University of Virginia Library

Raven Panel Debates Existence
Of Any Gentlemen At University

By Rob Buford
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

One poet described a Virginia
Gentleman as "one who could
shoot like a South Carolinian, ride
like a Virginian, make love like a
Georgian, and be proud of it like an
Episcopalian." So said Charles C.
Calhoun, president of the Raven
Society, opening last night's panel
discussion, entitled "The University
Gentleman: Fact or Fiction?"

Participants in the discussion
were Mary Whitney, Dean of
Women; Arthur Kyle Davis, Jr.,
professor emeritus of English; and
two students, E. Sanford
Thompson, a founder of
Charlottesville's Friday club; and
Robert Rosen, founder and
publisher of Rapier Magazine.

Miss Whitney opened the
discussion stating that the concept
of the Virginia Gentleman is "a
fiction, a thing of the mind." She
would attempt no definition and
elaborated by saying that "all men
are not gentlemen, nor are all
gentlemen men."

Mr. Thompson agreed with
Dean Whitney and stated that
"everyone from the Prince of
Darkness to Woodrow Wilson has
been referred to as a gentleman.
Those two may have had more in
common than we care to think."
He stressed the impact of wars,
technology, growth, and female
emancipation as causing
fundamental changes in the nature
of the University. According to Mr.
Thompson, "We are still defining a
gentleman in the romantic, chivalries
terms of the nineteenth century."

Prefacing his remarks with a
brief but glowing defense of
Woodrow Wilson, Mr. Davis said
that "the concept of the gentleman
has been associated with aristocracy
of birth and wealth, whereas it
should be identified with an
aristocracy of virtue and talent in
the tradition of Mr. Jefferson."

Mr. Davis continued by saying
that there existed here "neither a
fact nor a fiction? It is a false
dichotomy. The Virginia
Gentleman is an ideal." This ideal
may be ignored, he said, but may
also be approximated. For the sake
of the discussion, Mr. Davis elected
to view the concept as fact.

Speaking of a "certain spirit
inherent in the University," Robert
Rosen spoke with sadness of the
passing of the Virginia Gentleman.
"Although terms such as this are
associated with racism and
obscuritanism," he agreed with Mr.
Davis that they should represent an
ideal. Mr. Rosen said that he was
"irritated by northerners who feel
that to believe in tradition here is
to associate with provincialism and
segregation."

"A gentleman," said Mr.
Thompson, "embodies an outward
manifestation of an inward grace
and virtue, he must conform to a
tasteful form of behavior. I think
the coat and tie is part of that.
Does that ideal have today the same
validity it has had in the past? I say
it does not."