The volunteer president and director of the group that operates Monroe Park has been charged with assault stemming from a confrontation Sunday, Oct. 31, with two Virginia Commonwealth University students.

Alice B.M. Massie, who has led the public-private Monroe Park Conservancy since its formation in 2011, was issued a court summons for misdemeanor assault.

Ms. Massie’s case is scheduled for a hearing on Feb. 24 in Richmond General District Court at the John Marshall Courts Building.

Ms. Massie declined to comment on the charge, and the two students involved could not be reached for comment. Neither of the students, Kamiri Branch and Aysia Anderson-McCoy, was charged, though they may be facing discipline from VCU.

The incident comes as the 11-member conservancy continues to struggle financially to operate the park after it underwent a 22-month renovation that cost more than $7 million. The conservancy contributed to the work that took place between 2016 and 2018, but the bulk of the money came from city taxpayers.

Monroe Park dates to 1851.

A brief video posted on Instagram by CatchtheFire, a VCU Black student group, offers a glimpse into the incident. Ms. Massie, informally dressed, appears to be confronting two young Black women who are trying to set up an unlicensed pop-up shop on the park’s grounds.

“People come here every week to sell stuff ... whether they have a permit or not. Doesn’t matter here,” said one of the young women, identified as Ms. Branch, who is protesting Ms. Massie’s instructions to leave.

Ms. Branch begins using her cell phone to record as Ms. Massie calls police for assistance. The young woman brings her phone close to Ms. Massie, who strikes out, knocking the phone away and the recording ends.

Ms. Massie apparently has complained since the incident to VCU, whose facility department handles park maintenance for the conservancy.

An online petition posted on Change.org urges VCU’s Office of Student Conduct and Academic Integrity “to drop any and all current and impending charges against Kamari Branch and Aysia Anderson-McCoy in regards to Alice Massie’s false claims.”

The petition also calls for Ms. Massie to be removed from the Monroe Park Conservancy and for VCU to sever its ties with her in the wake of the incident.

The petition had garnered more than 7,500 signatures by Monday.

Meanwhile, the conservancy’s most recent 990 report to the IRS shows the organization that includes city representatives finished the 2020-21 fiscal year on June 30 in the red, just as it did the previous year. The current 990 shows the conservancy finished with minus $284,929 in assets.

The conservancy reported total assets of $198,983 in property and in its accounts, but all of that was offset by an outstanding bank loan of $483,912, which is still being paid off.

That bottom line did represent a $62,374 improvement over the 2019-20 fiscal year when the conservancy reported net assets of minus $347,303, also due to the outstanding loan.

The Conservancy is not slated to benefit from the $155 million the city is receiving through the federal American Rescue Plan. It reported spending only about $10,000 between July 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021, on landscaping, maintenance and renovation.

A noncash item, depreciation of the benches and other park property represented the largest single operational expense at more than $20,000, the report noted.

Overall, actual expenditures on the park trailed the combined $15,000 cost for loan interest, legal services and accounting, the report to the IRS noted.

Such small expenditures on the park have frustrated park advocates, such as Charles Woodson of nearby Oregon Hill, who has publicly complained about Monroe Park’s eroding paths, nonfunctional central fountain and other shortcomings, including the reduction in trees that resulted from the renovation.

However, members of City Council have largely ignored Mr. Woodson’s criticisms of the conservancy’s management.