My fellow graduates, as we reflect on the four years that were our college experience, I would like to take the time to highlight some key memories of our freshman year that only we, as seniors, could understand.
The man who runs the university's mental health programs says he believes most students at the University of Richmond "are operating on a regular basis very close to their breaking point." Dr. Peter LeViness, director of Counseling and Psychological Services, said he knew there were students on campus who never came to CAPS, but were functioning daily in in an unhealthy mental state. "We would like to get them to lower that threshold so they're not so close to their breaking point," he said. CAPS is currently in its second year of providing free online mental health screenings to students, but only a small number of students have taken the evaluations, and many remain unaware that the service is available. The CAPS Web site offers multiple self-assessments, each designed to recognize a number of problems, which include depression, alcoholism, eating disorders, bipolar disorder, generalized anxiety and post-traumatic stress. CAPS pays an annual subscription fee to link to various evaluations on the Web, one of them being through mentalhealthscreening.org. The organization's Web site describes the benefits of the surveys, saying that taking them "offers students a year-round venue to explore and identify symptoms of: mood and anxiety disorders/eating disorders/harmful and hazardous alcohol use and to seek timely and appropriate help from their counseling and health services centers." With roughly one-third of Richmond students going to CAPS at least once during their four years at Richmond, LeViness said CAPS treated roughly 12 percent to 13 percent of the student body each year, including law school students.
For many University of Richmond students, dreams of becoming a rock star may never go beyond the walls of Sine Irish Pub on karaoke Thursdays.
Ruckus, the online music service available to college students nationwide, has officially shut down. Ruckus was made available to students at the University of Richmond during the spring of 2007 and offered more than two million files for download.
"If it's wet and it's not yours, don't touch it," was the advice given to University of Richmond students on Feb.
The University of Richmond's Everything Convenience store, or ETC, has just gotten a lot more convenient for both organic food lovers and vegans. ETC, the on-campus market, has expanded its shelf items to include more foods that do not have meat or dairy and also more that do not contain any additives or chemicals. Although the store has been open for more than two years, it was not until this year that Dining Services really started diversifying the food options at ETC.
For most of us, the warm feeling of the holidays has faded away, but for one University of Richmond 2005 alumna, "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" still feels good. Alumna Caroline Moore co-produced a made-for-TV holiday movie, "The Most Wonderful Time of The Year," which aired on the Hallmark channel Dec.
Nearly 75,000 people were laid off in the United States and the world earlier this week thanks to big cuts from companies including Home Depot, Caterpillar and Sprint Nextel.
Students enrolled in this semester's Global Music Ensemble course will learn about the culture and history of West African drum music from a University of Ghana professor who will bring along some of his own handmade instruments. The Global Music Ensemble class has been part of the University of Richmond's curriculum since 2002 and is now led by professor Andy McGraw, an ethnomusicologist who studies both anthropology and music.
