The authority oversees the employees and real estate occupied by the five schools within the VCU Medical Center.

[6] Founders of the college MCV opened on November 5, 1838, in the old Union Hotel located at the corner of Nineteenth and Main streets.

[13] Soon the Civil War erupted, and the college found itself playing an important role in the education of Confederate surgeons and in the hospital care of sick and wounded military personnel.

[15] For several years after the Civil War, the faculty included James Brown McCaw, a member of a family long prominent in the medical field, who had commanded a Confederate hospital.

"[17] In the late 1800s, African-American janitor Chris Baker became notorious for obtaining cadavers for dissection by students.

One case in 1898 was subject to an exposé by Richmond Planet publisher John Mitchell Jr. and included grisly sketches of the proceedings.

The Flexner Report of 1909 suggested that the two schools would be better off merging, which they then did in 1913, retaining the Medical College of Virginia name.

In reviewing appropriations, Governor Westmoreland Davis noted that Virginia was supporting two medical schools, seemingly in competition, and surmised that this might well be uneconomic, particularly at a time when money was tight.

Had the report won approval, Virginia would have found herself today facing the need to establish another medical school, with a minimum price tag of 30 million dollars.

Plans laid prior to 1930 with early fruition apparently possible had to be put aside, notably the projected laboratory and outpatient building.

Also by 1941, new quarters were provided for the departments of physiology and pharmacology by adding a fourth story to McGuire Hall.

[25] In 1945, a certificate in physical therapy program was created by Frances A. Hellebrandt[26]: 18 The interest of individuals, organizations, and agencies, other than those of the Commonwealth, may be gauged by their provision, since 1956, of gifts, grants, and contracts for teaching, research, and capital improvements totaling a little over $15 million.

Reflecting the stimulating influence of such support, the college is fully accredited, with university status, and alive with enthusiasm, as the faculty and staff go about their mission of providing for the education of some 1200 students enrolled in 10 schools—plus some 200 young physicians in residence for further training—of caring for the sick who occupy its 1308 beds, and, finally, of seeking new knowledge for their benefit.

[32] The medical college's primary source for obtaining cadavers from the time of its establishment until 1879 was the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground.

[38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45] The previous administration led by President Eugene P. Trani had pursued a policy of promoting the VCU name as a unified identity to the outside world.

This policy had included directing faculty, staff, and students to use the VCU name, instead of MCV, in any official meetings or correspondence.

This Authority, under the direction of Sheldon Retchin MD, then went about changing the physical appearance of the structures and advertising materials, to include letterhead and websites.

In 2010, VCU was selected by the NIH for a $20 million grant to become part of a nationwide consortium of research institutions working to turn laboratory discoveries into treatments for patients.