 | Board of Visitors minutes March 31, 1947 |  |
REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMITTEE FOR SELECTION OF PRESIDENT:
Mr. Thomas B. Gay, Chairman of the special committee of the Board of Visitors appointed to make a nation-wide
survey and submit its recommendation of some person or persons qualified to serve as President of the University
reported that, after the fullest investigation and study of the matter in the manner contemplated by the
resolution of its appointment, the special committee unanimously recommended the election of the Honorable
Colgate W. Darden, Jr. The recommendation of the special committee was unanimously approved by the Board,
and Mr. Darden was elected President of the University of Virginia, effective June 23, 1947.
"Judge Barksdale moved the adoption of the following resolution: BE IT RESOLVED that the Board of Visitors
expresses its gratitude and appreciation to the Committee on Selection of a New President for its diligent and
devoted services in the discharge of its duties. The Rector suggested that the resolution be amended to express
the special thanks of the Board to Mr. Gay, the Chairman of the Committee. This suggested amendment was
accepted by Judge Barksdale, and, as thus amended, the resolution was unanimously adopted."
Mr. Gay presented the following report of the Special Committee on the selection of a President, which was
adopted:
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA:
At your meeting held September 13, 1946, the resignation of Dr. John Lloyd Newcomb was accepted with
profound regret and this Committee was thereupon appointed by the Rector, pursuant to a resolution that he constitute
a Special Committee of the Board, consisting of five members, of which he should be ex officio a member
"to make a nation-wide survey for a successor to Dr. Newcomb and later to report its findings and recommendations
of a list of names of persons deemed qualified to discharge the highly important and exacting duties
of the President of the University of Virginia."
This was an undertaking of the first magnitude. It imposed a responsibility of far-reaching relation
to the part which the University shall play, possibly for a decade, in the field of education in Virginia and
in the Nation. It envisioned the needs of the University and a determination of what qualifications were required
to fill them. Upon such questions there might readily arise marked, yet honest, differences of opinion.
This Committee therefore sought the views and judgments of others whom it felt both interested and informed,
as a means most likely to impart to its own thinking a quality of appreciation and understanding, essential
to a sound solution of the problem.
Invitations were accordingly extended to the General Alumni and General Alumnae Associations, to the
University Senate, a representative organization of the Faculty, the Committee on Academic Standards and Legislation
of Mary Washington College, and to the Alumni Board of Trustees of the University of Virginia Endowment
Fund, to indicate the qualities which they thought a person selected for the presidency should possess,
and to suggest some one or more persons who in their opinion possessed such qualifications. All of these organizations
responded to this invitation except the Alumni Board of Trustees, and made helpful and constructive
contributions to the work of your Committee. The Alumni Board of Trustees in declining to take official action
informed your Committee that its members would individually express their views. Most of them did so.
The Rector and the Chairman of your Committee also personally conferred with many recognized leaders
in the field of education, such as Dr. Raymond B. Fosdick, President, and Dr. Jackson Davis, Vice President
and Director of the General Education Board of the Rockefeller Foundation, Dr. O. C. Carmichael, President of
the Carnegie Foundation, Dr. George F. Zook, President of the American Council on Education, Dr. Guy E. Snaveley,
Secretary of the Association of American Colleges, and Mr. Thomas I. Parkinson, President of the Equitable
Life Assurance Society and Chairman of the Committee for the selection of a President for Columbia University,
as well as a number of college Presidents, individuals eminent in the field of education and many distinguished
Alumni and Alumnae of the University.
As a result, your Committee was able fairly to determine what manner of man it should seek to find.
It concluded that he should be of high character; possess intellectual courage and broad scholarship; be an
Alumnus, if possible; be of the South or appreciative of its culture and traditions; have administrative ability
and sound judgment; be able affably to meet and effectively to speak to the public; possess or be able to acquire
an influential relation with governmental authorities of the State; have the ability to aid in augmenting
the financial resources of the University; possess religious convictions of a quality which give purpose to
University.
