 | Board of Visitors minutes February 13, 1953 |  |
ADMISSION OF DAUGHTERS OF FACULTY MEMBERS TO THE COLLEGE
The Rector read the following letter received from the Attorney General in response to
a request for an opinion concerning the above matter:
Office of the Attorney General
Richmond
February 11, 1953
Citizens Bank Building
Norfolk 10, Virginia
This is in reply to your recent letter from which I quote as follows:
"The Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia would greatly
appreciate your rendering a legal opinion as to the validity of the passage
of the following resolution:
`Be it resolved that daughters of members of the faculty
of the University of Virginia may enter the School of Arts and
Sciences, and after passing the prescribed courses, and conforming
to the other prescribed conditions, may be awarded the degrees
of B. A. and B. S.'
"The question I have propounded above arose from a hardship situation concerning
a professor of mathematics who has received an offer from the University
of Wisconsin of a higher salary than the University can pay him. He is
willing to stay with us if we will allow him to enroll his daughters as candidates
for B. A. or B. S. degrees in the School of Art and Sciences.
"However, our inquiry of you is not based on any question either of
necessity or of policy, but rather on the point as to whether there is any
statutory, constitutional or common law provision which would prevent the
passage of the above resolution."
It is my understanding that for many years women have been permitted to take courses
offered in the College of Arts and Sciences and that credit for that work has been allowed them in
the Department of Education and the Department of Graduate Studies of the University. It is also
my understanding that while heretofore women have not been allowed to receive a so-called liberal
arts degree from the College of Arts and Sciences, they have been awarded B. S. in Commerce degrees
earned in the Schools of Commerce and Economics which, in fact, are a part of the College of Arts
and Sciences.
I am unable to find any statute that expressly and specifically prohibits the adoption
of the proposed resolution quoted above. However, my attention has been called to Article 4 of
Chapter 9 of Title 23 of the Code (sections 23-86—23-91) which converted Mary Washington College
of Fredericksburg into a liberal arts college for women and affiliated it with the University as
an integral part thereof by transferring the supervision, management and control from the State
Board of Education to The Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia.
Section 23-89 of the Code provides that "Mary Washington College of the University of
Virginia shall have the same standards of admission and graduation as obtained for male students
in the college of arts and sciences of the University" and that "the tuition charges * * shall not
exceed those which are * * fixed by the rector and visitors * * for male students in such college
of arts and sciences". (Italics supplied). It is urged that the use of the words "male students"
indicate that the General Assembly recognized and approved the Board's policy of limiting liberal
arts degrees to male students and that such recognition and approval has the effect of law, thus
prohibiting the award of such degrees to women. I agree that the language used in section 23-89
may well indicate that the General Assembly approves of the past and present policy of the Board
on this question. However, it must be pointed out that such policy was established by a state
institution and not by the Legislature. Under such circumstances, it is my opinion that the mere
recognition of such a policy and the approval thereof by the General Assembly does not have the
force and effect of a law restricting the Board in the formation of its future policy.
Section 23-76 of the Code prescribes the powers and duties of the Board and contains,
among other things, a provision authorizing it "to make such regulations as they (it) may deem
expedient, not being contrary to law". It is my conclusion that this provision has not been
amended or restricted by Article 4 of Chapter 9 herein referred to and that the Board of Visitors
of the University of Virginia may in its discretion adopt the resolution set forth in your letter.
Attorney General
This opinion of the Attorney General confirmed the action of the Board taken at the
October meeting, at which it passed the following resolution:
RESOLVED that the daughters of faculty members who live in the homes of their families
in Charlottesville be admitted to the College of Arts and Sciences.
| Board of Visitors minutes February 13, 1953 | |