VCU is home to more than 30,000 students. Figuratively speaking, that is.

In reality, the university struggles to house all of the thousands of students who want to live on campus. It’s no surprise, then, that the university is expanding its housing. New dorms, West Grace Street at Harrison Street and West Broad Street at Ryland, will be completed in Aug. 2015 to the benefit of 411 students.

With this good, however, comes a potential bad. The new dorms are being built directly beside a well-known liquor store run by the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

Kendall Crawford, a former VCU dorm security guard, understands the potential risks.

“I’ve seen students getting in trouble for drinking in dorms or coming home drunk. I have friends who’ve gone through bad situations where alcohol has played a role. A new dorm right there is easier access to drinks and the potential for mistakes can go up,” she said.

Students of legal age might be tempted to take advantage of the nearness and buy alcohol for underage friends or make more frequent trips to make purchases.

There will be nearly 200,000 square feet of upper-class residential space. More students will be accommodated and research shows that students living on-campus show greater academic success and have more chances to meet friends.

Still, the proximity to the liquor store has the potential to intensify risky alcohol behaviors in students living so close. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), many students come to colleges with established drinking habits. and campus environment can exacerbate the problem. The NIAAA states that for students between 18 and 24, an estimated 599,000 are unintentionally injured while under the influence annually, 696,000 are assaulted by another student who was drinking, and 97,000 are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault.

Angelica Watts, a student living at the Lofts at Capital Garage nearby the construction, worries about the already problematic area.

“Right now, it is already very noisy, especially on the weekends with the club being right there. [Is] a new dorm going to make it worse and with easy access to alcohol? The police are going to be here all of the time,” Watts said.

Officer Greg Felton of the VCU Police Department agrees that drinking, underage or otherwise, poses a significant risk for students.

“The consequences for most people are and can be a lot higher than they actually counted on. You’re talking academic ramifications. Ramifications about where you live and you’ve got your criminal situation,” Felton said.

The potential consequences do seem abundant and calls into question how VCU currently handles alcohol abuse on campus. Several resources and awareness campaigns exist on campus to educate students, such as The Well and Win or Lose Cruiser. With these, there is hope that informed new residents won’t be too negatively affected by their placement.

Officer Felton, however, doesn’t see the new location posing a significant increase in alcohol related dangers.

“I think our challenge is unchanged,” he said. “I think prevention is about sharing information, informing, educating, and for us to do our job. Folks need to remember what the law is. Regardless of where you live, if you don’t want to have an issue with consumption or possession of alcohol, don’t drink until you’re 21.”

The ABC store in question was unavailable for comment.
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Providing accessibility to the “American dream” is the focus of Republican nominee Ed Gillespie’s Senate campaign.

Gillespie, 53, addressed Virginia Commonwealth University students on Monday and highlighted his plans for economic growth.

“Too many hard working Virginians are feeling squeezed between lost jobs, stagnant wages, reduced working hours, and higher prices for healthcare, energy, college, food…the right policies would ease the squeeze,” he said.

The 30-minute long address and question-and-answer session with Gillespie was co-sponsored by VCU’s Robertson School of Media and Culture and The Society of Professional Journalists and organized by Mass Communications professor Jacob Geiger.

Gillespie presented his five-point agenda to provide more opportunities for Virginians. The first item was his plan to replace The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, with a more affordable option that put patients first.

“In the commonwealth of Virginia, 250,000 of us would lose our insurance this year due to restrictions, regulations, and mandates in the Affordable Care Act,” Gillespie said.
When asked, Gillespie gave specifics on his own proposal which included age-based refundable tax credits and provide protections for those with preexisting conditions so they could not be denied insurance. He mentioned that the Affordable Care Act is estimated to cost $2.1 trillion over the next 10 years. Gillespie said his proposal would save tax payers $1 trillion.

He also discussed his second goal, which is to provide tax and regulatory relief. Gillespie mentioned that America had the highest corporate tax rate in the world, which is “driving American jobs and investment in companies oversees.”

The next three points in his agenda included harnessing American energy production, reforming the education system and taking control of federal spending to reduce the deficit.

When asked about raising the minimum wage, Gillespie said that he supported the current wage but offered an alternative work incentive tax credit, which would be like an additional check coming in to support minimum wage earners.

“The Congressional Budget Office says that a federally mandated increase in minimum wage to $10.10 would destroy between half a million and 1 million jobs. There are better ways to help the working poor than to have the working poor become the unemployed poor,” Gillespie said.

In response to a question about how his lobbyist background would affect his legislative approach, Gillespie brought focus to his bipartisan experience in the White House and private sector and his willingness to cross party lines.

“I will a have very simple test for every vote I cast in the United States Senate…will this bill ease the squeeze on hardworking Virginians and if it doesn’t, I won’t vote for it,” he said. “I don’t care whose bill it is.”

Gillespie is running against the Democratic Party incumbent, Mark Warner, and Libertarian Robert Sarvis. Warner took the Senate office in January. 2009.

Gillespie shared that reforming student loan repayments to reflect income to ease the ability for college graduates to repay student loans was a point of agreement between himself and Sen. Mark Warner.

In his opening remarks, Gillespie shared an account about being the descendant of Irish immigrants and the first generation in his family to go to college and working his way through school. One of his first jobs was as Senate parking lot attendant.

“To go from immigrant janitor to west wing of the White House in two generations time is the American dream and I want to make sure that everyone has that kind of opportunity.”
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