 | The University of Virginia record October, 1907 |  |
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA RECORD
Vol. 1
Charlottesville, Va., October, 1907
No. 2
The University of Virginia Record is published monthly, except July
and August, for the purpose of disseminating information regarding the University,
its organization, activities, and growth. The Record is intended primarily
for the alumni and friends of the Institution and for the press of the State,
but will be sent to any address upon receipt of the subscription price, 25 cents a year.
Second-class postage rates have been applied for.
Professor Watson's Courses in Geology.
The following courses in Economic Geology,
for undergraduates and graduates,
are offered by Professor Thomas L. Watson:
1. General Economic Geology—Lectures,
collateral reading, laboratory and
field work. This course is designed to
give a general but comprehensive account
of the origin, nature, distribution,
and uses of the metallic and non-metallic
products, with especial reference to those
of the United States. Students taking
this course must have had sufficient preparation
in general geology and mineralogy.
2. Advanced Economic Geology—Laboratory
and field work, reading, reports,
and theses. Designed primarily for
graduates. Open to those students who
have had Course 1 or its equivalent.
This course is designed to supplement
Course 1, by giving advanced students an
opportunity to follow out more thoroughly
special topics in mining geology. It
will necessarily vary with the needs of
the individual student.
3. Economic Geology of the Southern
Appalachians — Designed primarily for
graduates. Open to those students who
have had Course 1 or its equivalent. In
this course the mining geology of the region
and especially that of Virginia is
covered in considerable detail. Excursions
to various parts of the region will
be taken and individual reports required.
This course will begin in 1908, and will
be given during alternate years in connection
with another course of similar
character and scope.
Other courses, announcements of
which will appear shortly, will soon be
scheduled in this department.
Professor Bird's Courses in Chemistry.
The new department will be under the
direction of Professor R. M. Bird, formerly
professor of chemistry in the University
of Missouri. It takes over the work
in general chemistry heretofore offered
by Professor Mallet to candidates for the
B. A. and engineering degrees, and gives
new courses not previously offered at the
University.
The number of students and other considerations
have led to the separation of
the general chemistry instruction into
two courses—one for B. A. students and
one for engineering students. Each
course will hereafter consist of three lectures
and six hours laboratory work per
week throughout the session. In the
main the two courses will be alike; and
they will be coordinate with Professor
Mallet's M. A. and industrial chemistry
courses, as well as with the analytical
work offered by Professor Dunnington
and the new advanced work offered by
Professor Bird.
The essential features of the new work
will be the large proportion of laboratory
instruction and the differentiation in the
work done by engineering students, especially
in the laboratory, where the
chemistry of materials of construction
will be used as much as possible in teaching
the essentials of general chemistry.
Hereafter medical students must have
already completed the equivalent of the
above B. A. course in general chemistry
before matriculation, and will afterwards
take a course offered by Professor Mallet
and a laboratory course in organic chemistry
offered by Professor Bird.
New Athletic Rule.
Resolved unanimously by the Committee
on Athletics that it be recommended
to the Faculty to substitute section 12 of
the rules in the catalogue by the following:
"No student who has been a member
or substitute member of another college
team shall be permitted to become a
member of an athletic team of this University
during his first session at this
University. But in no case shall such
student be eligible for the teams of this
University unless he shall have been a
student here at least five months.
"The above provision shall also apply
to all students who enter this University
without entrance certificate or examination."
Adopted by the General Faculty, September
24, 1907.
Student Enrolment.
Up to Monday morning, September 23,
1907, the number of students who had
completed the process of matriculation
by filling out the blanks in the Registrar's
office was 676. At the same date
the enrolment in the several departments
of the University, as reported by the
deans, was as follows: In the College,
290; in the Law School, 202; in the Medical
Department, 95; in the Engineering
Department, 103; in the Graduate
Schools, 27. The comparatively small
number of students in the Department of
Medicine is doubtless explained chiefly
by the fact that the entrance requirements
have kept out a number of men
who otherwise would have entered. The
reduction in numbers will likely be only
temporary, and will be amply compensated
in the meantime by the higher
grade of work that will be possible with
the classes made up of better prepared
men.
