University of Virginia Library

---

96

PRESIDENT DARDEN'S RESIGNATION ACCEPTED

The Rector stated that in view of President Darden's fixed intention to retire from the
presidency, the Board was now under the necessity, keenly regretted by all of the Visitors,
of taking action upon his resignation. After expressing his own regret and commenting on
his personal satisfaction in his work as Rector with Mr. Darden, Mr. Talbott read to the Board
the following letter

Mr. McWane then offered the following resolution

BE IT RESOLVED, that the Board of Visitors of the University accepts with a strong
sense of loss and great regret the firmly expressed decision of its President, Colgate
W. Darden, Jr., to relinquish his duties as President effective at the time when his
successor is chosen.

His decision brings to the University loss of a great spirit and a great talent,
devoted for twelve years in a singularly self-sacrificing fashion to its growth, and
to improvement of its standards, its facilities, and its capacity to serve the people
of the Commonwealth and the nation.

Monuments to this talent and this devotion appear on every side of us as we meet
to hear his decision and to make plans for his succession

It is hard to imagine this University functioning consistently with requirements of
this day and age without the physical additions made possible by appropriations forthcoming
during President Darden's tenure of office or authorized by the General Assembly
while he was Governor. A partial list of them would include new residence units for
students (the first such units constructed with State funds since the time of Jefferson),
a new Academic Building, a new Physics Building, a new Medical Center now in process of
construction, additions to our Law Library, a new Electrical Laboratory, and the University
Press. Construction of the University's atomic reactor and opening of the new Student
Activities Building have their notable places also in this listing, which is by no means
complete

Nor are these monuments to President Darden's talent and devotion confined at all to
the area of physical plant, where they represent investments in excess of $17,000,000.
They are just as evident in the intangibles which make for the greatness of a university.
We have seen reorganization of the work of the College of Liberal Arts and establishment
of the Graduate School of Business Administration, we have seen steady improvement in
student standards of admission and performance. There has been unremitting effort to
raise the scales of faculty compensation and otherwise to foster academic conditions
congenial and attractive to those whose life work is that of the scholar and the teacher.
The treasure of books and manuscripts in the Alderman Library has been greatly multiplied
and the measure of its effective aid to students, faculty, and the University community
significantly increased. The ancient beauty of the Grounds has been made more striking
by the loving attention of a President who in the midst of his labors could yet always find
time for generosity and kindliness to those who have worked with him and under his
direction

In company with tangible and intangible things to which we have referred, the inspiration
of intellectual leadership, initiative, and research on the part of the faculty has been
apparent

For all these things, and many more, the Board of Visitors, the University, and the
Commonwealth owe a great debt of gratitude to Colgate Darden and to his wife, Constance,
whose warm, vital, and attractive personality has effectively aided her husband's effort,
as his friends and associates will quickly testify

The President's decision to retire has been so firmly expressed that we have no hope
of changing it, but we order this resolution placed on our minutes as a sincere, though
inadequate, expression of our regard for him and our awareness of his determined and
effective urge to maintain the University at the level of performance conceived by its
Founder

Seconded by many Visitors, the foregoing Resolution was unanimously adopted

---

97

Mr. Darden thanked the Visitors for their expressions, and commented briefly upon the
happiness of his working association with the Board and its members during his eleven years as
the University's chief executive. He hoped that the Board would proceed at once with the
procurement of a new president, but said that he would be glad to remain in residence and to
administer the University until a successor should be available to relieve him