History and Purpose
The first reference to University Extension at the University of Virginia
appears in an early issue of College Topics, at present a student publication but
originally a publication of the General Athletic Association. Volume II, number
26, of College Topics, issued April 18, 1891, carried an account of a meeting
of University of Virginia alumni at Columbia University Hall in Washington,
D. C., on April 13 preceding "at which the system of education known as university
extension was discussed by leading professors and learned men." A visiting
speaker on this occasion "thought it eminently fitting and proper that the
meeting in the interest of university extension should be called under the auspices
of the Alumni Association of the University of Virginia, that institution which
was founded by Thomas Jefferson who taught the true democracy of education."
Notwithstanding this early reference to and interest in extension, the work was
not formally introduced in the University until September 1912 when a system of
extension lectures was inaugurated. There followed almost immediately extension
publications dealing with subjects of special importance in the life of the State.
These publications were soon organized into a regular series, The University of
Virginia Record Extension Series, the first number of which appeared in September
1915. In the same year the University "desirous of extending its services beyond
its academic walls to as many people of the State as possible who cannot
have advantage of the resident courses in the institution," established an "Extension
Bureau" as an administrative unit. By 1920-1921 the activities of this bureau had
been increased to include, according to the University catalogue for that year,
(1) Extension Teaching (Extension credit courses), (2) Extension Lectures, (3)
Debate and Public Discussion, (4) Citizenship Education, (5) Package Libraries,
(6) Publications, (7) Visual Education, (8) Home Reading Courses (in coöperation
with the United States Bureau of Education), and (9) Short Courses. In
1922-1923 the title of the administrative agency was changed from Bureau of Extension
to Division of Extension to conform to general practice in nomenclature
among American universities.
There were few precedents to follow when Extension work was first organized
at the University of Virginia. Unquestionably the inspiration for the
Extension movement in America came from English universities where a system
of extension lectures had been instituted as early as 1865. But conditions in
the mother country are very different from those in America. The University
of Virginia, like other State universities in America, had to deal with
conditions peculiar to itself and to the State which created it for its service.
Accordingly, first the Extension Bureau and later the Division of Extension
had to experiment and explore. The result has been constant changes in
methods due to efforts to profit by experience and to conform more closely
with the University's developing ideas of its responsibilities in the fields of
adult education and university extension.
Much of the Extension Division's attention today is directed to the purpose
of interpreting adult education and of keeping the ideal of continuing education
before the people of the State, and of encouraging local communities and appropriate
organizations to establish adult education institutions, especially for those
unprepared to undertake education on a college or university level. Probably the
most clearly recognized function of the Division is that of bringing education on
the university level to college graduates and other mature adults throughout the
State who are qualified to pursue such courses with pleasure and profit. Especial
effort is also made by the Division to coöperate both with individuals and professional
groups in this State. Many features of its program prophetic of the most
far-reaching results are coöperative undertakings.
Through lectures, publications, press reports, conferences and direct correspondence
the Division discusses and defines the adult education movement
and encourages a general consideration of the problems involved. The more
specific contributions of the Division are organized under three principal bureaus
as follows: Extension Teaching, Educational Aids, and Coöperative Activities.
