 | Catalogue of the officers and students of the University of Virginia |  |
PLANS FOR RENDERING THE UNIVERSITY EXTENSIVELY ACCESSIBLE TO
THE POOR.
In estimating the expenses of a session at the University, it seems
to be very commonly imagined that the cost of tuition is a chief
item in the account, and that a reduction in the fees paid to the
professors would so diminish the amount as to throw wide the doors
of the institution to large numbers now unable to attend. The unreasonableness
of this view is apparent from the fact that while
with the greatest economy the whole expenses of the student could
not be brought below three hundred dollars, the cost of tuition
would be only seventy-five dollars. Granting, therefore, that there
should be an entire omission instead of a reduction of the fees, there
would still remain for board, lodging, fuel, books, and other incidental
expenses, a sum nearly, if not quite as likely as the entire
amount, to exclude the needy student from the halls of the University.
But it may be urged that the whole or a part of the annuity paid
the University might be diverted from its present objects to the support
of such a class of students, and that the institution might still
be continued in its wonted activity by the income derived from
those who pay. Were such a result likely to ensue, it would doubtless
be both wise and patriotic to make so benevolent an appropriation
of the public funds. But those who are acquainted with this
or any of the higher institutions of learning do not require to be
told that far different consequences would follow any important
reduction of the resources on which it has been accustomed to
depend. It might and probably would be continued for a time, but
so crippled in its means and degraded in its organization as to be
no longer worthy of the high purposes of its founders. Sinking to
the level of the inferior institutions of the land, the University would
cease to attract the ambitious students of other States, and vainly
pointing to her once gushing fountains of knowledge, now dwindled,
and perhaps impure, she would in sadness see the choicest intellects
of Virginia seeking in distant haunts those living waters of
science which she could no longer proffer to their minds.
And granting that surviving this shock, in a long course of years,
aided by the returning liberality of the state, she should partially
recover from its paralysing effects, the arduous task would recur
of moulding her discipline and instructions to new and loftier views
before she could resume the station of dignity and usefulness from
which she had been cast down, and thus again she would be called
to meet the difficulties that attended her early organization.
And may we not ask what adequate compensation would the
which led to her establishment and endowment by the state?
The whole of the present annuity of fifteen thousand dollars would
not cover the expense of educating and maintaining at the University
more than fifty gratuitous students, and this too, supposing that
the professors and officers received no salaries, and that the sum
was appropriated exclusively to this charitable purpose. But enfeebled
and humbled as she would be by the withdrawal of this
fund, if indeed she were not wholly prostrated, it cannot be doubted
that her numbers would be greatly reduced, her teachings made.
meagre and superficial, and that therefore the experiment would
result in a serious loss instead of a gain to the education of the state.
In this view of the consequences of such an attempt at opening
the University to the poor, we would have no hesitation in strongly
condemning the experiment as at once destructive of whatever is
really valuable in the institution, and injurious to the commonwealth
at large. Besides, other and truly effective means for securing this
desirable end are, we think, entirely within our reach.
Of the various schemes which might be devised, there is one,
which, preserving unimpaired the general usefulness and the dignity
of the University by leaving the annuity untouched, and requiring
no appropriation from the treasury of the state, has been in part
suggested by views long entertained by the Faculty of the University.
This we may be allowed briefly to indicate as follows:
Limiting the operation of the plan, in the beginning at least, to
one student from each senatorial district, we would propose that
the indigent youth having been prepared for university instruction
by the training of the grammar-school and the academy, and having
evinced throughout that marked intelligence and industry which
would qualify as well as entitle him to a superior education, should
be subjected to a preliminary examination by the judges, or such
other competent board residing in the district, as the Legislature
might authorise. Having thus satisfactorily shown his capacity to
profit by the higher teachings of the University, he should then be
sent thither and there maintained for a period not longer than two
years, at the cost of the district, the fund for this purpose being
raised by a levy or such other means as the Legislature might
ordain. It should moreover be made the condition on which this
precious opportunity was afforded, that each of these beneficiaries
of the public be required, after completing his course at the University,
to devote himself for a specified time to the business of instruction.
Aided by the liberality of the Faculty, who, we are
authorised to say, have expressed their willingness to promote such
a scheme of benevolence by their gratuitous instruction, the entire
charge of maintenance and education, including books, stationery,
and clothing, would not much exceed two hundred dollars—a sum
too small to be felt as a tax in any district of the state, and utterly
insignificant when weighed against that active and in some cases
splendid usefulness to which it would raise a large and precious
of the effect of such a plan, that while from the members of a
normal school thus organised and taught, extensive benefits could
not fail to accrue to the public generally, the University itself
would be rewarded by the earnest sympathy and good will of that
numerous class of our citizens who, from causes beyond its control,
are now debarred from its instructions.
As a summary of our views on the important subject of affording
to the poor opportunities of education at the University, we would
then say:
First. That the University was founded for the express object,
not of educating any particular class, but of furnishing the means
of high and thorough intellectual training, and by example and influence
of raising the general standard of education through the
state; and that while it has most completely attained the former
of these ends, it has in spite of obstacles made important steps
towards the latter.
Secondly. That these ends, deemed by the founders of the institution
of the highest interest to the state, are still no less than then,
just objects of patriotic solicitude.
Thirdly. That these objects must inevitably be defeated by withdrawing
from the institution the annuity it has heretofore received,
and that the heavy injury thus inflicted upon the interests of education,
would not be attended by a gain to the poorer classes in
any degree commensurate with the general loss.
Fourthly and lastly. That therefore the only effective method of
securing to the indigent a large share of the direct advantages of
university instruction is, either by an appropriation from the Literary
fund for that purpose, or as just described, by district contributions,
aided, if desired, by the liberality of the Faculty.
In what we have now said, the supposition is implied, that in
withholding from the University a part or all of its customary annuity,
the object in view was the diversion of the fund to a kindred
benevolent and patriotic purpose. To those, if such there be, who
would seriously give countenance to this measure on other grounds,
who would degrade our University from its honourable pre-eminence,
and tear from the escutcheon of the state its brightest literary
star, to bestow a few thousand dollars on objects foreign to
the sacred uses of education, or to scatter them in pittances to the
public schools, we have no argument to present. Let them listen
to the pleadings of the aspiring young students around them, who
ask that the springs of knowledge for which they thirst, shall be
rather widened and deepened than closed up for ever. Let them
ponder the motives of the republican sage and patriot, whose wisdom
taught him, that in giving to his beloved Virginia the high
instructions of the University, he was conferring a benefit in which
by diffusive influence every citizen of the commonwealth must share.
And finally, let them remember that the glory of the state and her
noblest influences abroad must largely depend on the literary
to be withheld, even were this the chief benefit it conferred, would,
in the view of the liberal and wise, be but a small price for that
honourable distinction in letters which it has already enabled her
to achieve.
| Catalogue of the officers and students of the University of Virginia | |