Major gift enhances VCU Life Sciences

By Lissette Linares

RICHMOND, Va. — A gift of property given to Virginia Commonwealth University will bolster the university’s comprehensive plan for the study of the life sciences – an area of increasing interest nationwide.

VCU today (Oct. 23) announced the major gift – 342 acres of land along the James River. The new site, given to VCU by Mrs. Inger Rice, will be home to the Inger and Walter Rice Center for Environmental Life Sciences, an integral component of VCU’s commitment to the study of the life sciences. Mrs. Rice, a dedicated community advocate in Virginia and internationally, strongly supports organizations that promote multiculturalism and education.

"The Rice Center will be key to advancing the mission and goals of life sciences at VCU, serving as an educational and research resource for both the university and the commonwealth," said VCU President Eugene P. Trani, Ph.D. "This property, rich in natural resources and teeming with wildlife, will essentially enable the university to create a world-class environmental life sciences program."

The Rice Center for Environmental Life Sciences, located just 30 minutes from VCU, between the Berkeley and Shirley plantations on Route 5 in Charles City County, includes a 70-acre lake and both pine and hardwood forests. It will serve as a living laboratory where students can apply classroom lessons in environmental engineering and chemistry, environmental epidemiology, landscape ecology, biocomplexity, spatial data analysis, ecoinformatics and other fields of study.

"It gives me great pleasure to make this gift to VCU, an institution with an excellent reputation for teaching, research and service," said Mrs. Rice. "My hope is that this contribution helps further the study of the life sciences, improving the quality of life for Virginians."

VCU Life Sciences is interdisciplinary, blending science, mathematics, medicine, technology, humanities and engineering. The curriculum links both departments and schools across both the Academic and Medical College of Virginia campuses.

"In the past, much like other environmental studies programs at urban institutions, we have had certain restraints," said Greg Garman, Ph.D., director of the Center for Environmental Studies. "With this new gift, any constraints have evaporated. The site will enable us to be much more effective at teaching, research and service in the area of the life sciences."

The Rice Center for Environmental Life Sciences will be utilized primarily by VCU’s Center for Environmental Studies and the Department of Biology, as well as the School of Medicine and other MCV Campus schools, helping to improve the understanding and quality of life as it applies to ecology and public health, with a major emphasis on results-oriented education and research activities.

The Rice Center will be available for use by VCU students and faculty in spring 2001, following completion of a survey of the property. In addition to ecological study, the site will offer community outreach and education programs for the general public and neighboring school districts. The Environmental Literacy and Leadership Forum, one such program, will offer interdisciplinary workshops and seminars for community and business leaders helping them to develop environmental leadership skills and to make informed, scientifically literate decisions on a wide range of complex environmental and natural resource management challenges.

The Rice property will be leased to the university for $1 per year until September 2002, at which time, Mrs. Rice has pledged to give the site to VCU pending approval from the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia. VCU’s Board of Visitors already has approved the arrangement. Mrs. Rice also has pledged an annual trust to the university, contributing $125,000 towards the annual operating costs of the property. In return, VCU has agreed never to sell the property and to preserve the land and utilize it for the study of its natural resources.

Also, as part of its commitment to life sciences, VCU currently is constructing a $28.1 million Life Sciences Building, slated to open in summer 2001. The building will offer state-of-the art instruction and research facilities, including: an aquatics facility with about 20 research tanks; a roof-top, 3,000-square-foot greenhouse; 18 undergraduate laboratories for the study of biology, anatomy, genetics, ecology, botany, physiology, molecular biology and microbiology; and classroom and office space.  (Rice Property map.)

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VCU, located in the heart of Richmond, is listed among the top research universities in the country by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. More than 23,800 students are enrolled in 136 degree programs on VCU’s Academic and Medical campuses. The university’s academic programs have been ranked nationally by U.S. News & World Report.

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