University of Virginia Library

This letter is intended for all of the members of the Board of
Visitors of the University, but I address it to you as their chairman.

At the conclusion of the Summer Session in August, 1974,
approximately eighteen months hence, I shall have completed fifteen
years as President of the University of Virginia. That seems to me to be
an appropriate term of service in this capacity, and indeed in the
current experience of American universities it is an extended one. I
write accordingly to request you to plan for me to be relieved of my
duties as President at the end of August 1974.

As you know from your reading of my recent Report, I believe the
state of the University to be thriving and vigorous to unprecedented
degree. The quality of the Faculty and student body is notably
enhanced, and it is a daily pleasure to be associated with them as
individuals. The University of Virginia has advanced conspicuously as a
national center of excellence in graduate and graduate professional
studies. Its academic publishing house, established just ten years ago,
and numerous scholarly and scientific activities of national significance
are flourishing. New buildings and facilities for arts and sciences and the
professional schools have recently been completed or are now under
construction. Racial integration and full coeducation are firmly
established in policy and practice. The Committee on the Future of the
University has completed a major study of the size and other aspects of
the years immediately ahead, and the Board of Visitors has acted to
establish enrollment projections and the role of the University for the
remainder of the decade. By the summer of 1974 the self-study under
the provisions of the Southern Association will have been completed
and the incoming President will have the immediate benefit of its
recommendations and those of the visiting committee.

Although some stringency may be anticipated, the University is
fiscally sound and in a stronger financial position than many of its
leading academic competitors for educational excellence. The General
Assembly have demonstrated the pride that they properly take in the
University of Virginia, and I have confidence in the provisions that they
will make for the future. I shall be responsible for the next biennial
budget and see it through the 1974 legislature – working with a new
governor, so that the next President can commence his duties in the
first year of the bennium, with a year in which to become familiar with
his duties before he has to appear before the committees of a biennial
legislature and secure the regular University appropriation.

During the past fourteen years in an office which makes heavy and
continuous demands, I have been fortunate to experience good health.
It appears to me wise to relinquish the office to another while I am still
in full force of physical vigor, and with unimpaired enthusiasm, and
strength of mind and spirit, and to time my relinquishment of office, so
that there will be no loss of momentum in the forward progress of the
University.

The University has been blessed throughout my years of service with
a strong and dedicated Board of Visitors, whose guidance and support
have been indispensable to me in everything I have tried to do, and
whose personal friendship and association I shall always cherish.

I shall ever be grateful for the opportunity and privilege of having
served you and the University of Virginia. I wish to pass on my duties
to another while I am still enjoying them as I do. My family are growing
up. I wish to become better acquainted with them, and they need more
of my daily attention than they have before. And finally at the end of
fifteen exciting and gratifying years in one capacity I wish to return to
another – to my first love of teaching and scholarship – which is a
continuing tradition and practice among administrative officers of this
university and one which I think is an element of its great strength.

The greatest strength of this University from the time when
Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe served together as Visitors has been the
stature of its board members. The continuing high character of the
Board and my affection and respect for its individual members give me
complete confidence in the future of the University under my
successor. You have all been generous in your many kindnesses to me
and my family, and I shall greatly miss the regular association with you
when my responsibilities are terminated at the beginning of the
1974-75 academic year.

(The following is the complete text of the statement
delivered at yesterday's meeting of the Board of Visitors by
Joseph H. McConnell, Jr., Rector of the University, in
immediate response to Pres. Shannon's announcement of his
resignation. –Ed.)

Perhaps we should pause a moment or two to reflect on the
seriousness of Dr. Shannon's announcement, but I think it is quite clear
to the Board – as it is to me – that we are confronted today with a
great loss, as well as a great responsibility.

Dr. Shannon, I am sure, has read the surprise – and the
disappointment – in our faces. On a decision of this magnitude, such a
mixture of surprise and sadness was inevitable. It causes one to grope
for words.

But I know, Edgar, that I speak for the Board and for the University
community at large – a community you have helped stretch to the
limits of the Commonwealth – when I say how grateful we are for the
good and faithful service you have given us.

The University can be proud of you – as we are proud of you. You
have demonstrated to this Board your complete dedication to the
University. It always came first – in the good days and when it rained,
as it does today, not only outside but in this room.

On behalf of the Board I want to express our deep gratitude. You
have helped carry out the purpose of our founder, Thomas Jefferson,
for this institution in a way that all who know us can take pride.

We have indeed become; under your guidance, a national university,
not just in law or medicine, but in the full range of the liberal arts. You
helped attract a faculty of the highest quality while developing a
program and plant to challenge and inspire those who teach and those
who learn.

You have put new and important emphasis on the University's role
of service to the State, extending the influence of this institution into
new areas of great but neglected need.

You have gained recognition in the councils of higher affairs of this
nation in a manner that has not only brought honor to you but glory to
the University.

And by the timing of your announcement today – well in advance
of the departure we regret so deeply – you have demonstrated again
the qualities of a man Virginia is proud to have as the president of its
university.

The standards you have set will not make it easy for this Board in
finding a successor. It will be a challenge – but we will do our utmost
to meet it. As prescribed by the manual of the Board, I will appoint a
committee at the appropriate time to work with the faculty in
nominating a successor. We ask your counsel, Dr. Shannon, throughout.

Fifteen years ... it sounds so long, yet it seems so short in terms of
your presidency. I am sure that this is because of the inspiration and
excitement you brought to the task and which you carry to the job
each day. When the days are full and life is lively, time passes quickly.
So it has been here.

We will miss you. I know that I can say for all of us that we are
deeply grateful for the privilege of working with you and seeing the
University grow and prosper.

In the days that you will still be with us – and in those quieter days
beyond – we wish for you and your family great happiness and the
knowledge that this University will always remember you with a fond
and grateful heart.