VCU news

By Dina Weinstein

Swag and spirit will reign at The Compass on April 26. It’s the launch of Black & Gold Wednesdays, and from 3 to 4 p.m., the upbeat speakers and activities will include 500 students, faculty and staff getting T-shirts and wristbands that reflect Virginia Commonwealth University pride.

Black & Gold Wednesdays is the brainchild of Aaron J. Hart, Ed.D., vice president for student affairs. He plans to make the giveaways a regular occurrence during the next academic year, encouraging the VCU community to wear school colors to unify the campuses and boost Ram pride.

Hart is a native of Chicago, and his love of diverse urban areas drew him to VCU in October 2022 from the University of Houston-Clear Lake. Once here, he noticed VCU students’ pride but heard that they would like more efforts to promote VCU spirit, including among faculty, staff and administrators.

Hart said the Black & Gold Wednesdays initiative is a taste of a larger effort, with a full launch planned for the fall semester.

“We can have more pride in this unique campus because VCU offers an experience that no other major research university is going to offer — high academic excellence and then, at the same time, an equally high commitment to experiential learning and the overall student experience,” Hart said. “It’s part of what makes us uncommon.”

He encouraged students to keep an eye on the B&G Wednesdays social media campaign through the summer.

VCU News went into further detail with Hart.    

How does Black & Gold Wednesdays help form VCU's identity?

It’s really part of a much larger campus philosophy to make sure we promote the campus and our branding, and we make sure that whether you're a student or not, we want those in the Richmond community to identify with our name as something that they're proud to wear.

We're already seeing it in the community, especially at VCU basketball games where I see people not affiliated with VCU wearing VCU letters to show support. The idea is to get people to understand the pride that we take in those three letters. People will then say: “I want to know more about VCU.”

The community will learn that VCU is committed to diversity, learning and academic excellence. They will see Black and Gold and say, “Wow, this is nice. I like this and understand everyone is welcomed here.” B&G Wednesdays boosts identity and pride in what we do.

How does the initiative support students?

We have an expectation for students to be involved in their learning experience. The administration often wants to reach out to students for feedback and when we ask, “How can we make VCU the best university it can be?” Well, for us to do that, we need to demonstrate to students that they are welcome. They're welcome to give their opinion and to be student-leaders. This initiative around spirit and pride really allows students to feel like this is their home.

If our students take pride in their home, when the administration says, “We need help from students — help us chart this course,” they're really going to be excited about doing it. And they're going to say, “Yes, I want to help. Let me participate in this focus group. Let me give you my opinion.”

That's when you have pride and love for your institution. As a result, you want to be involved, volunteer, and serve as a leader for other students. This is really important.

How does Black & Gold Wednesdays unify our campuses?

I really loved my amazing high school, Kenwood Academy, in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, and whenever I was out on the weekends, I loved wearing my letterman jacket or other school paraphernalia. But certain people, even my friends, would say, “Why are you always wearing your Kenwood stuff? You're a nerd.” I didn't let it bother me, but I know a lot of students might let that bother them because they think they're in it alone.

But can you imagine what would happen if you walked to class and you see your professors always wearing VCU paraphernalia? Or what if, when you're walking through campus, you see the president, provost, the cabinet members also wearing VCU gear? Well, at that point, you'll say to yourself, well, they're doing it. And then you get your friends to do it.

I say, let’s encourage more people to wear black and gold and show our letters — students, faculty, staff, the provost, the president, the cabinet members. The more people we can get wearing black and gold and showing our letters, it's going to be considered cool to support the university. It is very unifying, like when we go to events, and we have a black and gold student section.

How does school spirit relate to academic performance?

I’ve worked at some universities where students had a strong sense of pride, and I see that is the glue. I’ve had students in their first semester who were on academic probation, and they knew that if they didn't bring their grades up in the second semester, they would be sent home for a semester.

I literally had students tell me, “I love this campus so much; I do not want to go back home. I don't want to miss the experience of hanging out with my friends in the classroom. I don't want to miss the experience of going to events or being a student-leader.” That really motivated them to bring their grades up and get their friends who are back in high school in their hometowns to come to the university.

School spirit and branding are tied to students’ connectedness to the university, because if you have pride in your institution, you're going to do anything it takes to stay at that institution. You're going to tell all your friends and family back home: “This is the most awesome place to be.”

From an academic standpoint, if you love the institution you go to, you're going to do everything you can to be successful in the classroom to make sure that you continue to be here for the next four to six years. At VCU, we identify by black and gold. We identify by being a Ram. We identify by Rodney.