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 | The University of Virginia record April 1, 1935 |  |
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 laying 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 apartment 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 groupings 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
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 whereof 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
of agriculture; chemistry; mineralogy, including geology; botany; zoölogy;
anatomy; medicine; civil government; political economy; the law of nature and
nations; municipal law; history; idealogy; 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 fund 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
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 excell 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 fulfill 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 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 May 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,
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 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 University of Virginia record April 1, 1935 | |