University of Virginia Library

Announcements.

1898-99.

Charlottesville, the seat of The University of Virginia, is in a picturesque
and healthful situation among the foot-hills 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 five Departments—the Academic,
and those of Engineering, Law, Medicine, 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 privileges to be sought voluntarily and eagerly.
Students 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 time 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, the Chemical Laboratory
and the Musuem of Industrial Chemistry, the Lewis Brooks
Musuem, 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. 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 until the recent
loss by fire, about 53,000 volumes.[1] Students are allowed the use of the books
under the usual 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 institution,
he must produce a certificate from such institution, 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 of the Faculty, any
student be not fulfilling the purposes 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 required 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 who attains this standard is entitled to a certificate
to that 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, 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 and compensation of
any such Licentiate is a matter of private agreement between him and 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.