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 | The University of Virginia record February 1, 1921 |  |
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 board, 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 the board of
visitors 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, p. 90):
"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
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 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 exceding
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
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
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—
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 University of Virginia record February 1, 1921 | |