University of Virginia Library

University Is A Good State U.

Heretic Speaks Out

"Let those flatter who fear, it is
not an American art."

-Thomas Jefferson

The University of Virginia is
not a great University. It is not
even an extremely good one. It
is only a good state university.

Students here, or at least the
undergraduate leaders who set the
tone and form the self-image of
this university, have a cockeyed
notion of its quality. A big part
of the problem and a good example
of it are the places to
which they compare U. Va. Usually
first-named are Princeton,
Harvard and Yale; VPI, Michigan
State, and Berkeley, are all looked
upon as of a lower order-the
same lower order.

The standards being used or implied
in these comparisons and this
notion of greatness include: a
medium-sized all-male student
body, high admission standards,
beautiful physical setup with a
distinctive character, the importance
of tradition, an honor system
resulting in uniquely high student
character, and finally high
standards of dress and general
conduct.

Even by these, our own standards,
we do not do as well as
most people here seem to think.
We are a medium-sized university
right now, but growing very
rapidly in spite of our administrators'
best intentions to the contrary.
We are not by any means
all-male now, and will be fully coeducational
soon. Both of these
trends are due to something we
accept even less gracefully-this
is a state university, with obligations
to "stupid Virginians, even
girls," as one Northern prep
school acquaintance once put it.

Admission standards are indeed
high compared to many state universities,
but it does not necessarily
follow that the student body
is much better. Most state schools
with low standards compensate
by flunking out substantial percentages
of those "stupid" in-state
students their legislatures oblige
them to admit. And our standards
hardly compare with those of
Harvard, Yale or Princeton.

The 'grounds' are indeed beautiful,
but most of the facilities,
the ones that the overwhelming
majority of students use most
of the time, from the Engineering
School to the gyms to the dorms
to Newcomb Hall, are, bluntly,
ugly and cheap. Nor are they
'Jeffersonian' in fact or in spirit.

Tradition is important here, but
the virtue of that fact is highly
(and unfortunately lengthily)
debatable in a university context.
The Honor System produces only
a low rate of three specific capital
crimes, lying cheating and stealing,
and those at very great price.
As for dress-look around you in
class this morning and see how
few people are dressed in the
Eljo's/Michtom's image we (and
Playboy) have of us. There is a
large and growing percentage of
non-coats-and-ties, beards-and
even while socks!

So? What way is this to judge
a university? There are more important
standards. There are, for
instance, highly respected comparative
evaluations of departmental
strengths, run by national
organizations. One such is the
American Council on Education
evaluation of arts, sciences, and
engineering graduate schools, published
in 1966. This rating gave a
top twenty five comparative list,
and then an alphabetical list of,
in effect, honorable mentions. The
The mathematics department was
rated twenty-fourth; history,
English, and economics made the
second division of honorable mention.
By this standard we are a
second-rate university, in the objective,
non-derogatory sense of the
word: in the second rank, in with
the masses.

Our library, particularly our
library budget, is a disgrace. We
have a number of important rare-book
collections. However, judged
as a working library, on the quantities
of up-to-date essential
materials in fields currently being
taught, or on incentives to intellectual
life, the access afforded to
important contemporary writing-judged
this way, we rise only barely
above the laughable into the
pitiable.

The quality of student life is
another important criterion. Student
government here wins, to put
it politely, no awards. The Cavalier
Daily has been consistently
rated by the American Collegiate
Press as a second-rate college daily
(even that must surely be on the
basis of technical competence
rather than exciting, important or
even accurate journalism). No student
organization, institution or
whatever, with the possible exception
of the Honor System,
rates any kind of mention.

The greatest problem of all is
the one this column has considered,
the insufferably high opinion we
have of ourselves. Let's face it,
we may be the best school in
Virginia, one of the better ones in
the Old South (which is like being
a pretty fair Japanese baseball
team). We are in fact a pretty
good, somewhat odd state university.
We are more comparable to
VPI than to Princeton. We are
not anything like as great as Harvard,
Yale or Princeton. Among
state universities, the league we
are in, Berkeley and Michigan
are a whole division above us. We
have great strengths, like the law
school, and glaring weaknesses,
like the library. We pride ourselves
around here on not lying.
Let's stop lying to ourselves.