The Cavalier daily :: Thursday, October 12, 1967 :: University of Virginia Library

Dean Woody spoke before a
small group at the University
Forum Series sponsored by the
YMCA. He centered his talk on
the honor system and dress
around the University.

Mr. Woody opened by saying
that "Virginia is known for gentlemanly
dress."

But he pointed out that this
tradition is slowly dying as more
and more students are without
coats and .

Stresses Tradition

Stressing that tradition at Virginia
has always been "student
tradition not faculty traditions,"
Mr. Woody asserted that it is the
students who have kept up the
high standard of dress and it
is up to them to maintain that
standard.

Talking about the honor system
Mr. Woody stressed the importance
of the honor system and
the fact that it is up to the undergraduates
and the first-year class
especially to keep up the effectiveness
of the Honor System.

Dean Woody then turned his
attention to comparing the faculty
when he attended the University
and the present faculty.
He noted that when he was a
student there were 70 professors
with degrees. "Now there are
seventy in every department."

At present there are 126 new
names on the faculty roster; of
these, 16 obtained a degree from
the University. Mr. Woody said
that there were "very few from
the South" on the roster.

Among the new professors are
many from foreign countries. "It
may be that the South cannot
supply the calibre of professor
we had then," he added.

Few Southern Students

Not only are fewer professors
from the South but in recent
years fewer students have
come from the South, he said.
Dean Woody said that when he
was on the admissions board the
University drew heavily from the
South.

He made it clear that was
not criticizing the fact there are
few professors and students from
the South but that he simply
wanted to make an observation.
However, the dean said that he
hoped that in the future there
would be "more men from the
South."

"I wish some of the fraternity
traditions would change." Mr.
Woody went on to discuss fraternities
saying that the problems
involving them were tremendous
and that making houses "respectable"
was the greatest problem.
He criticized both the loud
music and rowdiness.

Concerning the music Mr.
Woody said that if all the fraternities
agreed to have hi-fi's instead
of combos the same effect
could be gotten.

Concerned About Hell Week

It was at this point that Mr.
Woody abruptly changed the subject.
"What makes me so mad
I can't see straight is this hell
week."

He explained that he had been
trying to abolish physical brutality
during initiation for a long
time and finally some rules have
been passed which prohibit any
brutality.

The Dean also criticized open
parties which gave all "the
thieves" and the "college riff-raff"
an opportunity to give the University
a "bad name." He gave
an example of a student and his
date who were attacked one
night on their way home from a
party. The boy was beaten about
the face. It was at first thought
to have been done by a University
student, Dean Woody said,
but later was proved that it had
been done by an East Carolina
student.

Open Parties

He recommended that fraternities open parties only to University
students.

At the end of his talk, Dean
Woody was asked about the progress
of the committee studying
the feasibility of coeducation at
the University. Dean Woody
chairs the committee. He said
that the committee had only recently
started its work since the
members were newly appointed.

Poor Treatment

He also said that women students
at the University had been
treated in an "ungentlemanly
manner," but that the trend was
slowly changing.

In answer to another question,
Dean Woody said he felt
that the honor system had become
less effective because of
the increased number of graduate
students.

As the number of graduate
students increased, he said, the
honor system would lose importance.
It would be better to have
no honor system at all, he said,
than to let it become a farce.

He said the honor system was
the most important tradition at
the University, one thing that
holds it together.