University of Virginia Library

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.