The University of Richmond Spiders launched Spider Social Rewards April 8, which awards users with points for daily Facebook and Twitter posts to garner interest in the athletics program, news media manager Melissa Mitchell said. Spider fans can register using their email address and link their social media options, she said.
The grant will provide start-up money to purchase farming equipment from local sellers, she said, and the equipment will expand current farming projects for women in the village.
On Tuesday, March 26, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) asked people to change their Facebook profile pictures to a pink-on-red equal sign avatar to show support for marriage equality as the Supreme Court met to decide the future of same-sex marriage in the United States. In accordance to the Supreme Court hearings on Proposition 8, California's ban on same-sex marriage, approximately 2.7 million people changed their profile photos, according to data analysis published by Eytan Bakshy, a researcher on the Facebook Data Science Team. The following day, the court heard arguments on the related question of whether the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which denies federal benefits to married same-sex couples, should be overturned. Many University of Richmond students changed their profile pictures to show support, including junior Lee Oberg.
The construction of two new residence projects to open in summer of 2014 will begin this month, including a new residence hall next to South Court and the new South Campus Apartments. These dorms are not being built to expand the size of campus or student body, but rather to improve the quality of what the university provides for students, university architect Andrew McBride said.
The Octaves released a promotional single, "Too Close," on Feb. 14 for their new album "Ricochet," which will mark the singers' exciting return to the recording world of a cappella, said junior Jared Feinman, The Octaves' music director. "We are making something bigger than just our voices," Feinman said.
On Saturday, March 23, the "Emotions in Motion SAVE 5K" will start at the Robins Center in support of Suicide Awareness Voices of Education, sophomore Melissa Diamond said. Diamond's aunt works for SAVE and has been coordinating with the university and her community to bring an event to campus to raise money for the organization, she said.
On Feb. 22, the presidents of Richmond College Student Government Association and Westhampton College Government Association will attend the board of trustees meeting to give a presentation about creating more transparency between students and the board members, senior RCSGA president Evan Harris said. At the meeting, Harris and senior Taylor Michals, WCGA president, will have 45 minutes to describe what the student governments have done on campus during the past five years, Harris said.
Starting next fall, one or two puppies will live on campus in the University Forest Apartments with students who will train them for Guiding Eyes for the Blind, chemistry professor Carol Parish said. Parish held two information sessions this week, and about 50 students expressed interest in becoming puppy raisers or trainers, she said.
Two Westhampton College seniors launched Richmond Compliments, a Facebook page with more than 1,300 members of the Richmond community, this December. The two women agreed to an anonymous interview with The Collegian over Facebook message under the Richmond Compliment abbreviation "RC." RC said that the two women trusted each other to keep their identities confidential and worked well together and communicated frequently about potential improvements. "The irony is that we have never met each other in real life," RC said. The creater of @URSpotted, a twitter account that launched in January 2012, said in an anonymous interview with The Collegian that it hoped to resume tweeting this spring, having been fueled by a little healthy competition from Richmond compliments. @URSpotted said: "I envy the creators of Richmond Compliments.
Three of the four University of Richmond a cappella groups will compete at the A Cappella Sing-Off in Busch Garden's Christmas Town on Dec.
