University of Virginia Library

INTRODUCTION

HISTORICAL SKETCH

By an act of the Legislature of Virginia, dated January 12, 1803, certain
citizens of Albemarle County were incorporated under the style of "Trustees
of Albemarle Academy," and were empowered to take such steps as
seemed practicable to raise the funds necessary for erecting buildings and
putting the Academy into operation. Albemarle Academy was destined
never to exist except on paper, but under the guidance of Thomas Jefferson,
who was elected to the board of trustees on March 23, 1814, a process of development
was begun leading first to the organization of Central College,
and afterwards to that of the University of Virginia. On August 19, 1814,
the committee of the trustees appointed to select a site reported that it
would be desirable to locate the Academy in the vicinity of the town of
Charlottesville, distant not more than half a mile therefrom.

By an act of February 14, 1816, the Legislature authorized the establishment
of "Central College, in the County of Albemarle, at the place which
has been, or shall be, selected by the trustees of Albemarle Academy, and in
lieu of such Academy." All rights and claims of Albemarle Academy were,
by the same act, vested in Central College. The board of visitors of the
College consisted of six members, of whom Jefferson was the only one who
had been a member of the Academy board. The other five members were
James Madison, James Monroe, Joseph Carrington Cabell, David Watson,
and John H. Cocke.

On May 5, 1817, Jefferson was elected Rector of the College, and, on the
same day, the board authorized the purchase of a farm of about two hundred
acres lying one mile west of Charlottesville as a site for the College. This
tract now forms a part of the grounds of the University of Virginia.

The cornerstone of Central College was laid on October 6, 1817, in the
presence of Thomas Jefferson, Rector, and of James Madison and James
Monroe—the latter then President of the United States. This building, located
on what is known as the West Lawn of the University, is now utilized
as the Colonnade Club.

Jefferson's plan was to erect a distinct building, a "pavilion," for each
individual professor—the buildings to be arranged around a rectangular lawn.
Each pavilion was to contain "a schoolroom and apartments for the accommodation
of the professor," and one-story dormitories for the students were
to be erected adjacent to the pavilions. Jefferson drew most of the sketches
for the buildings with his own hands, basing them upon designs by Palladio;
and his ideas of architectural effect and grouping were carried out in detail
when Central College was merged into the University of Virginia.

The prime object in Jefferson's mind, while Rector of Central College,
was to get the college well under way, and then have it adopted by the Legislature
as the State University. Accordingly, in the first report of the visitors

to the Legislature, on January 6, 1818, it is recommended that a state
university be established on the site of Central College.

By an act of February 21, 1818, the Legislature authorized the appointment
by the Governor of a board of twenty-four members, to be known as
the "Board of Commissioners of the University." It was the duty of this
board to meet on August 1, 1818, at the Tavern in Rockfish Gap, on the
Blue Ridge Mountains, and report upon the following points regarding the
organization of a state university:

1. A proper site for the projected university.

2. A plan for the building thereof.

3. The branches of learning which should be taught therein.

4. The number and description of professorships; and

5. Such general provisions as might properly be enacted by the Legislature
for the better organizing and governing of the University.

Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe were present at the meeting of the Commissioners,
and their able and elaborate report to the Legislature (indicating
much careful thought) had probably been prepared by Jefferson before the
meeting was held. This report, recommending, among other things, the site
of Central College as the most advantageous one for the University, was forwarded
in duplicate to the Speaker of the House and the Speaker of the
Senate on August 4, 1818. On January 25, 1819, the Legislature adopted
a formal act "for establishing an university," and this date must be reckoned
as the year of the origin of the University, although the institution was not
opened to students until March 7, 1825.

Although Jefferson's was the dominant spirit and the shaping hand in
the whole movement for the establishment of a state university, it should
be stated that but for the influence and efforts of Joseph Carrington Cabell,
the close personal friend of Jefferson, the acts of February 21, 1818, and
January 25, 1819, would probably have failed of adoption by the Legislature.

The act of January 25, 1819, establishing the University, is as follows
(Revised Code, 1819, ch. 34, 9.):

"1. Be it declared by the General Assembly of Virginia, That the conveyance
of the lands and other property appertaining to the Central College
in the County of Albemarle, which has been executed by the proctor thereof,
under authority of the subscribers and founders, to the President and Directors
of the Literary Fund, is hereby accepted, for the use and on the conditions
in the said deed of conveyance expressed.

"2. And be it enacted, That there shall be established, on the site provided
for the said College, an university, to be called the University of Virginia;
that it shall be under the government of seven visitors to be appointed
forthwith by the Governor, with the advice of Council, notifying thereof the
persons so appointed, and prescribing to them a day for their first meeting at
the said University, with supplementary instructions for procuring a meeting
subsequently, in the event of failure at the time first appointed.

"3. The said visitors, or so many of them as, being a majority, shall
attend, shall appoint a rector, of their own body, to preside at their meetings,
and a secretary to record, attest, and preserve their proceedings, and
shall proceed to examine into the state of the property conveyed as aforesaid;
shall make an inventory of the same, specifying the items where it
consists; shall notice the buildings and other improvements already made,
and those which are in progress; shall take measures for their completion,
and for the addition of such others, from time to time, as may be necessary.

