 | University of Virginia record February, 1910 |  |
HISTORICAL SKETCH.
By an act of January 12, 1803, of the Legislature of Virginia, certain
citizens of Albemarle County were incorporated under the style of
"Trustees of Albemarle Academy," and were empowered to take such
steps as seemed practicable to raise the funds necessary for erecting
buildings and putting the Academy into operation. Albemarle Academy
was destined never to exist except on paper, but under the
guidance of Thomas Jefferson, who was elected to the board of trustees
on March 23, 1814, a process of development was begun leading
first to the organization of Central College, and afterwards to that of
the University of Virginia. On August 19, 1814, the committee of the
trustees appointed to select a site, reported that it would be desirable
to locate the Academy in the vicinity of the town of Charlottesville,
distant not more than one-half mile therefrom.
By an act of February 14, 1816, the Legislature authorized the establishment
of "Central College, in the County of Albemarle, at the
place which has been, or shall be, selected by the trustees of Albemarle
Academy, and in lieu of such Academy." All rights and claims
of Albemarle Academy were, by the same act, vested in Central College.
The board of visitors of the college consisted of six members, of
whom Jefferson was the only one who had been a member of the
Academy board. The other five members were James Madison, James
Monroe, Joseph Carrington Cabell, David Watson, and John H. Cocke.
On May 5, 1817, Jefferson was elected Rector of the board, and, on
the same day, the board authorized the purchase of a farm of about
two hundred acres lying one mile west of Charlottesville as a site for
the College. This tract now forms a part of the grounds of the University
of Virginia.
The cornerstone of Central College was laid on October 6, 1817,
in the presence of Thomas Jefferson, Rector, and of James Madison
and James Monroe—the latter then President of the United States.
This building, located on what is known as the West Lawn of the
University, is now utilized as the Colonnade Club.
Jefferson's plan was to erect a distinct building, a pavilion for
each individual professor—buildings to be arranged around a rectangular
lawn. Each pavilion was to contain "a school room and
apartments for the accommodation of the professor;" and one-story
dormitories for the students were to be erected adjacent to the pavilions.
Jefferson drew most of the sketches for the buildings with
his own hands, basing them upon designs by Palladio; and his ideas
of architectural effect and grouping were carried out in detail when
Central College was merged in the University of Virginia.
The prime object in Jefferson's mind, while Rector of the board of
visitors of Central College, was to get the college well under way, and
then have it adopted by the Legislature as the State University. Accordingly,
in the first report of the visitors to the Legislature, of date
January 6, 1818, it is recommended that a state university be established
on the site of Central College.
By an act of February 21, 1818, the Legislature authorized the
appointment by the Governor of a board of twenty-four members, to
be known as the "Board of Commissioners of the University." It was
the duty of this board to meet on August 1, 1818, at the Tavern in
Rockfish Gap, on the Blue Ridge Mountains, and report upon the following
points regarding the organization of a state university:
1. A proper site for the projected university.
2. A plan for the building thereof.
3. The branches of learning which should be taught therein.
4. The number and description of professorships; and
5. Such general provisions as might properly be enacted by the
Legislature for the better organizing and governing of the University.
Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe were present at the meeting of
the Commissioners, and their able and elaborate report to the Legislature
(indicating much careful thought) had probably been prepared
by Jefferson before the meeting was held. This report, recommending,
among other things, the site of Central College as the most advantageous
one for the University, was forwarded in duplicate to the
Speaker of the House and the Speaker of the Senate on August 4,
1818. On January 25, 1819, the Legislature adopted a formal act "for
establishing an University," and this date must be reckoned as the
year of the origin of the University, although the institution was not
opened to students until March 7, 1825.
Although Jefferson's was the dominant spirit and the shaping
hand in the whole movement for the establishment of a state university,
it should be stated that but for the influence and efforts of Joseph
Carrington Cabell, the close personal friend of Jefferson, the acts of
February 21, 1818, and January 25, 1819, would probably have failed
of adoption by the Legislature.
The act of January 25, 1819, establishing the University, is as follows:
"1. Be it declared by the General Assembly of Virginia, That the
conveyance of the lands and other property appertaining to the Central
College in the County of Albemarle, which has been executed by
the proctor thereof, under authority of the subscribers and founders,
to the President and Directors of the Literary Fund, is hereby accepted,
for the use and on the conditions in the said deed of conveyance
expressed.
"2. And be it enacted, That there shall be established, on the site
of Virginia; that it shall be under the government of seven visitors
to be appointed forthwith by the Governor, with the advice of
Council, notifying thereof the persons so appointed, and prescribing
to them a day for their first meeting at the said University, with supplementary
instructions for procuring a meeting subsequently, in the
event of failure at the time first appointed.
"3. The said visitors, or so many of them as, being a majority,
shall attend, shall appoint a rector, of their own body, to preside at
their meetings, and a secretary to record, attest, and preserve their
proceedings, and shall proceed to examine into the state of the
property conveyed as aforesaid; shall make an inventory of the same,
specifying the items whereof it consists; shall notice the buildings and
other improvements already made, and those which are in progress;
shall take measures for their completion, and for the addition of such
others, from time to time as may be necessary.
