University of Virginia Library

NORTHERN VIRGINIA COLLEGE SITE APPROVED

The Rector opened a three-hour discussion of the problem of a permanent site
for the University's Northern Virginia College, now occupying a former public
school building at Bailey's Cross Roads, by asking whether the Board desired to
hear further testimony by representatives from Northern Virginia civic
organizations and local governments. The governmental representatives present this
morning, Mr. Talbott noted, included officials favoring each of the only two sites
remaining under consideration, the Ravensworth tract and the Sunset Hills tract,
near Herndon, the citizens and officials supporting both sides had expressed
themselves as willing to forego the hearings, but only on condition that no
opposing witness should appear before the Board.

Members pointed out that the two sites now finally available were essentially
the same two sites on which the Board's special committee had made a study and
report in September 1956, and upon which the full Board had subsequently held
extensive hearings. It was also pointed out that many official and unofficial
communications were on the table and that further hearings would only distract
attention from the study of these and other documents, maps, and exhibits, and
from adequate deliberation upon the merits of the two sites.

On motion of Dr. Emmett, duly seconded, the Board RESOLVED that no hearings
be held unless developments later in the day should call for them, but with
freedom reserved to call in anyone needed to clarify a question.

The Secretary, as instructed, informed Mr. C. Harrison Mann and other waiting
witnesses of the foregoing decision, and requested that they remain on call by
telephone.

The Secretary having previously furnished to each Visitor a description of
Ravensworth and copies of Mr. C. Harrison Mann's letter of 30 January 1958 (as
amended on February 1st) offering and requesting approval, on behalf of the Board
of Control for the Establishment of a Northern Virginia Branch College, of
Ravensworth tracts comprising 209 acres, the Rector also read to the Board numerous
telegrams, letters, and other documents, including the individual offers of land.

Noting that some of the land offers at Ravensworth promised delivery over a
three-year period, the Board instructed the Secretary to obtain by telephone a
clarification from Mr. Mann. This was done, and Mr. Mann explained that clear
titles would be available, but that installment payments would be necessary to
protect the owners from tax losses.

The Joint House Resolution of 27 February 1956 authorizing the branch in
Northern Virginia was read and explained to the Board by the Rector.

President Darden read to the Board a letter of 30 January 1958 from Paul H.
Farrier, Secretary of the State Council of Higher Education, containing the
following resolution adopted by the Council on January 27th:

The Rector also read to the Board a letter from Paul H. Farrier, Executive
Secretary of the State Council of Higher Education, dated January 30, 1958, in
which Mr. Farrier pointed out that in two recent reports the Virginia Advisory
Legislative Council had stated that branch institutions should be established in
areas of high population density.

The Rector noted that the Board had received no official messages from any of
the four governing bodies in the tenth district, except Arlington, and that Mr. C.
Harrison Mann had overlooked bringing the messages with him to Charlottesville, as
he had intended to do. The Rector then read to the Board the following statement
signed by Mr. Mann in the Secretary's presence this morning

At Mr. Gravatt's request the Secretary read to the Board the Board's
resolutions of 14 December 1957 approving as acceptable sites the Chiles tract, the
Brenizer tract, and the Bowman tract at Sunset Hills, and authorizing the Executive
Committee to act for the Board during December and January, either in acceptance of
one of these sites or in negotiating an extension of the Bowman offer, which had
since been extended and doubled.

The very extensive discussion that followed brought out the opinions already
announced by the Advisory Council, the local governments in and near the Tenth
District, the Board of Control, and the Council of Higher Education, as well as the
sharply divided public opinion in Northern Virginia. Emphasis was put upon
transportation problems, the availability of metropolitan universities and the cost
differentials, educational costs at non-dormitory institutions, the freedom of the
Board (under the General Assembly) to establish the branch either within or beyond
the bounds of the Tenth District, the problem of local financial support, projected
highway developments and population trends (especially as analyzed and presented by
the late Dr. Dowell Howard, now modified by the new airport near Herndon),
expansion space, and the dangers of future pressures for a four-year branch college.

The Rector proposed, the Board concurring, that in reaching a decision the
Visitors should follow three broad rules: (1) Ignore all pressures, (2) Ignore
purely esthetic considerations since both sites now considered by the Board offer
the protection of reasonably adequate acreage and since the institution will not be
a dormitory college, and (3) Be guided solely by best judgment, in the light of all
the evidence, to choose the site that will best serve Northern Virginia now and in
future

President Darden spoke in favor of the Ravensworth tract, emphasizing the
concurring decisions reached, after long and arduous efforts of Board of Control
members and others, by the local governments on which the University must depend.
He pointed out that most students would be expected to come from the Tenth District
and would find Ravensworth much more accessible. He referred also to Dr.
Lancaster's concern and the opinions reached by the Council of Higher Education.

Others stressed the advantages of the Sunset Hills location for the long-range
future, and reminded the Board of the studies of the late Dr. Dowell Howard
of the high schools and future developments in Northern Virginia which made him
such a strong advocate of the Sunset Hills site.

Judge Smith, who said he had formerly favored a somewhat rural site,
questioned whether it was practicable to attempt to proceed at this time. Judge
Bryan expressed similar doubts, despite his preference for the Sunset Hills
location. The Rector pointed to state policy for creating a Northern Virginia
college now, as reflected in the General Assembly's resolution, and others said
they believed that if the Visitors made a firm decision, based on their mature
convictions, that the Northern Virginians would ultimately support the project

Upon motion of Mr. Gravatt, seconded by Dr. Martin, the Board adopted by a 9
to 2 vote (Messrs. Coxe and Talbott dissenting) the following resolution

RESOLVED by the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia that the
Board approves and stands ready to accept as a permanent site for the Northern
Virginia College of the University of Virginia the 500-acre tract (with use of the
proposed sewage disposal plant) offered by Mr. A. Smith Bowman, Jr., Mr. L. DeLong
Bowman, and A. Smith Bowman & Sons, Inc., together with the gift of forty thousand
dollars ($40,000.00) offered by the Board of Supervisors of Loudoun County.