University of Virginia Library

INTRODUCTION.

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 schoolroom 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 into 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
provided for the said College, an University, to be called the University
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 the University; to draw from the literary funds
such monies as are by 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 the 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,
then on the next, or earliest day thereafter on which a meeting 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.

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 vested in the Rector and Visitors. Under the
general direction of this board, and subject to its regulations, the affairs
of the University were administered, for the 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, 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 wisdom of the Founder in establishing such a system has been amply
vindicated in the history of this university, and in the adoption by almost
all schools of higher education in the country of methods involving this
principle.

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. A
most notable addition was made in May, 1909, when, through a gift of
$500,000 from Mr. Andrew Carnegie to the General Alumni Association,
six new Schools were established by joint action of the Rector and
Visitors and the Alumni Board of Trustees of the University of Virginia
Endowment Fund: 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.

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
the University of Virginia, Jefferson had in mind the so-called continental
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.

THE HONOR SYSTEM.

For eighteen years after the opening of the institution, honesty at the
written examinations was sought to be secured by the strict surveillance
of a committee of three professors. This was often found to be ineffectual.
In June, 1842, Judge Henry St. George Tucker, Professor of Law, offered
the following resolution, which the Faculty at once adopted:

This was the beginning of the honor system at this institution. In
subsequent years the pledge was extended so as to preclude the giving
as well as the receiving of assistance. The system has been in operation
since 1842 without interruption. Its wisdom and its beneficial results
have been abundantly demonstrated. Its administration imposes no burden
upon the Faculty. Experience shows that the students themselves are its
sternest guardians and executors. Violation of examination pledges has
been of rare occurrence. In every case the culprit has been quietly but
promptly eliminated without need of faculty action.

The spirit of truth and honor, thus fostered in the examination-room,
has gradually pervaded the entire life of the institution, and all the relations
between student and professor.

It is not believed to be essential to the honor system, nor indeed to
be right, to expose the examinee to unnecessary temptation. The student

is regarded as one to be shielded from such influences and to have his
honorable tendencies carefully reinforced, and not wrecked. Hence the
examination is held in one place, and is conducted by the professor in
charge of the course or by one of his subordinates. Conversation among
the candidates and absence from the room are discouraged. They are
cautioned to avoid even the appearance of evil. These safeguards have
been found to be in entire harmony with the absence of espionage. The
fact that the candidate is not suspected, has been found to lead always
to the avoidance of conduct which would give rise to suspicion.

EQUIPMENT.

The teaching staff numbers one hundred and six, of which fifty-one
are of professorial grade. The general and departmental libraries contain
about eighty thousand volumes. The value of the grounds, buildings,
and equipment owned by the University is $2,227,617.00. The University
holds productive funds to the amount of $2,089,673.93. In addition to
the income from endowment, students' fees, dormitories, etc., it receives
from the State annually $102,500. The expenditures for the session of
1913-1914 were $328,920.42.

The Leander McCormick Observatory, the Rouss Physical Laboratory,
the Chemical Laboratory, the Geological Laboratory, the Engineering Laboratories,
the Power, Light, and Heating Plant, the Lewis Brooks Museum
of Natural History, the Biological Laboratory, the Anatomical Laboratory,
the laboratories of Histology, Embryology, Pharmacology and Pathology,
the Physiological Laboratory, and the Hospital buildings and laboratories
offer large and modern facilities for the study of Pure and Applied Science.
The Department of Law and the School of Education are housed in buildings
which have been recently completed.

ORGANIZATION.

As at present organized, the University comprises thirty 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;

• Bachelor of Science;

• Bachelor of Science in a Special Subject;

• Bachelor of Science in Medicine.

The Department of Graduate Studies, with the degrees of

• Graduate in a School;

• Master of Arts;

• Master of Science;

• Master of Science in a Special Subject;

• 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;

• Chemical Engineer;

• Mining Engineer.

The Department of Agriculture.[1]