University of Virginia Library

UVM Opens New Doorway,
Improves Content Quality

By Tom Adams

This year's first issue of the
University of Virginia Magazine
goes on sale today. Students may
have a difficult time recognizing it.
It does not have UVM printed on
the somewhat ugly pink, white and
black front cover. And that is not
the only difference between the
five issues of UVM that came out
last year and this one.

No longer is it a publication
geared to the tastes of first-year
men. That was tried last year, but
even first-year men at the University
rejected the poor taste so often
displayed in the old UVM.

Headed For Oblivion

The editors seem to have realized
that UVM it was, was
headed for oblivion and thus in this
issue one can discern a conscious
effort to improve the quality of the
magazine.

The symbol of the 1968-1969
UVM is the head of Janus, the
Roman god of doorways and beginnings.
The magazine has made a
good beginning. The staff has not
sought to imitate the success of
Rapier, but rather to create a style
all their own and one that I think
will be easier for them to live with.

New Standard

Two rather long and very good
articles show the new standard of
excellence that UVM will, hopefully,
maintain.

The first of these is an interview
with novelist Erskine Caldwell. He
was interviewed by UVM editor-in-chief
Donald Lewis and literary
editor Richard Wertman. The editor's
note preceding the interview
tells us that he "attended the University
'on and off' for four years.
He failed to take a degree here
because he neglected to take 'certain
required courses' which failed
to appeal to him.

'Virginia Reel'

During the time he spent in
Charlottesville between 1922 and
1926, he anonymously contributed
a 'few jokes' to the now-defunct
Virginia Reel (a humor magazine
which has since been replaced by
The Cavalier Daily)." Thanks, guys.

"Mr. Caldwell," the note says,
"has never failed to give credit to
the University, and has in fact
attributed much of his success as a
writer to 'inspiring courses' he took
while a student here."

Curious Message

Although that is hard to believe,
the interview is not. Mr. Caldwell,
who is now sixty-five years old,
spends a great deal of time visiting
college campuses trying to discourage
students from becoming writers
because of the hardships involved.
So it is rather curious for such an
interview to appear in the "literary
magazine" of the University.

Mr. Caldwell says a great deal
about the art of fiction in his
interview. He was once ranked
among the top five contemporary
American authors by William
Faulkner. But he himself doesn't
think much of writers as a group.

Writers & Bums

"I have a low regard for writers
and the mentality of writers," he
says. "I don't think I'd waste my
time trying to write a story about a
writer with the idea that he might
have any great philosophic ideas to
impart to the world. I don't think
the writer is a thinker; if he were a
thinker he would be a philosopher,
maybe, and have a good teaching
job in a university. I don't think a
writer has any qualifications to be
an oracle of anything. The only
thing a writer can do is write a
story. If he tries to do anything
else, he's a bum."

By far the most important article
in this issue of UVM is "Toward
the Third Century," in which a
"viable alternative" to the University's
Master Plan is presented with
great reason and clarity by two
fourth-year architecture students,
Robert Winthrop and William
Hubbard.

These two students argue that
since the University will expand,
that expansion should be effectively
used and not avoided. The present
Master Plan of the University calls
for five "academical villages" in the
future which the authors of this
article call an "Academic Suburb."

Better Plan

They claim that, although the
Master Plan is "all very rational,
very reasonable, very functional," it
is also dull, wasteful, artificial and
"hardly Jeffersonian." Messrs.
Hubbard and Winthrop "challenge
the University to use its complexity,
not to compartmental it; to
enhance its diversity, not to simplify
it; to welcome its bigness, not to
subdivide it."

They want to restore the unity
of the Lawn to the University by
having future University buildings
used for diverse functions. They
will be "juxtaposed to create an
'urban environment.' "

Their plan is certainly better presented
than the only other alternative
to the University's Master Plan
that I have seen, the residential
college plan. Unlike the residential
college system, the plan of these
two gentleman would not have the
University house all of its students,
as that would tend to compartmentalize
it even further and, of
course, limit the student's choice of
how he is to live during his University
career.

In all probability their plan will
be ignored, which would be a
shame. All too often student plans
of this type are vague and incomplete.
"Toward the Third Century"
certainly is not. The drawings by
Alec Garbini add to its clarity. My
only criticism of it is that the
eight-point type (the same size as
the type you are reading now) is
too small to be easily read. Theirs is
an article that should not only be
read by students, but by those who
are responsible for the physical
future of the University.

UVM Reprint

Edgar Allen Poe is the subject of
an article by William Wertenbaker,
who was Librarian at the University
during Mr. Poe's brief stay at the
University. It is reprinted from a
UVM that came out 100 years ago.
Mr. Wertenbaker's description of
Mr. Poe's University days contrasts
sharply with the tales that circulate
about the Grounds today. It is a
short and very readable story.

I can easily understand why the
author of "Twenty-Two Red Sockets"
preferred to be known to the
University community only as "the
GRIMP."

Three-Piece Suits

His description of the present
Student Council as a model of
student government is not quite
merited. The absence of three-piece
suits does not mean that the present
councilmen are a group of
hard-working and industrious people.
It merely means that the style
of dress has changed, perhaps. That
style changed a few semester's ago,
but "the GRIMP" only noticed it
the other day. The student apathy
which made the old Council the
way it was is still very much evident,
I'm afraid.

Dire Needs

UVM is in dire need of two
things if it is to continue publication:
contributions of money and
writing. In the past several years it
has not exactly been a moneymaker
and the Poe Ball, which was
supposed to raise some money for
UVM, instead ran them further into
debt. If the money and art arrive
UVM can continue with its comeback
and once again become a
regular source of intelligent comment
on the University as well as an
outlet for the literary output of
students.