Where to find such a man - that was the problem of the Committee!
The names of many "favorite sons" were brought to its attention and the qualifications of some of
these pressed upon it with great earnestness and sincerity. The Committee, however, sought to keep an open
mind and fairly to discharge the mandate of the Board, that it make a "nation-wide survey" in order effectively
to select the man best qualified to succeed Dr. Newcomb as President of the University.
To do so the Committee felt it must first acquaint itself with the names of all persons presently
serving as President, or Dean, of all American colleges, and with the names of faculty members of such institutions
having outstanding ability who might be thought worthy of consideration. Informed opinion seemed to
sustain the view that a college president should not be chosen under thirty-five or over fifty-five years of
age, and a list of such persons, within such ages, was thereupon secured from the Association of American
Colleges. This list, with the names of many persons suggested by interested Alumni and Alumnae, numbered 259
individuals, a biographical sketch of each of whom was taken from the 1946-1947 Edition of "Who's Who in America,"
or other available sources of information, and such sketches were placed in an alphabetically arranged
card index.
For one or more reasons, the first review of the qualifications of these 259 persons reduced the
number to 106. To the qualifications of these the Committee devoted the most careful consideration, and concluded
that not more than 16 of them possessed a sufficient number of the qualities deemed essential to justify
further consideration. For one or more reasons, this number was finally reduced to seven, and the Committee
adjourned a two-day and night session for the purpose of more maturely considering the respective abilities
of these seven before reaching a final conclusion as to whether one or more of them should be recommended
to the Board of Visitors.
On December 13, 1946, the Committee held a further meeting and unanimously concluded to recommend
the Honorable Colgate W. Darden, Jr. It was motivated in doing so by the very definite feeling that he possessed
all of the qualifications deemed essential for the effective discharge of the highly exacting duties
of a President of the University.
The Committee's appraisal of Mr. Darden's qualifications and his unusual fitness to serve the
immediate needs of the University was fortified by the opinions of many wholly disinterested persons, and by
many sources highly qualified to express a judgment in the matter.
In a letter of November 25, 1946, from Hugh Leach, President of the University of Virginia Alumni
Association, to the Chairman of your Committee, he said in part:
"Your letter of September 5 upon the subject of the selection of a successor to Dr. Newcomb was discussed
at a meeting of the Board of Managers of the Alumni Association held on September 27. The Board
did not consider that it should attempt to speak for the Association upon so important a matter without
first attempting to obtain an expression of the views of as many alumni as practicable. It, therefore,
deferred a reply and directed me to send a copy of your letter to the president of each local chapter
and invite him to give a report of the views of the members of his chapter upon the subject.
"I am enclosing a tabulation showing the substance of the replies and comments received from such
chapters as made suggestions. You will see that an overwhelming majority of those alumni who expressed
a preference for any person named the Honorable Colgate W. Darden, Jr., as a man well fitted to meet the
needs of the University at the present time."
A copy of the tabulation of the replies and comments of the various local Alumni Chapters is attached to and
made a part of this report.
Mr. Darden's name was among ten others submitted by the Committee on Academic Standards and Legislation
of the Mary Washington College, and among a list of forty-six presented by the University Senate.
Dean Ivey F. Lewis of the College wrote the Chairman of the Committee on November 16, 1946, in part as follows:
"While faculties are never unanimous, the overwhelming sentiment of the professors here favors Mr.
Darden. While it is true that he has never served on a university faculty and this is recognized as a
handicap, it is nevertheless realized here that he combines to an unusual degree the qualities needed by
a president. It is not necessary to recite these to you. I may say, however, that his intense interest
in education and his hold on the people of Virginia are greatly in his favor. Given such leadership the
University of Virginia will go far."
