University of Virginia Library

Charles Weir

Enter By This Gateway

Above the Senff gateway to the
University, the following words are
inscribed:

Enter

By This Gateway

And Seek

The Way Of Honor

The Light Of Truth

The Will To Work For Men

To attain these lofty goals, many
well known traditions sprang to
life. The changing University of
today has let many of these
cherished ways of life fall by the
wayside. No longer is it
unacceptable to go to classes
without a tie and coat. Coeducation
subverts the road trip for the men.
Women are joining fraternities.
Drugs instead of bourbon provide
an outlet to the never-never land of
carefree living.

You may not see these
traditions of which I speak, but a
glance through a Cavalier Daily or
Corks and Curls as recently as 1968
will show them to you.

Honor System

Probably the greatest of all
traditions is our Honor System. It is
therefore under the most severe
attack. The other traditions have
allowed time to pass them by, but
the Honor System remains to fight
that battle of traditions. Last year,
the Honor Committee saw fit to
allow four students to remain in the
University who openly admitted to
obtaining soft drinks from a broken
vending machine without making
the proper remittance. Hardly a
system of honor. Truer to the mark
would be to call it honor amongst
thieves. Our Honor System is
nationally renowned as being as
strong a one as exists. It is the code
by which Senators, Representatives,
Judges, Lawyers, and businessmen
base their daily lives. For once one
has abided by the stringent rules of the
Honor Code, that spirit is etched on
the conscience. The unanswered
questions surrounding the Honor
System, that you will hear so much
of, will continue to go unanswered,
for the System is merely a spirit
and nothing more. Even the
traditional guidebook of Virginia's
traditions exists now. The
Jeffersonian, the publication of the
University of Virginia Young Men's
Christian Association, is now
defunct. Included in that book was
a listing of all the organizations,
traditions, and assorted useful
information. Once again, a tradition
laid by the wayside.

Perpetuating Traditions

The societies abounding on the
Grounds once laid their foundation
on the perpetuation of our
University's traditions. While they
still attract the student leaders of
the varied schools, except for the
Seven Society, their foundations
have been laid on some loftier
plateau. One little known society.
The Illuminated Society Of The
Flowered Curtain, has taken upon
its shoulders the task of
perpetuating the great heritage and
traditions of the University, a
responsibility once shouldered by
many organizations. It sent out a
flier to the incoming students, not
so much to gain converts as to
inform students of our many great
traditions. That is a sad state in
which to find this institution.
Students are being informed of the
basis of our greatness and not being
exposed to it.

The typical student, so often
called "Joe Wahoo", no longer
exists. He is not the man standing
by the road on Friday afternoon
with his thumb pointed to a
neighboring girl's school. He is not
the man sitting on the wall across
from the corner watching the world
pass by. That he may even be a she
with her hair in curlers. "Joe
Wahoo" is all three of these and
many more.

Rapid Expansion

The tides of time are rapidly
changing, and being swept along in
their path is the University of
Virginia. The small Southern school
will almost double in size in the
next few years. By the time that all
of us here, today, bid our farewells
to Mr. Jefferson's University, the
University will be almost half again
as large as it is presently.

Through its last edition, The
Jeffersonian told us that. "The
University of Virginia is not merely
a training institution, it is a way of
life." Due to its rapid growth and
corresponding demise of its
traditions, the University is rapidly
becoming merely a training
institution.

The late James Southall Wilson
(for whom Wilson Hall is named),
former Edgar Allan Poe Professor
of English Literature, once wrote to
an entering class in The
Jeffersonian "I seek to do no more,
then, than to voice this welcome of
the new session to every student,
except to express two thoughts that
have crystallized out of my life at
the University. Here, where the love
of honor and truth becomes a
passion, freedom to seek the truth
and courage to maintain it belong
to the spirit of the place; and
through the standards of the past
we come to feel the truth of Robert
Louis Stevenson's words, 'Not even
God himself can forgive the
hanger back.' "

To reject the traditions of the
University at a first glance is in no
way scholarly. You must come to
understand them before passing
judgment. The responsibility of
perpetuating our great heritage rests
in the hands of this entering class,
more than ever before in recent
history. To do away with the
traditions would turn this
institution away from being a
bastion of intellectualism in
America and into a state diploma
factory.

If we are, in fact, to uphold
those ideals laid down on the Senff
gateway, then we must maintain
those traditions that will
accomplish this goal; our Honor
Code, our gentlemanly conduct,
our arena of intercourse of the
minds, our academical village, the
guidelines set down by Thomas
Jefferson when he founded this
institution, and respect for our
fellow man.