 | University of Virginia record February, 1910 |  |
GOVERNMENT AND ORGANIZATION.
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 invested in the Rector and
Visitors. Under the general direction of this board, and subject to its
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,
Dr. 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 original organization consisted of 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, of course, 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, until the University organization arrived at its present condition,
as described elsewhere in this catalogue.
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
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: the result of which was that
they soon substituted (in 1831) 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.
Through the munificence of Mr. Andrew Carnegie, who donated to
the General Alumni Association of the University of Virginia the sum
of $500,000, upon condition that the same be held and the income therefrom
be applied to the following schools and professorships: Engineering;
Law; International Law; Political Science and Political Economy;
English; Pathology: there were established in May, 1909, by
joint action of the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia
and the Alumni Board of Trustees of the University of Virginia Endowment
Fund, the following schools and professorships:
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.
As at present organized, the University comprises twenty-six distinct
and independent Schools. The courses of instruction given in
these are so coördinated as to form six Departments, two of which are
academic, and four professional (or technical); viz:
| University of Virginia record February, 1910 | |