"4. In the said University shall be taught the Latin, Greek, and
Hebrew languages; French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Anglo-Saxon;
the different branches of Mathematics, pure and physical; natural
philosophy; the principles of agriculture; chemistry; mineralogy,
including geology; botany; zoölogy; anatomy, medicine; civil government;
political economy; the law of nature and nations; municipal
law; history; ideology; general grammar; ethics; rhetoric; and belles
lettres; which branches of science shall be so distributed, and under
so many professors, not exceeding ten, as the visitors shall think
proper and expedient.
"5. Each professor shall be allowed the use of the apartments
and accommodations provided for him, and those first employed such
standing salary as the visitors shall think proper and sufficient, and
their successors such standing salary, not exceeding one thousand
dollars, as the visitors shall think proper and sufficient, with such tuition
fees from each student, as the visitors shall from time to time
establish.
"6. The said visitors shall be charged with the erection, preservation,
and repair of the buildings, the care of the grounds and appurtenances,
and of the interests of the University generally; they
shall have power to appoint a bursar, employ a proctor, and all other
necessary agents; to appoint and remove professors, two-thirds of the
whole number of visitors voting for the removal; to prescribe their
duties and the course of education, in conformity with the law; to establish
rules for the government and discipline of the students, not
contrary to the laws of the land; to regulate tuition fees, and the rent
of the dormitories occupied; to prescribe and control the duties and
proceedings of all officers, servants, and others, with respect to the
buildings, lands, appurtenances, and other property, and interests of
law charged on it for this institution; and, in general, to direct and do
all matters and things which, not being inconsistent with the laws of
the land, to them shall seem most expedient for promoting the purposes
of said institution; which several functions they shall be free to
exercise in the form of by-laws, resolutions, orders, instructions, or
otherwise, as they shall deem proper.
"7. They shall have two stated meetings in every year, to-wit, on
the first Mondays of April and October; and occasional meetings at
such other times as they shall appoint, or on a special call, with such
notice as themselves shall prescribe by a general rule; which meetings
shall be at the University; a majority of them constituting a quorum
for business, and on the death, resignation of a member, or failure to
act for the space of one year, or on his removal out of the Commonwealth,
or by the Governor, with the advice of Council, the Governor
with like advice shall appoint a successor.
"8. The said rector and visitors shall be a body corporate, under
the style and title of `The Rector and Visitors of the University of
Virginia,' with the right, as such, to use a common seal; they shall
have capacity to plead and be impleaded in all courts of justice, and
in all cases interesting to the University, which may be subjects of
legal cognizance and jurisdiction; which pleas shall not abate by the
determination of their office, but shall stand revived in the name of
their successors; and they shall be capable in law, and in trust for the
University, of receiving subscriptions and donations, real and personal,
as well as from bodies corporate or persons associated, as from private
individuals.
"9. And the said rector and visitors shall, at all times, conform to
such laws as the legislature may, from time to time, think proper to
enact for their government; and the said University shall in all things,
and at all times, be subject to the control of the legislature. And the
said rector and visitors of the University of Virginia shall be, and they
are hereby required to make report annually to the president and directors
of the literary fund (to be laid before the legislature at the
next succeeding session), embracing a full account of the disbursements,
the funds on hand, and a general statement of the condition of
said University.
"10. The said board of visitors, or a majority thereof, by nomination
of the board, shall, once in every year at least, visit the said University;
enquire into the proceedings and practices thereat; examine the
progress of the students, and give to those who excel in every branch
of science, there taught, such honorary marks and testimonials of approbation
as may encourage and incite to industry and emulation.
"11. On every twenty-ninth day of February, or, if that be Sunday,
can be effected, the Governor and Council shall be in session, and shall
appoint visitors of the said University, either the same or others at
their discretion, to serve until the twenty-ninth day of February next
ensuing, duly and timely notifying to them their appointment, and prescribing
a day for their first meeting at the University; after which,
their meetings, stated and occasional, shall be as hereinbefore provided:
Provided, that nothing in this act contained shall suspend the
proceedings of the visitors of the said Central College of Albemarle;
but for the purpose of expediting any objects of said institution, they
shall be authorized, under the control of the Governor and Council, to
continue the exercise of their functions, and fulfill those of their successors,
until the first actual meeting of their said successors.
"12. And be it further enacted, That the additional sum of twenty
thousand dollars shall be, and the same is hereby, appropriated to the
education of the poor, out of the revenue of the literary fund, in the
aid of the sum heretofore appropriated to that object, and to be paid
in the same manner and upon the same conditions in all respects as is
prescribed by the fourth section of the act, entitled `An act appropriating
part of the revenue of the literary fund, and for other purposes,
passed the twenty-first day of February, eighteen hundred and eighteen.'
