University of Virginia Library

A Question of Space

Just how much space does a student need?
A large portion of the meeting between
University officials and members of the State
Council of Higher Education was devoted to
this question. The Council sets guides on the
amount of space a state-supported school may
allow per student and on the face of it it
would seem that the University should have
to meet the same requirements as Old
Dominion, Virginia Commonwealth
University, and Virginia Polytechnical
Institute and State University.

But this school is different from other
state schools in many ways. The primary
difference is in the type of students enrolled.
More than 40 per cent of the students are in
graduate or professional schools. Graduate
students need five times as much reference
material as do undergraduates, hence five
times the library space. They cannot be
taught in large classrooms because there are
not many graduate courses where a professor
can lecture to 80 or 100 students. In the
sciences graduate students have to use
electron microscopes, nuclear accelerators and
reactors, computers, special laboratories and
other facilities which occupy tremendous
amounts of space and which can be used by
only a few students at a time.

And so the question of space is one of the
key factors in the quality of education which
can be offered here. This school, it should be
noted, grants more graduate degrees than all
of the other state schools combined.

Vincent Shea Vice President for Business
and Finance, asked the Council to apply their
guidelines "flexibly" because, he said, if
applied "rigidly, we would get no more space
until 1980." From what we have heard, there
is need for more classroom space for both
undergraduates and graduate students now.

Two years ago afternoon classes at this
school were a rarity. They are more common
now. Obviously we are never going to have
enough space to schedule a majority of classes
in two or three morning periods.

There is another problem with space
allocation. Several years back the Tiffany
family gave the University a very nice
museum. Will that count in the space
allocations? If so then there will be no
incentive for anyone to give the University a
building. In computing monies for a state
school the legislators in Richmond are
supposed to ignore private gifts on the theory
that to do otherwise would discourage private
giving. But in practice these gifts and
endowments are taken into account.

In buildings financed in part or in whole
by the Federal government, the space
allocation is somewhat more generous than
that allowed by the state guidelines. It would
be folly to penalize a school for obtaining
Federal funds for a building.

No formula can adequately determine the
space needs of any institution. The State
Council seemed to understand that the
University needs some special consideration
and a loose interpretation of the use of space.

But it is the finance committees of the two
houses in the State Legislature who must be
convinced that a growing University, with a
large percentage of graduate students,
deserves and needs more square feet of space
per student than a predominantly
undergraduate school. The Council's
recommendations are crucial in determining
the allocations from the state. We hope they
follow the flexible interpretation which Mr.
Shea has asked for. To do otherwise would
mean a steady and serious decline in the
quality of education offered here.