University of Virginia Library

University of Virginia.

AMONG the objects of interest in Albemarle county the
University of Virginia must always occupy an important
place. It is the intent of the present paper to
point out the resources of this school of learning, to state
what it is able to do for the young men of the State, and to
describe what it is doing.

PREPARATION.

First in order comes the question which every young man
who proposes to enter the University must answer for himself:
Am I prepared to profit by the work of the University?
How he should answer this question will depend on the work
he desires to do there. If his studies lie in the academical
department, then of the thirteen Schools which compose it,
there are eight in which only the essentials of an ordinary
common school education are absolutely indispensable. These
are English, History and Political Economy, Modern Languages,
General Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, Mineralogy
and Geology, Biology and Agriculture, Moral
Philosophy. Of the remaining five, Pure Mathematics and
Natural Philosophy require in addition an acquaintance
with the elements of Mathematics, while Latin and Greek
demand at least the rudiments of these languages; and the
School of Practical Astronomy can be profitably taken
only by students who have accomplished a tolerably complete
course of Mathematics and Physics.

In short it may be said that while the benefit of sound,
mental training and accurate preparation is nowhere greater
than here, yet no man of robust intellect and earnest purpose
need turn away from the doors of the University in despair.
She offers to all such ample fields of work suited to their
powers, and makes abundant provision for the repair of their
deficiencies.

In the professional departments of Law and Medicine,
the same remarks as to preparation can be made. But

inasmuch as a certain maturity of mind is requisite for the
proper grasp of these studies, it is not recommended that any
student, however well prepared, enter upon them at an age
less than eighteen years. In the department of Engineering
the matriculate should be well trained in the elements of
mathematics.

EXPENSE.

A second point on which mnch misapprehension exists is
the cost of an education at the University. It is reputed to
be an expensive school, to which only wealthy men can afford
to send their sons. The most satisfactory answer that can be
made to such allegations is a statement of actual facts.

To academical students from Virginia the University offers
all her facilities of labraries, apparatus and instruction in ten
distinct Schools, embracing all the branches of science and
letters, for a single matriculation fee of $25. This is the only
charge, and is all that the school receives from such a student.

To have sufficient guarantees of health among the young
men, it has been found necessary to erect a hospital, provide
a matron and a trained nurse, and have regular attending physicians.
To support this hospital every student (except such as live at home) pays an annual fee of $7. This entitles him
to free medical advice and nursing, and is an exceedingly
modest charge for the services actually rendered. Such as it
is, none of it goes into the treasury of the University; the
whole amount being expended in the maintenance of the hospital.
Including this we have for the University fees of a
student from Virginia in the academical department—

     

Matriculation,	$25
Infirmary fee,	7
Total of University fees,	$32

The living expenses of a student at the University are on
the lowest estimate as follows:

       

Lodging,	$ 15
Board at $12 a month,	108
Fuel, Lights and Washing,	25
Total living expenses,	$148

These depend on the market price of commodities in the
the locality and can be reduced only by the provision of a diet
inadequate in quantity or unsuitable in quality — a device
which would be worse than the wildest extravagance. The
fare provided at this price is plain but wholesome and abundant.
More luxurious accommodations can be obtained at a
corresponding increase of price. But the usage of the school
is shown by the fact that of the 250 students resident within
the precincts of the University during the last session, 120 or
48 per cent. lived at the Clubs at the rates above stated. Summing
up the foregoing items we get for the total necessary
expenses of a Virginian academical student—

     

University fees,	$ 32
Living expenses,	148
	$148

The additional cost of books and stationery will be the
same at the University as at other schools and varies with the
courses taken. The amount of pocket money spent by the
student will usually vary inversely as his success in his studies.
A father can provide for his son no sharper spur to frivolity,
no surer allurement to vice, than unrestricted pocket money.
Few young men who take part in the literary and forensic activities
of the student community can get through the session
under $50; $100 should be considered a maximum. To sum
up, a Virginian, in the academical department of the University,
should have an allowance of $250 to $350 according to
the price he pays for board, plus his expenditure for books,
clothing and travelling. More money will do him harm. In
the laboratory Courses and in the professional Schools the
charge for tuition should be added. For those with whom
severe economy is a necessity, it should be said that every
year there are men at the University who meet all the expenses
of college life on less than $200.

FACILITIES FOR INSTRUCTION.

In nothing has the University changed so greatly since its
foundation as in the facilities which it offers for instruction.

The original Faculty consisted of eight professors, three
Literary, three Scientific, one of Medicine and one of Law;
each in charge of a distinct School. At present there are four
distinct departments.

I. Literary Department with six professors and two
instructors.

II. Scientific and Engineering Department with eight
professors and two instructors.

III. Medical Department with four professors and one
instructor.

IV. Law Department with two professors.

The Library consisted originally of 2,436 admirably selected
volumes; to-day it possesses about 50,000.