"13 This act shall commence and be in force from and after the
passing thereof." (Revised Code, 1819, ch. 34, p. 90.)
The first Board of Visitors consisted of four members of the old
board of Central College—namely, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison,
Joseph Carrington Cabell, and John H. Cocke; the additional appointees
were James Breckenridge, Chapman Johnson, and Robert
Taylor. The board met for the first time on March 29, 1819, and
elected Thomas Jefferson Rector. Henceforth, until his death in
1826, Jefferson was the dominating and directing power of the University,
not only evolving the entire system of education introduced,
but actually devising, to the minutest detail, every feature of construction
and administration.
GOVERNMENT AND ORGANIZATION.
The organization of the University, its government, discipline,
and methods of instruction, were virtually prescribed by Jefferson
alone; and in many respects they still retain the impression derived
from him. By virtue of its charter, the supreme government of the
institution, under the General Assembly, is invested in the Rector and
Visitors. Under the general direction of this board, and subject to its
first eighty years of its existence, by the Faculty and its Chairman,
the latter being a member of the Faculty, who occupied temporarily
the position of chief executive officer of the institution.
As the University grew, it became more and more difficult for a
member of the teaching staff to fill the position of chairman, and attend
to the manifold executive duties attached to that office. In October,
1903, the Visitors decided that modern conditions rendered
necessary the creation of the office of president; and in June, 1904,
Dr. Edwin Anderson Alderman was elected first president of the
University of Virginia.
The scheme of instruction organized by Jefferson contemplated
no fixed uniform curriculum of studies to be pursued by every student
alike, without discrimination. Each distinct branch of knowledge was,
as far as was practicable, assigned to an individual "School" with its
own instructors; and the University was to consist of a collection of
independent Schools. The origin of the elective system at the University
of Virginia is found in the fact that students were permitted to
matriculate in any School or Schools of the University for which they
were prepared.
The original organization consisted of eight independent Schools
—namely, Ancient Languages, Modern Languages, Mathematics, Natural
Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, Chemistry, Medicine, and Law.
The first seven Schools mentioned were opened to matriculates on
March 7, 1825,—with an aggregate attendance, during the first session,
of 123 students. The School of Law was not opened until 1826.
This original organization was, of course, gradually enlarged and
modified. As early as 1837 the School of Medicine was elevated to a
Department, consisting of three individual Schools; while in 1850 the
School of Law was enlarged to a Department consisting of two
Schools. Other Departments and Schools have been added from time
to time, until the University organization arrived at its present condition,
as described elsewhere in this catalogue.
It was provided by the first Board of Visitors, in accordance with
Jefferson's wishes, that but two degrees should be conferred by the
University. The lower degree, characteristic of the institution for
many years, was conferred upon a student who had completed all the
work offered in any one School; to such a candidate the untitled degree
of "Graduate" in the School in question should be given. The
other, the higher degree, was to be the Doctor's degree and was to be
given to the graduate in two or more Schools who had, in addition,
exhibited well-developed powers of research.
There is abundant evidence that, in planning the organization of
type of university. The first faculty were, however, with one
or two exceptions, Oxford or Cambridge men. Naturally they had in
mind the English type of university: the result of which was that
they soon substituted (in 1831) for the Doctor's degree proposed by
Jefferson, the Master's degree, common in England. The degree of
"Master of Arts of the University of Virginia" was accordingly, for
more than half a century, the leading degree conferred by this institution.
Through the munificence of Mr. Andrew Carnegie, who donated to
the General Alumni Association of the University of Virginia the sum
of $500,000, upon condition that the same be held and the income therefrom
be applied to the following schools and professorships: Engineering;
Law; International Law; Political Science and Political Economy;
English; Pathology: there were established in May, 1909, by
joint action of the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia
and the Alumni Board of Trustees of the University of Virginia Endowment
Fund, the following schools and professorships:
The Andrew Carnegie School of Engineering;
The James Madison School of Law;
The James Monroe School of International Law;
The James Wilson School of Political Economy;
The Edgar Allan Poe School of English;
The Walter Reed School of Pathology.
As at present organized, the University comprises twenty-six distinct
and independent Schools. The courses of instruction given in
these are so coördinated as to form six Departments, two of which are
academic, and four professional (or technical); viz:
THE ACADEMIC DEPARTMENTS.
The College, with the degrees of:
Bachelor of Arts;
Cultural Bachelor of Science;
Vocational Bachelor of Science.
The Department of Graduate Studies, with the degrees of:
Graduate in a School;
Master of Arts;
Master of Science;
Doctor of Philosophy.
THE PROFESSIONAL DEPARTMENTS.
The Department of Law, with the degree of
Bachelor of Laws.
The Department of Medicine, with the degree of
Doctor of Medicine.
The Department of Engineering, with the degrees of:
Civil Engineer;
Mechanical Engineer;
Electrical Engineer;
Mining Engineer;
Chemical Engineer.
The Department of Agriculture, with the degree of
Bachelor of Science in Agriculture.
| University of Virginia record February, 1910 | |