University of Virginia Library

Hail...

Looking back at the past year, at its
failures and disappointments, we are tempted
to express our disdain for what went on here -
the incipient attempt to galvanize a University
that had lain dormant for lo, these many
years. But then we reflect upon the old
University, wrapped in its tranquil cocoon as
it was not long ago, and perhaps more than we
sometimes realize, the University is moving, is
changing, is, in its own way, struggling to
meet the challenges of the times.

The number of black students enrolled,
while still minuscule, is growing by geometric
progression (We are reminded of the sage who
asked to be paid a penny a day on the
condition that his wage be doubled each day.
Soon he had more money than he could
handle). The University is still only making a
few cents, but the possibility remains of a
significant black enrollment in the near future
if the present rates are maintained. Student
pressure led to the hiring of Mr. Stokes, a
black recruiter. Continued pressure, coupled
with improvement in secondary education for
blacks, should bring continued improvement.

Barring unexpected action by the committee
on the Future of the University, Virginia
will probably open its doors to women on
some basis within the next year or so. Already
the Housing Office has reserved six of the
Monroe Hill dorms for coeds next year, but
now that we've supposedly got coeducation,
we face the problem of what to do with it.
Perhaps the greatest task that faces the
administration is that of integrating women
into the University without allowing them to
change the fundamental life styles that still
prevail here. While most University students
welcome the onslaught of the fairer sex, we
feel they do so on that condition.

The various schools have taken steps this
year, some major and some minor, to clean
the deadwood out of their curricula. The Law
School decided last week to change its grading
system to a modified pass-fail, in which
hopefully eliminate the artificial emphasis on
tenths of grade points which has proven itself
an outdated annoyance. In the College, a
curriculum study committee will make its
report next fall. Its work is not expected to be
radical, but we look for constructive suggestions
for overhauling segments of the
College regimen that have long needed it. A
group of students have done an extensive
curriculum study under the auspices of the
Student Council, one that is well worth the
expense and the effort to read. If enough
members of the faculty can take time from
their precious research, the entering class in
the college will have the benefit of seminars in
the dorms next year.

It is in this area of curriculum reform that
we feel the greatest effort must be expended
in coming months. Political activism is timely,
but it is always hampered by circumstances
beyond the immediate control of the
University. The curriculum, on the other
hand, is ours alone. Contributions we make
now can be quickly beneficial, and there is
much to be done. The conflicts between
graduate and undergraduate education,
between teaching and research, and between
expansion of the student body and the need
for more personalized instruction must be
resolved if the College is ever to rise from its
present level. We need to take searching looks
at the concepts of required courses, major
subjects, and departmental learning. The goals
of a liberal education have not changed, but a
burgeoning technology may necessitate a
different means of obtaining it.

Rambling on, we note the rise of militant
student activism at schools around the nation,
and compare events at other places to our
own student coalition with its coat and tie
demonstrations and pacific frustration. We
wonder about the causes of this frustration,
and we wonder how many college presidents
would be willing to trade their activists for
our activists in an even swap. There is little
about the University save its traditional
intellectual dormancy which would single it
out as a school likely to avoid violent
confrontation. As long as there are institutions
here which inculcate feelings of injury
in the student body and there are no formal
means of communication and redress, the
students are likely to seize upon something
tangible and make an issue of it. The recent
sit-in at the Faculty meeting is a case in point.
The resignations of three of the most popular
members of the sociology department left the
majors in that department with the conviction
that something was wrong and a sense of
desperation because they couldn't do anything
about it. Thus the sit-in, peaceful this
time. Until there is an effective student voice
in matters such as these, the threat will
continually be with us. And we doubt that it
will take quite so long for the students to get
organized next year. Overall, the thrust of
the student movement has been constructive
at the University, causing, perhaps, a redefinition
of priorities and some speculation and
investigation into quarters heretofore mired in
darkness.

The drive for a greater University has,
unfortunately, claimed some of the good
things about the old University as its victims
this spring. We mourn the apparent passing of
coats and ties from their position of
prominence. Athletes are now living in the
dorms, and a winning football season has not
come without a concurrent commitment to
professionalism. Buildings and holes are
appearing at an accelerated rate, but it would
seem that little is being done to improve the
quality of life that those buildings delineate.
We are fast becoming an impersonal, do not
FS/M, type of University. Perhaps it is
inevitable.

Even so, the 150th year at Mr. Jefferson's
University has been one of the most fruitful
and exciting in recent memory. We only hope
that the trend continues.