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Just one day after Virginia Commonwealth University began rolling out a VCU-branded beer, the sales of which were intended to fund scholarships, the university has stopped its production indefinitely, according to The Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Community members expressed a range of objections to the product; a VCU professor, Everett Carpenter, raised concerns in a letter to the university’s president, Michael Rao, earlier in the week, arguing that the initiative was insensitive to the memory of Adam Oakes, a student who died of alcohol poisoning during a fraternity hazing at VCU in 2021. Carpenter also noted that a faculty and staff committee had voted against the interim policy that made it possible for the institution to release a branded beer.
According to a statement the university provided to CBS 6 in Richmond, the ale—called Ram Bam, after VCU mascot Rodney the Ram—is already on shelves, but VCU will work with its brewing partner, Hardywood Park Craft Brewery, “to stop production, effective immediately.”
