University of Virginia Library

XXIII. Administrative Organization, Continued

The chairman was not the only officer of the Faculty.
That body was also served by a secretary. At first, some
member kept the record, but, in 1826, William Wertenbaker
was appointed to the position,—which he, however,
filled only temporarily at first.

The Faculty held their meetings under numerous roofs:
in 1826, they convened in the library; in 1827, in the library
or pavilion VII; in 1828, in the home of either Tucker
or Lomax; in 1829, of Tucker or Emmet; and in subsequent
years, either in the library, a lecture-room, or the
residence of a professor. The customary hour of assembling
seems to have been half past four in the afternoon.

There were four officers subordinate to the Faculty:

the bursar, the proctor, the patron, and the janitor.
The duties of the bursar were those commonly incidental
to that important office and require no description.
This, however, was not true of the other three officers,
who played, in due proportion, a very conspicuous part in
the history of the institution.

Broadly described, the proctor was the master of police
and inspector of buildings, lands and other property
of the University. He was expected to visit all the dormitories
at least once a week, and all the hotels at least
once a month, and to draw up a report on their condition
for the information of the chairman. All fines imposed
on the occupants of these buildings for damage inflicted
by them were to be collected by him and deposited with
the bursar. He was impowered to employ laborers to
keep the entire area of the University in a sanitary state;
to head off trespasses, intrusions, and rows upon the
grounds; and to frustrate all other attempted violations
of the statutes. He was required to acquaint the chairman
with every breach of discipline that took place within
the limits, and to warn off former students who should return
after being expelled. It was his duty to communicate
to the proper law officer, when instructed by the Faculty,
all knowledge in his possession that would bring about the
prevention or punishment of such acts within the precincts
as the criminal court would take direct cognizance
of. It was his duty also to superintend all building operations
that were in progress; to frame the contracts necessary
to their right execution; to settle the accounts of
the undertakers, and to deliver to them drafts on the bursar
in payment of such balances as should be in their
favor. It was his further duty to collect all moneys,—
including the rents of the numerous dormitories and the
several hotels,—that were owing to the University. It

was also his duty to receive the students' complaints
touching their fare and report them to the chairman; to
find out the justice of these complaints by personal attendance
at meals; and to correct the shortcoming, if any, by
a warning to the hotel-keepers. In the same way, all
instances of neglect by these keepers in connection with
the servants, the furniture, or the fuel of the dormitories
were subject to his investigation and amendment. He
was responsible also for the purchase of the fagots and
lights which the students needed in their rooms.

At one time, a conflict of authority arose between the
proctor and the Faculty touching certain points upon
which the former asserted his right to exercise his own
private judgment and discretion: such points related
especially to health, the water supply, the state of the
walkways and alleys, and the preservation of the buildings
from destructive trespass. There was a divergence
of opinion as to the measures which should be adopted
to correct the unwholesome conditions that then prevailed
in these particulars, and the order in which they
should be carried out. The Faculty appealed to the
Board of Visitors for support in their contention, and
they were very properly confirmed in their superior authority.

The principal duty of the patron, so long as that office
was in existence, was to take the funds of the students
into his keeping so soon as they matriculated. These
funds were first subject to his commission of two per
cent. as his compensation for the responsibility of receiving
and holding them. By the authority of the proctor's
warrant, he paid to each professor the amount due
him as fees for tuition; to each hotel-keeper, at the expiration
of each month, the amount owed for the board

of the young men who obtained their meals at his tables;
to the bursar, all sums due by the students for the use
of the dormitories and public rooms, and by the hotel-keepers
for rent; and by the young men and hotel-keepers
alike, for all other charges against them. He was
required to pay the bills for books or clothes presented by
a merchant with the purchasing student's endorsement,
provided that they were legitimate; and also to cash all
drafts upon him by the young men for pocket-money not
in excess of a just proportion of the sum deposited for
that purpose; but he was impowered to refuse to honor
an order given by one student to another for an article
bought, unless the sale had been first approved in writing
by the chairman. He was also required, at the end of
the session, to return to each student the balance remaining
to his credit after all the proper deductions had been
made; and likewise if the student should leave the precincts
before the session closed, whether he had been expelled,
or had withdrawn for unexceptional reasons.
Finally, the patron cooperated with the proctor in enforcing
the police regulations so far as to give aid when called
on to prevent breaches of the ordinances; and he was expected
to report to that officer all offences that fell
within his personal observation. He assisted the proctor
also in making estimates, and in drafting contracts
for building and repairs, and in verifying the accounts
of undertakers. Like the proctor, he was entitled to a
house within the University precincts free of rent and all
other charges except for wear and tear. He was also
impowered to open a book-store in an apartment on the
grounds which had been specifically assigned to him for
that purpose. The prices of the text-books to be sold
by him, were, however, to be supervised by the Faculty;
and he was forbidden to fix them at more than fifteen per
cent. advance upon cost.[16]

The person who entered most directly and incessantly
into the daily lives of the students was the janitor, and
for that very reason, perhaps, he was the one who most
often was detested. In drafting the regulations of
March 4, 1824, the Visitors authorized the Faculty to
appoint some one who should be always near at hand
during the meetings of both the Board and the Faculty,
in order to perform such manual offices as might be called
for. He was at one time, also, expected to be close by
whenever a class was sitting, more especially in the
Schools of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry when apparatus
had to be handled; and also in the laboratory,
whenever his assistance was needed in the experiments.
It was he who was employed to run the lithographic
press, and to keep the philosophical and chemical instruments
in order; to wind up the clock; but above all, to
visit the dormitories in the morning to report every case
of violation of the ordinance that enforced early rising.
Not satisfied with this exhausting range of duties, the enactments
of 1831 required him to do such work as an
artisan as he should be competent to do, provided that it
was not in conflict with the discharge of the other claims
on his time. In return for this extraordinary variety of
services, he received two hundred dollars a year as wages,
and was granted a house and firewood at the expense of
the University.

The first janitor was William Spinner, a colored man,
an unfortunate selection for the session of 1825, as that
year was rendered very turbulent by the riotous spirit

of the students. It is probable that they would have
contemned the authority of a white janitor at that time,
but there was not the smallest likelihood of their being
overawed by the firmest and sternest negro. William
Brockman succeeded him. He too must have failed to
give satisfaction, for, in December, 1828, John Smith,
also a white man, took his place and remained in the University's
service until his death,—a practical proof of his
competency and fidelity. He was always addressed as
Doctor, a title derived from some slim pretentions to
knowledge of medicine. A son of Professor Davis, who
has recorded his recollections of the traditions of those
times, declares that he was, in reality, a quack,—not consciously
or dishonestly so in intention, but by the purely
empirical character of his medical advice. He was
superficially versed in other sciences, but was acknowledged
by every one to be a very skilful, diligent, and
conscientious officer. He had soon won the respect of
all, and in his blue broad-cloth coat, adorned with bright
brass buttons, and with a wide-brimmed white felt hat
resting on his head, he must have presented a very interesting,
if not imposing, appearance, as he walked, with
great dignity, down the arcades to inform some delinquent
student, with all the solemn authority of an English
beadle, that his presence was sternly desired in the
chairman's office. His own office was situated in the
basement of the Rotunda. He seems to have been popular
with the young men in spite of the persistence with
which he aroused the drowsy ones at dawn, and the number
of times he was compelled to carry disturbing messages
to their dormitories; and if his blue coat and felt
hat occasionally suffered from a douche of water, as he
opened a door, it appears to have shaken only temporarily
the amity which existed between him and the unruly
students.[17]