University of Virginia Library

Announcements.

1896-'97.

The University of Virginia is in a picturesque and healthy location
among the foot-hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is at the junction of
two great lines of railway—the Chesapeake and Ohio, and the Southern—and is thus of easy access from every part of the country. It has a post-office,
with numerous daily mails, is in communication by telephone with
the neighboring city of Charlottesville, and is connected by telegraph with
every quarter of the world. The climate is invigorating and healthful, and
at all times free from malarial conditions.

The Sanitary Arrangements are excellent. The water supply is pure;
the system of drains and sewers is complete; the new Fayerweather Gymnasium
affords ample facilities for bathing and exercise; and medical treatment
is furnished by the Professors of the Medical Department, and skillful
nursing in a well-equipped Infirmary in case of serious illness.

The Session begins on the 15th of September, and continues nine months.
On Public Day, which is the Wednesday before the 19th of June, the
Visitors, Faculty, Officers and Students of the University assemble in the
Public Hall, whither the public also are invited. On this occasion the results
of the examinations are announced, degrees are conferred, and the session
is formally closed.

The Courses of Instruction are comprised in six departments—the
Academical, the Engineering, the Law, the Medical, the Pharmaceutical,
and the Agricultural Department. In the various departments there are
altogether twenty-two distinct schools, each affording an independent course,
under Professors who are responsible only to the Visitors for the systems and
methods pursued.

Elective System.—The system of independent Schools assumes that opportunities
for study and instruction are privileges to be sought voluntarily
and eagerly. Students are therefore allowed to elect for themselves the
courses of study to which they are led by their individual tastes and proposed
pursuits in life, as far as the times appointed for lectures and examinations
permit. Nor is it alone to those who wish to make special attainments in
single departments of knowledge that this freedom of election commends
itself. It has serious advantages also for most of those students who seek the

common goal of liberal education by ways which varying aptitude, varying
preparation, or varying opportunities render of necessity different. The wisdom
of the founder in establishing such a system has been amply vindicated
in the history of this University; and in recent years many schools of higher
education in the United States have adopted methods involving this principle.

Equipment.—The equipment possessed by the University for the work
of instruction, both in the Academical and the Professional Departments, has
been much augmented in recent years, and is now excellent in quality, as
well as extensive. In scientific studies large facilities are offered by the
Leander McCormick Observatory, the Physical Laboratory,[1] the
Chemical Laboratory and the Museum of Industrial Chemistry, the
Lewis Brooks Museum, the Biological Laboratory and the Pathological
Laboratory. Ample opportunities are afforded for the practical
study of Human Anatomy. The Engineering Department possesses a newly-equipped
Mechanical Laboratory and Machine Shop.[1] The University
Library is common to all the Departments; originally selected and
arranged by Mr. Jefferson, it has been since much enlarged by purchases
and donations, and contained at the beginning of the present session and
until the recent loss by fire, about 53,000 volumes.[2] Students are allowed
the use of the books under the usual restrictions, and the Librarian is present
in the Library for six hours daily to attend to their wants.

Preparation.—Some special preparation for the courses taught in the
Schools of Latin, Greek, Modern Languages and Mathematics will be found
indispensable. But even for these Schools it is more important that the preliminary
studies should have been careful and accurate in quality than that
they should be extensive. For the other Schools the essentials of a plain education
in the common school branches constitute the only indispensable preparation.
In all the Schools alike, however, the student who has had the
benefit of mental training, and who brings with him good and well-established
habits of study, will derive increased profit from the University instruction
because of these advantages. But it has never been the policy of the
University to reject any student merely because of deficient preparation in
special branches of learning, which he may not wish to pursue here. The
standards of teaching and of examination can be otherwise maintained; and
experience has shown in a multitude of instances that young men of vigorous
mind and earnest purpose of diligence, brought hither by a laudable ambition

to excel, may overcome the disadvantages of inadequate training, and
become conspicuous among their fellows for success in study.

Admission.—To be admitted as a student of the University the applicant
must be at least sixteen years of age; but the Faculty may dispense with this
requirement. If the applicant has been a student at any other incorporated
seminary, he must produce a certificate from such seminary, or other satisfactory
evidence, of general good conduct.

