in 1968. When
d,ey arrived d,at fall,
they were artending
VUllinia Commo n­wealth
University. "\Ve
were the flrst class that
was aU VCU," reca!1s
I-laeninger, who now
is he-ad chef at his
family's four-star
Failfax restaurant,
L'Aubellle c1,ez
Franc;ois. "Dr. Walter
Coppedge conduoed
our otientation." He,
lOO, had anivecl that
faU to assume his posi­tion
as assistant vice
president of academic
affairs.
The College calls Hibbs Building home and here it is in 1966, awaiting construction
of what is now the bookstore and the student cafeteria.
"l1,ere was a lot
going on dlen, in dle world, at VCU," " Iys
Haerringer. President Lyndon B. Jo hnson
announced widl a he-avy he-art dlal he
would not run for reelection be<."ause of
growing opJX>Sition to the "police action"
in Vietnam , My Lai, and escalating Ameli­can
casualties resulting from d,e Tet offe n­sive.
More Ulan party fervour aroused dle
Chicago Democratic Convention, ancl the
collnuy was tom in mo ral debate.
Coppedge, who is professor of English,
recalls, "Student unrest that had been
visible at other campuses came late (0
VtRGINtA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSllY
VCU Publications
826 West Franklin Street
RtCHMOND VA 23284-2036
00 NOT FORWARD
Address Correction Requested
Return Postage Guaranteed
unrest, and since then VCU's presicienb
have resided off campus."
Richard M. Nixon won the RepubliL-a11
PaJty's nomination ror president, w hile
Mao Tse-Tung was sli.ll tly ing to push his
Cultural Revolution. Leonid 13rezhnev ~Ind
Alldrei Kosygin together led the USSH and,
fmcling Alexander Dulxek's go vcllll1lcnt
too liberal ('oi' their r a lly'S ta-;tcs, sent
Soviet tanks ro lling into Czcch()sl()v~ lkia .
"I'd just tln isht.:d grad sch()()1 and was
attending a conference in Yugoslavia
which f(x:usc-'(l on youth and so <.:ial
change ," reC'aUs Dr. Ed Peeples '57 BS
health and physical ed ucation, plDfessor
of preventive medicule. "One atte ndee
was a noted philosopher on socialistic hu­IThmism,
Ivan Svitak, w hom we
invited to campus to speak the
next year."
A Halvard aluflmus, Dr. Ro­land
Nelson, Jr., was president,
and Dr.]. Edwin Whitesell de-an
of the School of Atts and Sci­ences.
11,e chemistry depalt­ment,
of which Mary Kapp was
head, "had a grant-funded
coopemtive program with
I
o ne-story-high poster showing a beatnik!
hippie man coulting-or aCCXJSting,
perhaps-a nurse, who nelvOll5ly parried
his advances."
While it has been an ex-tJemely
successful union, d,ere
were reasons for d,e hesitancy:
Mev at that time," recounts
Dr. Robert ("Geny") Bass,
professor of chemistJy. "OUf
graduate studies were offered at
"Dr. Brandl. our president.
along with H. H. Haldeman
wore the last crew cuts in
"MCV had been around since
before d,e Civil War," explains
Coppedge, "while RPl's begin­ltings
came during the first
world war. Many mediC'al ,-en­ters
were beginning to seek
accreditation thlDugh affiliation
widl Iibelal aIlS colleges and
universities. A merger would
contribute to Mev's growing
America." reputatio n. Alld RPI was a little
MCV andundergmduate at RPI. We had
offices on both campuses. It was a time of
exciting change-classes aIillost doubled
from one year to the next."
To strains of the ftrst rock musical, Hair,
and Sgt. Peppe r's Lone ly He-dllS Club
Band, pots of primordial soup st"'",led
away everywhere, giving sustenance and
shape to a variety of o rganisms. A 1968
decree in Ir<lq made a local faction of d,e
intematio nal Baath Arab Socialist party
come to llJle what
was dlen a ten­y"''''-
dd re public
widl USSR Ie-an­ings.
George Bll5h
was a U.s. House
Re prc-'Sentative.
L. Do ugl,,, Wilder
\v~l"; a Iex:;.!1 aUo r­ney
who in a
year's time would
win a Virginia
SplDut flDm 111e CoUege of Wil­liam
and Mary." Both schools were scions
with a rebellio us nature, shadows of which
'-<In still be seen today. Peeples c1aullS:
"Behind the open gate in back of Found­ers'
Hall, dlere's some faint 'FREE RPI' graf­ftti.
" The sprollt wanted out from under
the shade o f its parent tree.
Attests Maliane Mate ra '73 BS journa l­ism:
"I had faBen Ul love widl an RPI
catalogue d,at promised a joulnalism
COLirse in my freshman year and no math
or phys ed at all,
and I was just as
annoyecl to arrive
on C"dmpLls and
discover VCU as
my nursing major
rexm1l11ate was.
-She had faUen in
love with an MCV
Glt;;llogue. '·
... .:.en~lte St4IL
G(wel11()]" Mills
Godwin spo ke at
Look beyond the hair scarf and French twist 'do-Founders' Hall
graffiti proclaims "FREE HPI".
Administratol"
like Coppedge
began to lend
s h ~lpe to the
the dedil: Jlion of Rhoads Hall. All(1 VU'-
ginia's General Assemb ly alTangeci a July
maniage between HPI and MCV.
Hae ninger r",:aUs, "-n,e School of dle
Alts had flavored that campus with its
u~lIal ~lItistic avant-garde. There was this
many separate
areas of the old RPI to consolicbte d,eir
stre nb'ths. setting up SLX schools to match
tJle sLx on the medical campus.
RPl was unique. It was an urban insti­n
ltion meant to foclls o n program. .'. )
(Continued on page 4)
Nonprofit Organization
U.S. Postage
PAID
Permit No. 869
Richmond, Virginia