"4. In the said University shall be taught the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew
languages; French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Anglo-Saxon; the different
branches of Mathematics, pure and physical; natural philosophy; the
principles of agriculture; chemistry; mineralogy, including geology; botany;
zoölogy; anatomy; medicine; civil government; political economy; the law
of nature and nations; municipal law; history; ideology; general grammar;
ethics; rhetoric; and belles lettres; which branches of science shall be so
distributed, and under so many professors, not exceeding ten, as the visitors
shall think proper and expedient.

"5. Each professor shall be allowed the use of the apartments and accommodations
provided for him, and those first employed such standing salary
as the visitors shall think proper and sufficient, and their successors such
standing salary, not exceeding one thousand dollars, as the visitors shall think
proper and sufficient, with such tuition fees from each student as the visitors
shall from time to time establish.

"6. The said visitors shall be charged with the erection, preservation,
and repair of the buildings, the care of the grounds and appurtenances, and
of the interests of the University generally; they shall have power to appoint
a bursar, employ a proctor, and all other necessary agents; to appoint
and remove professors, two-thirds of the whole number of visitors voting
for the removal; to prescribe their duties and the course of education, in
conformity with the law; to establish rules for the government and discipline
of the students, not contrary to the laws of the land; to regulate tuition fees,
and the rent of the dormitories occupied; to prescribe and control the duties
and proceedings of all officers, servants, and others, with respect to the buildings,
lands, appurtenances, and other property and interests of the University;
to draw from the literary funds such monies as are by law charged on
it for this institution; and, in general, to direct and do all matters and things
which, not being inconsistent with the laws of the land, to them shall seem
most expedient for promoting the purposes of said institution; which several
functions they shall be free to exercise in the form of by-laws, resolutions,
orders, instructions, or otherwise, as they shall deem proper.

"7. They shall have two stated meetings in every year, to-wit, on the
first Mondays of April and October; and occasional meetings at such other
times as they shall appoint, or on a special call, with such notice as themselves
shall prescribe by a general rule, which meetings shall be at the University,
a majority of them constituting a quorum for business; and on the

death, resignation of a member, or failure to act for the space of one year,
or on his removal out of the Commonwealth, or by the Governor, with the
advice of Council, the Governor with the like advice shall appoint a successor.

"8. The said rector and visitors shall be a body corporate, under the
style and title of `The Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia,'
with the right, as such, to use a common seal; they shall have capacity to
plead and be impleaded in all courts of justice, and in all cases interesting to
the University, which may be subjects of legal cognizance and jurisdiction;
which pleas shall not abate by the determination of their office, but shall
stand revived in the name of their successors; and they shall be capable in
law, and in trust for the University, of receiving subscriptions and donations,
real and personal, as well from bodies corporate or persons associated, as
from private individuals.

"9. And the said rector and visitors shall, at all times, conform to such
laws as the legislature may from time to time, think proper to enact for their
government; and the said University shall in all things, and at all times, be
subject to the control of the legislature. And the said Rector and Visitors
of the University of Virginia shall be, and they are hereby, required to make
report annually to the President and Directors of the Literary Fund (to be
laid before the legislature at the next succeeding session), embracing a full
account of the disbursements, the funds on hand, and a general statement
of the condition of said University.

"10. The said board of visitors, or a majority thereof, by nomination of
the board, shall, once in every year at least, visit the said University; enquire
into the proceedings and practices thereat; examine the progress of the
students, and give to those who excel in every branch of science there taught,
such honorary marks and testimonials of approbation as may encourage and
incite to industry and emulation.

"11. On every twenty-ninth day of February, or, if that be Sunday, then
on the next, or earliest day thereafter on which a meeting can be effected,
the Governor and Council shall be in session, and shall appoint visitors of
the said University, either the same or others at their discretion, to serve
until the twenty-ninth day of February next ensuing, duly and timely notifying
to them their appointment, and prescribing a day for their first meeting
at the University; after which, their meetings, stated and occasional, shall
be as hereinbefore provided: Provided, that nothing in this act contained
shall suspend the proceedings of the visitors of the said Central College of
Albemarle; but for the purpose of expediting any objects of said institution,
they shall be authorized, under the control of the Governor and Council, to
continue the exercise of their functions, and fulfil those of their successors,
until the first actual meeting of their said successors.

"12. And be it further enacted, That the additional sum of twenty thousand
dollars shall be, and the same is hereby, appropriated to the education
of the poor, out of the revenue of the literary fund, in the aid of the sum

heretofore appropriated to that object, and to be paid in the same manner
and upon the same conditions in all respects as is prescribed by the fourth
section of the act entitled `An act appropriating part of the revenue of the
literary fund, and for other purposes, passed the twenty-first day of February,
eighteen hundred and eighteen.'

"13. This act shall commence and be in force from and after the passing
thereof."