Conduct.—The laws of the University require from every student decorous,
sober and upright conduct as long as he remains a member of the University,
whether he be within the precincts or not. They strictly forbid drunkenness,
gaming, dissoluteness, swearing, habits of expense, and the introduction
of wine or other intoxicating drinks into the University. They require a
decorous observance of Sunday, and forbid all outdoor sports on that day.
They forbid the use or possession by a student of pistols or other weapons,
and the introduction of them into the University precincts. They require
from the student regular and diligent application to his studies, and if, in the
opinion of the Faculty, any student be not fulfilling the purposes for which
he ought to have come to the University, and be not likely to fulfil them,
either from habitual delinquency in any of his classes, or from habitual idleness,
or from any other bad habit, the Faculty may require him to withdraw
from the University, after informing him of the objections to his conduct and
affording him an opportunity of explanation and defence.

Discipline and Religious Worship.—Morality and religion are recognized
as the foundation and indispensable concomitants of education. The
discipline of the University is sedulously administered with a view to confirm
integrity, and to maintain a sacred regard for truth. Great efforts are made
to surround the students with religious influences; but experience having
proved that it is best to forbear the employment of coercion, the attendance
on religious exercises is entirely voluntary. Prayers are held every morning,
and divine service is conducted twice on Sunday in the University Chapel,
by a Chaplain, selected in turn from the principal religious denominations.

Entrance examinations are not required except from Academical students
from Virginia seeking free tuition. The requirements for these examitions
are stated elsewhere. But applicants for admission to the different
classes in the several Schools are expected to exhibit to the Professors suitable
evidences of adequate preliminary training.

The method of instruction in all departments of the University is partly
by lecture, partly by the study of appropriate texts. The regulations require
that at each meeting the Professor shall examine the class orally on the subject-matter
of the previous lecture before beginning the new lecture. Associated

with this instruction in the class is a large amount of practical laboratory
work in the scientific courses, and of private parallel reading and essay
writing in the literary courses.

The examinations in each class are two—one about the middle of the
session, the other near the end. They are in writing, and the standard is in
no case less than three-fourths. A student who attains this standard is entitled
to a PASS-CERTIFICATE. The examinations in each School are conducted
by a committee of the Faculty, of which the Professor in charge is chairman.
No special examination is granted, except upon the physician's certificate of
sickness on the day of examination, or other cause which the Faculty may
accept as adequate ground.

Candidates for graduation are subjected to searching interrogations on
the specific details as well as on the general principles of the subject, and are
expected to be accurately versed in all matters treated in the lectures, the
correlative text, and the prescribed courses of private reading. Moreover,
the student's command of English, and his standing at the daily oral examinations,
as well as at the written examinations, are taken into the account.

Reports.—At the end of each month a circular letter is addressed by the
Chairman of the Faculty to the parent or guardian of each student, in which
are stated his absences from lectures and examinations, together with such
other information as to the student's progress and conduct as it may be deemed
proper to communicate, or as the parent or guardian may especially request.
Parents and guardians cannot be too earnest or prompt in communicating
such advice or encouragement as the monthly reports may suggest.

Degrees are conferred only upon examination after residence. Diplomas
of graduation are conferred in the B. A. course of each Academical School,
and students who complete both the B. A. and the M. A. course in any
School are entitled to a diploma of graduation in the School. The titled
degrees conferred are Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, Doctor of Philosophy,
Bachelor of Science, Doctor of Medicine, Graduate in Pharmacy, and
Bachelor of Law. The requirements for these degrees are given under the
several departments. No merely honorary degree is ever given by the University
of Virginia.

Licentiates.—Any person of unexceptionable character and habits, upon
producing to the Faculty satisfactory evidence of suitable capacity and attainments,
may be licensed by the Faculty to form classes for private instruction
in any School of the University, in aid of and in conformity to the
public teachings of the Professor upon any subject taught therein. The employment,
selection and compensation of such Licentiate is left to the determination
of the student. Students whose preparation is defective for the
work of the University classes may often economize time and energy by securing
the services of a Licentiate at the same time that they are attending
the regular course of lectures.