 | University of Virginia March, 1907 |  |
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 a professor's residence.
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
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 mature and nations; municipal law; history; ideology;
general grammar; ethics; rhetorick; 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
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, rules,
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 testimonies of approbation
as may encourage and incite to industry and emulation.
"11. On every twenty-ninth 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
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
fulfil 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 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
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 welldeveloped
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.
As at present organized, the University comprises twenty-five distinct
so coördinated as to form six Departments, two of which are academic,
and four professional (or technical).
The Academic Departments are
The College:
with the degree of Bachelor of Arts.
The Department of Graduate Studies:
with the degrees of Graduate in the School; Master of Arts;
and Doctor of Philosophy.
The Professional Departments are
The Department of Law:
with the degree of Bachelor of Law.
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; and Mining Engineer.
The Department of Agriculture:
with the degree of Bachelor of Science.
| University of Virginia March, 1907 | |