The first Board of Visitors consisted of four members of the old board
of Central College—namely, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Joseph Carrington
Cabell, and John H. Cocke; the additional appointees were James
Breckenridge, Chapman Johnson, and Robert Taylor. The board met for
the first time on March 29, 1819, and elected Thomas Jefferson rector.
Henceforth, until his death in 1826, Jefferson was the dominating and directing
power of the University, not only evolving the entire system of education
introduced, but actually devising, to the minutest detail, every feature
of construction and administration.

The organization of the University, its government, discipline, and methods
of instruction, were virtually prescribed by Jefferson alone; and in many
respects they still retain the impression derived from him. By virtue of its
charter, the supreme government of the institution, under the General Assembly,
is vested in the Rector and Visitors. Under the general direction of
this board, and subject to its regulations, the affairs of the University were
administered, for the first eighty years of its existence, by the Faculty and
its chairman, the latter being a member of the faculty, who occupied temporarily
the position of chief executive officer of the institution.

As the University grew, it became more and more difficult for a member
of the teaching staff to fill the position of Chairman, and attend to the
manifold executive duties attached to that office. In October, 1903, the Visitors
decided that modern conditions rendered necessary the creation of the
office of president; and in June, 1904, Edwin Anderson Alderman was elected
first president of the University of Virginia.

The scheme of instruction organized by Jefferson contemplated no fixed
uniform curriculum of studies to be pursued by every student alike, without
discrimination. Each distinct branch of knowledge was, as far as was practicable,
assigned to an individual "School" with its own instructors; and the
University was to consist of a collection of independent schools. The origin
of the elective system at the University of Virginia is found in the fact that
students were permitted to matriculate in any School or Schools of the University
for which they were prepared. The wisdom of the Founder in establishing
such a system has been amply vindicated in the history of this university
and in the adoption by almost all schools of higher education in the
country of methods involving this principle.

The original organization embraced eight independent Schools—namely,
Ancient Languages, Modern Languages, Mathematics, Natural Philosophy,
Moral Philosophy, Chemistry, Medicine, and Law. The first seven Schools
mentioned were opened to matriculates on March 7, 1825, with an aggregate

attendance, during the first session, of 123 students. The School of Law was
not opened until 1826.

This original organization was gradually enlarged and modified. As
early as 1837 the School of Medicine was elevated to a Department, consisting
of three individual Schools; while in 1850 the School of Law was
enlarged to a Department consisting of two Schools. Other Departments
and Schools have been added from time to time. A most notable addition
was made in May, 1909, when, through a gift from Mr. Andrew Carnegie to
the General Alumni Association, six new Schools were established by joint
action of the Rector and Visitors and the Alumni Board of Trustees of the
University of Virginia Endowment Fund: The Andrew Carnegie School of
Engineering, The James Madison School of Law, The James Monroe School
of International Law, The James Wilson School of Political Economy, The
Edgar Allan Poe School of English, The Walter Reed School of Pathology.
In April, 1919, was founded through the generous gift of Mr. Paul Goodloe
McIntire, the McIntire School of Fine Arts, embracing instruction in Art,
Architecture and Music.

It was provided by the first Board of Visitors, in accordance with Jefferson's
wishes, that but two degrees should be conferred by the University.
The lower degree, characteristic of the institution for many years, was
conferred upon a student who had completed all the work offered in any
one School; to such a candidate the untitled degree of "Graduate" in the
School in question should be given. The other, the higher degree, was to
be the doctor's degree and was to be given to the graduate in two or more
Schools who had, in addition, exhibited well-developed powers of research.

There is abundant evidence that, in planning the organization of the
University of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson had in mind the so-called continental
type of university. The first faculty were, however, with one or
two exceptions, Oxford or Cambridge men. Naturally they had in mind
the English type of university, and the result was that in 1831 the faculty
substituted for the doctor's degree proposed by Jefferson, the master's degree,
common in England. The degree of "Master of Arts of the University
of Virginia" was accordingly, for more than half a century, the leading degree
conferred by this institution.

THE HONOR SYSTEM

For eighteen years after the opening of the institution, written examinations
were conducted under the surveillance of a committee of three professors.
This was not altogether satisfactory, and in June, 1842, Judge
Henry St. George Tucker, Professor of Law, offered the following resolution,
which the Faculty at once adopted:

This was the beginning of the honor system at this institution, and it
has been in operation ever since without interruption. Later the pledge
was extended so as to preclude the giving as well as the receiving of assistance.
Still more recently the scope of the honor system has been enlarged
so as to cover other phases of student conduct. Its administration is entirely
in the hands of the students, the essence of the system being that the
violation of a student's word of honor is an offense not against the university
authorities, but against the whole student body, and on the rare occasions
on which it has occurred, the students themselves have quietly and
promptly sent the offender away from the University without need of faculty
action.

Examinations are required to be held in one place and in the presence
of the professor in charge of the course or one of his assistants. These regulations
in no way conflict with the spirit of the honor system, but are regarded
as being necessary to give a proper dignity and formality to the occasion.