The number of new students enrolled
to September 23 is, as reported by Dean
J. M. Page, 286. On the same date last
session the number was only 269, thus
giving a gain for this year of 17, or over
6 per cent. The average annual gain in
the total enrolment of the University
during the last four or five years has been
about 6 per cent. If the gain this year is
iregular, the enrolment of last session—
784—will be exceeded by some forty or
fifty men. From present indications the
whole number of students this year will
be considerably in excess of 800.
Athletics at the University are receiving
their accustomed share of vigorous
attention. John H. Neff, Jr., is captain
of the football team, while Hammond
Johnson, Oscar Randolph and Herbert
Peck are helping the men up to the winning
point.
The number of Alumni Scholarship
students is large this year, owing doubtless
to the fact that the Board of Visitors
have recently agreed to allow such students
from Virginia remission of the University
entrance fee.
Jefferson Bust.
Dr. J. Ackerman Coles of New York
City, has notified President Alderman of
his intention to present a bronze bust of
Thomas Jefferson to the University, as a
gift in honor of the great Founder. The
bust is a replica of one on exhibition in
the store of Tiffany & Company, New
York City, and is the work of H. Daniel
Webster, a nephew of the orator. The
original, in the Tiffany establishment,
goes to the Jefferson Medical College of
Philadelphia, and is the only life-size
bust of Jefferson known to Messrs. Tiffany
& Company. This generous action on
the part of Dr. Coles is both appropriate
and beneficent, and his gift forms an
important contribution to the art treasure
of the institution.
University Convocation.
The annual exercises of the University
Convocation were held upon the Lawn
and in Cabell Hall on Saturday, September
and guests met in the Rotunda, while the
students assembled upon the surrounding
terraces. A procession was then formed,
and the entire assemblage marched down
the Lawn to Cabell Hall, where the annual
address was delivered by Rev. Arthur B.
Kinsolving, D. D., rector of St. Paul's
Church, Baltimore.
Kinsolving's subject was, "Some
Convictions and Ideals."
Phi Beta Kappa.
At the annual convention of the Phi
Beta Kappa Society, held at Williamsburg,
Va., September 12, 1907, the University
of Virginia was granted a charter
for the installation of a chapter to be
known as Virginia Beta. The original
chapter at William and Mary, founded
December 5, 1776, is known as Virginia
Alpha.
On Saturday evening, September 21,
the University literary societies held a
mass-meeting in Madison Hall, in the interest
of oratory and debate among the
students. Addresses were made in behalf
of these worthy activities by President
Alderman, Professor Charles W.
Kent and Mr. Charles W. Paul.
The Magazine and Topics.
The University of Virginia Magazine
and College Topics are fortunate
this year in having Mr. Leonidas Rutledge
Whipple on their respective staffs
—on that of the former as editor-in-chief.
Several years ago, while an undergraduate
student here, Mr. Whipple won several
prizes for excellence in literary composition.
For three years since that time
he has been Assistant in English at the
University of Missouri, and has served
at two different times on the staff of the
St. Louis Republic. Since the fall of
1906 he has been a student in the University
graduate department, and has
held the position of Instructor in Journalism
and in Short Story Writing. As a
contributor to leading periodicals he is
becoming widely known; and as a writer
of essays and verse, as well as of the
short story, he possesses unusual ability.
Recent enlargement of the tennis fields
of Madison Hall has made pleasant and
healthful recreation easily accessible to
an increasing number of men; and just
now the beauties and conveniences of the
grounds about the Hall are being enhanced
by the laying of cement walks
all around the building.
Lyceum Course.
During the past several years an important
element in the entertainment
and culture of the University life has
been contributed by the high-grade programs
supplied in the Y. M. C. A.
Lyceum courses. This year a course of
unusual attractiveness is being announced.
