University of Virginia Library

STUDENT ACTIVITIES.

THE VIRGINIA UNION.

The Virginia Union was organized for the general purpose of directing
and coördinating various phases of student activity. It has set for itself
the three-fold function of initiating, promoting, and supervising movements
that merit student attention and deserve student patronage. Its activities
include intercollegiate debating, oratorical contests, and, through
the coöperation of the faculty Committee on Public Celebrations, the control
of miscellaneous lectures, concerts, and other entertainments. The
union gives at least one public program each term and holds informal entertainments
at frequent intervals. Membership is extended to students,
faculty and alumni of the University, on payment of an annual fee of one
dollar. All business is conducted through an executive board composed of
both student and faculty members, elected annually.

LITERARY SOCIETIES.

Connected with the University are two literary societies of long standing—the
Jefferson Society and the Washington Society. At weekly meetings
in their respective halls they hold debates and practice extemporaneous
and other forms of public speaking. Each society annually offers gold
medals for excellence in debating and oratory, and each organization contests
for intersociety prizes.

PUBLICATIONS.

The University of Virginia Magazine, designed to encourage literary
work among the students, is published by the students with the advisory
assistance of the Linden Kent Memorial School of English Literature, and
appears at monthly intervals, eight times during the session.

As a stimulus to literary activity, the Magazine offers every year three
medals: One for the best poem, one for the best short story, and one for
the best essay, of student authorship, appearing in one of the numbers of
the publication. The awards are made by alumni committees, one committee
for each of the three medals.

College Topics is a semi-weekly newspaper, published under the auspices
of the General Athletic Association, and devoted to the interests of
athletics and the University at large.

Corks and Curls is the University annual, its aim being to present some
record of the scholastic, religious, athletic and social activities of the college
year. Its publication is in the hands of a chartered corporation formed
by the fraternities and literary societies of the University.

Under the title of The Virginia Law Review the undergraduate students
of the Law Department conduct a journal devoted to the discussion
of general questions of American jurisprudence. Eight numbers are issued
annually, from October to May inclusive. From its inception it has maintained
a high standard of excellence and a worthy rank among the leading
law journals of the country.