The Observatory was never completed and soon fell into
ruins. To-day Mount Jefferson is crowned by an observatory
building unrivalled for excellence of constructive details, and
containing a telescope which surpasses in power and perfection
that attached to any University in the world. The Lick Observatory
has a merely nominal connection with the University
of California.

There was no Laboratory of any sort in the University for
the training of students. To-day the Chemical Laboratory,
the Physical Laboratory and the Biological Laboratory are
each filled with appliances for illustration and for study and
scientific research.

The only Museum was a collection of curiosities. To-day
the Museum of Industrial Chemistry exemplifies all the principal
applications of Chemistry to the Arts, and the Museum
of Natural History illustrates all branches of that subject.

SANITARY APPLIANCES.

On two occasions in the history of the University its doors
have been closed by explosions of the malady characteristic
of the Piedmont region—typhoid fever. The tragical story
of these epidemics is made more pathetic by the fact that the
wisest physicians of the day were profoundly ignorant of the
causes of the malady and unable to prevent its recurrence.

One of the great triumphs of modern medicine has been the
detection of the causes and the discovery of the remedy.
Acting upon this discovery the University has provided for
itself a copious supply of the purest water, conducted in underground
pipes from a mountain reservoir five miles distant;
has put in a complete system of impervious sewers which
convey all excreta and human wastes at once from the premises;
removes all kitchen wastes daily from the buildings;
permits no horses nor cattle within the precincts, and in all
things exercises a scrupulous cleanliness. The result is, that
since these precautions have been taken, no case of typhoid
or dysentery has originated within the precincts of the University.
Perseverance in them may be relied on to eliminate
these two grave dangers to public health in this region.
The situation of the University ensures it at the same time
against malarial maladies. So that its sanitary condition
seems to be as good as human care and foresight can make it.

DISCIPLINE.

In August, 1828, Thomas Arnold entered upon his duties
as head master of Rugby school, and began those reforms in
school management that have shed over his name the lustre of
immortality. Ten years earlier, in August, 1818, Thomas
Jefferson met the Commission, appointed to select the site and
draft the plan of organization of the University of Virginia,
and then laid down the cardinal doctrine upon which Arnold
afterwards based his work—that "after a certain age fear is
not a motive, to which we should have ordinary recourse in academical
government, but that the human character is susceptible
of other inducements to correct conduct more worthy of employ
and of better effect."

Upon this foundation stone the system of discipline of the
University is built. Those futile endeavors to secure a monastic
seclusion, those degrading efforts to practice an effective
espionage over the students, which have been for centuries
the opprobrium of collegiate life, were from the beginning discarded.
The student is treated as a rational human being

whose interests and desires concur in persuading him to reap
the benefits for which he pays. He is encouraged to become
the friend of his preceptors, and receiving their confidence to
give his in return. His word is accepted as absolute truth,
and testimony when given by him is always voluntary and not
upon oath. Regular and orderly attendance upon his lectures,
with satisfactory progress in his class work, is regarded
by the Faculty as the index of upright conduct and sober living
on his part. Any failure in these particulars brings the
student at once under the attention of the authorities. He is
first admonished by his professors. If no reform is made he
is reproved by the Chairman and a report of his deficiencies
made to his friends at home. If he is still obdurate he is required
promptly to withdraw from the University. The penalties
of dismissal and of public expulsion are reserved for
such offences as drunkenness, dissoluteness and dishonorable
conduct.

What are the results of this government by influence?
They are not perfect. But who has devised a system for
the government of four hundred young men which gives
perfect results! Yet the method of the University has rendered
possible the introduction of the honor system in the
examinations, in which each man is allowed to guarantee the
honesty of his work by his personal pledge. It has established
a reverence for truthfulness and personal integrity so
great that no man who is known to have violated either the
one or the other can remain a member of the University. And
finally it has received the compliment of unacknowledged
imitation (at least as to outward form) from those who have
been its most interested and most unsparing critics.

FRUITS OF UNIVERSITY CULTURE.

If we enquire into the results of University training we find
again the fairest answer in a simple statement of facts. Of
the professors in the colleges, and universities of Virginia, 32
are Alumni of the University of Virginia; of 5 judges of the
Court of Appeals, 4 are University men; of the judges of the

Circuit Courts the University has furnished 7; and like results
may be pointed to in every department of intellectual activity.

During the past session (1887-88) of her 391 matriculates
242 were from Virginia; and of those there were 61 students
of law, 42 of medicine, 16 of engineering, and 25 were teachers
in the public schools of the State.

Nor is it in Virginia alone that the results of her culture
have been felt. In every Southern State her alumni occupy
honorable stations on the bench, on the bar, in the medical
profession, in the professoriate, in the pulpit.

In her first sixty years she has educated wholly or in part
2665 lawyers, 2504 physicians, 688 teachers, 340 clergymen.

Among her alumni have been 395 legislators, 179 judges,
62 congressmen, 6 governors, 2 cabinet ministers, 2 Speakers
of the House of Representatives.

Her children are her jewels!