It will consist of four regular numbers,
each being a recital by a musician
of international reputation. The dates,
with the names of the several artists to
render the programs, are as follows:
Oct. 17—Dr. Franklin Lawson, the eminent
American tenor.Nov. 11—Edouard Dethier, the great
Belgian violinist.Jan. 13—Angelo Patricolo, the Italian
Pianist.Feb. 10—Madame Charlotte Maconda,
the distinguished soprano.
Charles W. Paul, a graduate of the
Emerson College of Oratory, Boston,
Mass., has been appointed instructor in
public speaking for the present session.
Already between 30 and 40 men, chiefly
from the law school, have enrolled in
his classes.
The Colonnade Club.
The historic old pavilion on West
Lawn, last occupied by Professor Noah
K. Davis, is being refitted for the home
of the Colonnade Club. The building,
in architectural design, is Doric of Palladio,
College, the nucleus about which the
present greater institution has formed.
For several years after the University
scheme was inaugurated, this building
was used as the library. From the time
its corner-stone was laid, October 6, 1817,
in the presence of Jefferson, Madison,
Monroe, and other distinguished men, to
the present, it has occupied a place in
the University's history familiar in location
and conspicuous in interest. The
use to which it is now being put is peculiarly
appropriate. It is to be the home
and meeting-place of the Colonnade Club,
an organization recently founded, composed
of teachers, officers, and alumni of
the University.
On the evening of April 23, last, officers
for the Club were elected as follows:
President, Prof. T. W. Page; secretary
and treasurer, Mr. R. M. Price; board of
governors, Profs. T. W. Page, P. B. Barringer,
W. M. Lile, W. A. Lambeth, Albert
Lefevre, W. M. Fontaine, and Mr. John
D. Van Horne.
The object of the Club is to promote
acquaintance, good fellowship, and general
culture among the faculty and alumni,
and especially to provide a home-like
place where old students, even on brief
chance visits to the University, may
meet old friends and make new ones.
Mercer and DeWitt.
No recent visitor to the University has
made more friends or has exerted a
stronger influence for manly uplift
among the men of the College than Edward
C. Mercer. A student here some
fifteen years ago, he subsequently ran a
wide gamut of experiences; but finally
came out a man stronger himself and
able to help other men. His work in
New York City is given to the deepest
needs of humanity; and the week spent
here at the opening of the session, in
company with W. A. DeWitt of Yale,
will be remembered with pleasure and
gratitude by dozens of men.
Neighborhood Work.
Every session a number of students,
chiefly members of the Young Men's
Christian Association, go out into the
surrounding churches and Sunday-schools
and give aid as teachers and superintendents.
This service, including
the University Hospital and some of the
city churches, as well as several places of
religious meeting in the country outside
of town and college limits, is called the
"Neighborhood Work." This service is
not only a boon to those who receive its
direct attention, but it also affords valuable
opportunities for training and growth
on the part of the workers themselves.
University Dispensary.
The University of Virginia Dispensary
is one of the first buildings seen by the
student or visitor coming up Main Street
from the Union Station; but because of
its inconspicuous appearance it is apt to
be passed without a second thought or a
second glance. Yet the dispensary fills
a very important place in the practical
side of the medical student's training,
and an equally important place among
the philanthropic agencies of the community.
Two thousand or more patients,
chiefly, of course, from the poorer classes,
are treated annually free of charge,
either at the dispensary or in the neighborhood.
Regular classes of the fourth-year
medical students meet at the dispen
sary, where, under the guidance of their
professors, they are given opportunities
for the practical diagnosis and treatment
of patients.
New Organ.
Henceforth one of the numerous attractive
features of the auditorium in
Cabell Hall will be found in the new pipe
organ recently given to the University
by Mr. Andrew Carnegie, and formally
dedicated shortly before the close of last
session. In the qualities for which an
organ is supposed to exist, it lacks little
to be desired; and in the architectural
effect added by its location in the hall
not a little has been gained.
| The University of Virginia record October, 1907 | |