Mr. Jackson Davis, Vice President and Director of the General Education Board of the Rockefeller
Foundation, in a letter of October 24, 1946, after suggesting a number of persons of prominence in the field
of education, said:
"Of all the persons of my acquaintance, former Governor Colgate W. Darden is in my opinion the
best qualified to undertake the leadership of the University at this time. While his life has been spent
in the law and in public service in Congress and as Governor, he is a man of first-rate intellectual
ability and scholarly interests, and his academic life has given him an intimate acquaintance with three
distinguished universities. His personal background is all that could be desired. He has an instinctive
understanding of all that is fine in the traditions of the University of Virginia and could be depended
upon to preserve and strengthen these traditions. Equally he could be depended upon to change
customs and attitudes that are not in the best interest of the University.
"Mr. Darden's first message as Governor dealt in considerable length with the University of Virginia.
He was highly critical of the University but his criticisms were of a thoroughly constructive character.
He backed up his words with deeds and persuaded the state to make generous appropriations to enable the
University to meet its opportunities and overcome the weaknesses which he had pointed out. Mr. Darden
has a knowledge of the state and its affairs which few men possess. He has a sympathetic viewpoint and
the administrative gifts to deal with the University in relation to the other state institutions and to
coordinate them. By a better coordination Virginia, with its available resources, would be able to support
more effective work in all the fields that are now being covered, and the University and some of
the other institutions would then be able to thrust forward into new fields or into more advanced work
in fields which they now cover inadequately. Mr. Darden would need, of course, to be supplemented by
deans and assistants with competence and vision in their respective fields. If he were supplemented by
men of this character, I believe that he could in the period of his active life make a great contribution
to the University and to the whole cause of education in Virginia. He would face a difficult task
in bringing the University into closer relationship with the resources, needs, and activities of the
state, and he would face inertia and institutional rivalries in bringing about a better coordination;
but, as I see it, this is a great need of the state, and the leader to do it should be the head of the
University. Mr. Darden has the personality, the independence, the courage, the imagination, and the
confidence of the people that would fit him to do what seems to me to be the great work ahead of the
University of Virginia.
"When your letter first came, I was disposed to recommend Mr. Darden; but I refrained from doing
so until I could make a more objective inquiry. After making this inquiry I am even more firmly convinced
A letter of November 6, 1946, to the Chairman from Dr. Raymond B. Fosdick, President of the
General Education Board, is to the same effect. Dr. Fosdick said:
"Since we talked the other day, I have seen Jackson Davis's letter to you of October 24, and I doubt
if there is anything that I can add to what he says. The list of people that he gives you is the same
list that I would send, and I share his admiration for Colgate Darden.
"It was a pleasure to see you, and I sincerely trust that the results of your inquiry will bring continued
vitality and success to the distinguished university you represent."
Many other similar commendations from equally eminant sources might be quoted from the Committee'
correspondence. To do so, however, would seem to labor the obvious and only tend unduly to prolong this report
Having unanimously determined to recommend Mr. Darden, your Committee considered that before
doing so it should first determine whether he would accept election as it was felt that, unless he was willing
to do so, his name should not be presented. Otherwise the Board of Visitors would have found itself under the
necessity of making a second choice. This your Committee thought should be avoided for obvious reasons.
Mr. Darden was accordingly informed of this Committee's conclusion and earnestly urged to permit
your Committee to present his name to the Board of Visitors. Because of many personal and public matters in
which he was engaged, and because of the radical change in his mode of life which acceptance of the Presidency
of the University would entail, Mr. Darden asked for and has been extended ample time by the Committee to reach
a considered conclusion. We are happy now to report that Mr. Darden's conclusion is favorable and that he informs
the Committee that, if elected by the Board of Visitors, he will accept the Presidency of the University.
Your Committee therefore has the honor unanimously to recommend for election the Honorable Colgate W. Darden, Jr.
as President of the University of Virginia.
Ex Officio
Chairman
Committee of the Board of
Visitors of the University
of Virginia
| Board of Visitors minutes March 31, 1947 | |