 | University of Virginia |  |
ANNOUNCEMENTS.
1897-98.
Charlottesville, the seat of The University of Virginia,
is in a picturesque and healthful situation among the foothills
of the Blue Ridge mountains. It is at the junction of
two great lines of railway, the Chesapeake and Ohio and
the Southern; and is thus of easy access from every part
of the country.
The Sanitary Arrangements of the University are excellent.
The climate is invigorating, healthful, and free from
malarial conditions; the water supply is pure; the system of
drains and sewers is complete; the new Fayerweather
Gymnasium affords ample facilities for bathing and exercise;
and in case of illness students receive treatment from the
members of the Faculty of Medicine, with skillful nursing
when necessary, in a well-equipped infirmary.
The Session begins on the 15th day of September, and
continues nine months. On Public Day, which is the
Wednesday before the 19th of June, the Visitors, Faculty,
Officers and Students of the University assemble in the
Public Hall, whither the public also are invited. On this
occasion the results of the examinations are announced,
degrees are conferred, and the session is formally closed.
The Courses of Instruction are comprised in six Departments—the
Academic, and those of Engineering, Law,
Medicine, Pharmacy, and Agriculture. In the various
departments there are altogether twenty-two distinct schools,
each affording an independent course, under the direction
of professors who are responsible only to the Board of
Visitors for the systems and methods pursued.
Elective System.—The system of independent Schools
assumes that opportunities for study and instruction are
are therefore allowed to elect for themselves the courses of
study to which they are led by their individual tastes and
proposed pursuits in life, as far as the times appointed for
lectures and examinations permit. Nor is it alone to those
who wish to make special attainments in single departments
of knowledge that this freedom of election commends
itself. It has serious advantages also for most of those
students who seek the common goal of liberal education
by ways which varying aptitude, varying preparation, or
varying opportunities render of necessity different. The
wisdom of the founder in establishing such a system has
been amply vindicated in the history of this University;
and in recent years many schools of higher education in
the United States have adopted methods involving this
principle.
Equipment.—The equipment possessed by the University
for the work of instruction, alike in the Academic and in
the Professional Departments, has been much augmented
in recent years, and is now excellent in quality, as well as
extensive. In scientific studies large facilities are offered
by the Leander McCormick Observatory, the new Rouss
Physical Laboratory, now rapidly approaching completion,
the Chemical Laboratory and the Museum of Industrial
Chemistry, the Lewis Brooks Museum, the Biological
Laboratory and the Pathological Laboratory. Ample
opportunities are afforded for the practical study of Human
Anatomy. The Engineering Department possesses a newly-equipped
Mechanical Laboratory and Machine Shop.[1]
The University Library is common to all the Departments;
originally selected and arranged by Mr. Jefferson,
it has since been much enlarged by purchases and donations,
and contained at the beginning of the previous session and
until the recent loss by fire, about 53,000 volumes.[2]
restrictions, and the Librarian is present in the Library for
six hours daily to attend to their wants.
Preparation.—Some special preparation for the courses
taught in the Schools of Latin, Greek, Modern Languages,
English Literature and Mathematics will be found indispensable.
But even for these Schools it is more important
that the preliminary studies should have been careful and
accurate in quality than that they should be extensive.
For the other Schools the essentials of a plain education in
the common school branches constitute the only indispensable
preparation. In all the Schools alike, however, the
student who has had the benefit of mental training, and who
brings with him good and well-established habits of study,
will derive increased profit from the University instruction
because of these advantages. But it has never been the
policy of the University to reject any student merely
because of deficient preparation in special branches of learning,
which he may not wish to pursue here. The standards
of teaching and of examination can be otherwise maintained;
and experience has shown in a multitude of instances
that young men of vigorous mind and earnest purpose
of diligence, brought hither by a laudable ambition to excel,
may overcome the disadvantages of inadequate training,
and become conspicuous among their fellows for success in
study.
Admission.—To be admitted as a student of the University,
the applicant must be at least sixteen years of age;
but the Faculty may dispense with this requirement. If
the applicant has been a student at any other incorporated
seminary, he must produce a certificate from such seminary,
or other satisfactory evidence, of general good conduct.
Conduct.—The laws of the University require from every
student decorous, sober and upright conduct as long as he
remains a member of the University, whether he be within
the precincts or not. They require from the student regular
and diligent application to his studies, and if, in the opinion
for which he ought to have come to the University, and be
not likely to fulfill them, either from habitual delinquency
in any of his classes, or from habitual idleness, or from any
other bad habit, the Faculty may require him to withdraw
from the University, after informing him of the objections
to his conduct and affording him an opportunity of explanation
and defense.
Discipline and Religious Worship.—Morality and religion
are recognized as the foundation and indispensable concomitants
of education. The discipline of the University is
sedulously administered with a view to confirm integrity,
and to maintain a sacred regard for truth. Great efforts
are made to surround the students with religious influences;
but experience having proved that it is best to forbear the
employment of coercion, the attendance on religious exercises
is entirely voluntary. Prayers are held every evening,
and divine service is conducted twice on Sunday in the
University Chapel by clergymen invited from the principal
religious denominations.
Entrance Examinations are not required except from
Academic students from Virginia seeking free tuition.
The requirements for these examinations are stated elsewhere.
But applicants for admission to the different classes
in the several Schools are expected to exhibit to the Professors
suitable evidences of adequate preliminary training.
The method of instruction in all departments of the University
is partly by lecture, partly by the study of appropriate
texts. The regulations require that at each meeting the
Professor shall examine the class orally on the subject-matter
of the previous lecture before beginning the new
lecture. Associated with this instruction in the class is a
large amount of practical laboratory work in the scientific
courses, and of private parallel reading and essay writing
in the literary courses.
The examinations in each class are in writing, and the
standard is in no case less than three-fourths. A student
effect. The examinations in each School are conducted by a
committee of the Faculty, of which the Professor in charge
is chairman. No special examination is granted, except upon
the physician's certificate of sickness on the day of examination,
or other cause which the Faculty may accept as
adequate ground.
Candidates for Graduation are subjected to searching
interrogations on the specific details as well as on the general
principles of the subject, and are expected to be accurately
versed in all matters treated in the lectures, the correlative
text, and the prescribed courses of private reading. Moreover,
the student's command of English, and his standing
at the daily oral examinations, as well as at the written
examinations are taken into the account.
Degrees are conferred only upon examination after residence.
Diplomas of graduation are conferred in the B. A.
course of each Academic School, and students who complete
both the B. A. and the M. A. course in any School
are entitled to a diploma of graduation in the School. The
titled degrees conferred are Bachelor of Arts, Master of
Arts, Doctor of Philosophy, Bachelor of Science, Doctor of
Medicine, Graduate in Pharmacy, and Bachelor of Law.
The requirements for these degrees are given under the
several departments. No merely honorary degree is ever
given by the University of Virginia.
Licentiates.—Any person of unexceptionable character
and habits, upon producing to the Faculty satisfactory evidence
of suitable capacity and attainments, may be licensed
by the Faculty to form classes for private instruction in any
School of the University, in aid of and in conformity to the
public teachings of the Professor upon any subject taught
therein. The employment, selection and compensation of
such Licentiate is left to the determination of the student.
Students whose preparation is defective for the work of the
University classes may often economize time and energy by
securing the services of a Licentiate at the same time that
they are attending the regular course of lectures.
Considerable progress has already been made toward replacing the lost
books, by generous contributions from sister institutions of learning and from
publishing firms and private individuals. It is expected that liberal money
appropriations will be made by the Visitors toward the speedy restoration of
the Library.
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