University of Virginia
The
University of Virginia (also called
UVA,
U.Va.,
Mr. Jefferson's University, or simply
The University) is a public research
university in
Charlottesville, Virginia, established by
Thomas Jefferson. It is the only
North American college or university designated as a
World Heritage Site by the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and is notable in U.S. history for being the first to offer academic specializations in areas now common, such as
Architecture,
Astronomy, and
Philosophy, as well as being the first to separate church and education. Its
School of Engineering and Applied Science is the oldest engineering school in the United States associated with a university. Officially, it is incorporated as
The Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia.
On
January 18,
1800, plans for a new college were alluded to by Thomas Jefferson, then
Vice President of the United States, in a letter written to
Joseph Priestley: "We wish to establish in the upper country of Virginia, and more centrally for the State, a University on a plan so broad and liberal and modern, as to be worth patronizing with the public support, and be a temptation to the youth of other States to come and drink of the cup of knowledge and fraternize with us."
[Noble E. Cunningham, Jr., In Pursuit of Reason: The Life of Thomas Jefferson, p. 336.] In
1802, then serving as
President of the United States, Jefferson wrote to artist
Charles Willson Peale that his concept of the new university would be "on the most extensive and liberal scale that our circumstances would call for and our faculties meet."
[Alf J. Mapp, Jr., Thomas Jefferson: Passionate Pilgrim, p. 19.] Although Virginia was already home to one university, the
College of William and Mary, Jefferson had lost confidence in his alma mater, in part because of its religious biases and lack of education in the sciences.
[Phillips Russell, Jefferson, Champion of the Free Mind, p. 335.]The University of Virginia stands on land purchased in
1788 by an
American Revolutionary War veteran,
James Monroe. The farmland just outside
Charlottesville was purchased from Monroe by the Board of Visitors of what was then
Central College in
1817, while Monroe was beginning the first of his own two terms in the
White House. Guided by Jefferson, the school would lay its first building's cornerstone later in 1817 and the Commonwealth of Virginia would charter the new university on
January 25,
1819.
In the presence of
James Madison, the
Marquis de Lafayette toasted Jefferson as "father" of the
University of Virginia at the school's inaugural banquet in
1824. The University's first classes met in March
1825, when it became the first institution to offer students a full choice of elective courses, instead of the then-standard fare of fixed schedules determined by school administrators. Other universities of the day allowed only three choices of specialization: Medicine, Law, and Religion, but under Jefferson's guidance, the University of Virginia became the first in the United States to allow specializations in such diverse fields as
Astronomy,
Architecture,
Botany,
Philosophy, and
Political Science. Jefferson explained, "This institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it."
[Dumas Malone, Jefferson and His Time: The Sage of Monticello, p. 417-418.] |
The Academical Village in winter |
An even more controversial direction was taken for the new university based on a daring vision of higher education, completely separated from religious doctrine. One of the largest construction projects in North America up to that time, the new Grounds were centered upon a library (then housed in
the Rotunda) rather than a church — further distinguishing it from peer universities of the
United States, virtually all of which were still primarily functioning as seminaries for one particular religion or another.
[Joseph J. Ellis, American Sphinx, p. 283.] Jefferson even went so far as to ban the teaching of Theology altogether. In a letter to
Thomas Cooper in October
1814, Jefferson stated, "a professorship of theology should have no place in our institution" and, true to form, the University had, nor has, no Divinity school or department, and was established independent of any religious sect. Replacing the then-standard specialization in Religion, the University undertook groundbreaking specializations in more "scientific" subjects such as Astronomy and Botany. (A non-denominational University chapel, notably absent from Jefferson's original plans, was constructed in
1890.)
Jefferson was intimately involved in the University, hosting Sunday dinners at his
Monticello home for faculty and students, until his death. So taken with the import of what he viewed the University's foundations and potential to be and counting it amongst his greatest accomplishments, Jefferson eschewed mention of his political posts, and instead insisted his grave mention only his status as author of the
Declaration of Independence and
Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, and father of the University of Virginia.
In
1826, the nation's fourth President
James Madison became Rector of the University of Virginia, at the same time America's fifth President
James Monroe made his home on the Grounds (at
Monroe Hill) and was a member of the Board of Visitors. Both former Presidents stayed at the University until their deaths in the
1830s.
The
School of Engineering and Applied Science opened in
1836, making it the oldest engineering school in the United States associated with a university.
At the onset of the
American Civil War, the University of Virginia was the largest in the
Southern United States and second nationwide only to
Harvard University in its scope.
[Encyclopædia Britannica, University of Virginia, retrieved June 20, 2006.] Unlike many other colleges in the South, the University was kept open throughout the conflict, an especially remarkable feat with its state being the site of more battles than any other. In March
1865, Union General
George Armstrong Custer marched troops into Charlottesville, whereupon faculty and community leaders convinced him to spare the University. Though
Union troops camped on the Lawn and damaged many of the Pavilions, Custer's men left four days later without bloodshed and the University was able to return to its educational routines.
Jefferson, ever the skeptic of central authority and bureaucracy, had originally decided the University of Virginia would have no President. Rather, this power was to be shared by a Rector and a Board of Visitors. As the nineteenth century waned, it became obvious this arrangement was incapable of adequately handling the many administrative and fundraising tasks which had become regretably but unavoidably necessary amid the interworkings of the growing University.
In
1904,
Edwin Alderman resigned as President of
Tulane University to take the same position at the University of Virginia. As the University's first President, he embarked on a number of reforms for both the University and the state of Virginia's public educational systems in general. A reform specific to the University of Virginia was one of the first school-sponsored
financial aid programs in all of higher learning and, though primitive by today's standards, it included a loan provision for those "needy young men" who were unable to pay. Initially controversial and opposed by many at what had become a very traditional school, Alderman's progressive ideas stood the test of time and he today remains the longest-serving President of the University's history, having served for nearly thirty years until his death in
1931. Alderman Library, a popular landmark among today's students, is his namesake.
Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winner
William Faulkner became writer-in-residence at the University in
1957, keeping open office hours until his death in
1962. He was also a lecturer at the school, as well as taking the title "Consultant on American Literature to the Alderman Library". Faulkner had a large collection of his manuscripts and typesets given to and made available (the request reaffirmed by his wife and daughter) at the library upon his death.
In
2004, the University of Virginia became the first public university in the United States to receive more of its funding from private sources than from the state with which it is associated. Thanks to a Charter initiative that recently passed the Virginia legislature, the University — and any other public universities in the state that choose to do so — will have greater autonomy over its own affairs.
In the same year, the 100
th anniversary of Alderman becoming President, the University announced the AccessUVa financial aid program. This program guaranteed the University will meet 100% of a student's demonstrated need. It also provided low-income students (up to 200% of the poverty line – at the time about $37,700 for a family of four) with full grants to cover all of their educational needs, and it caps the level of need-based loans for all other students. This program is the first to guarantee full grants to students of low-income families at any public university in the United States.
Though all-white until
1950 and generally all-male until
1970 (women had for many years previous attended the education and nursing schools), the University of Virginia is now more diverse. The makeup of the Class of
2008 was 10% African-American, 14% Asian-American, 5% Hispanic, 5% Other and 5% International. Fewer than two-thirds identified themselves as being white. Eighty-five percent of the University's entering Class of
2009 were ranked in the top 10% of their graduating high school class and 56% were female.
Today, minority students are particularly successful at the University of Virginia. According to the Fall
2005 issue of
Journal of Blacks in Higher Education [
1], the University "has the highest black student graduation rate of the
Public Ivies at 86 percent." The journal goes on to state that "by far the most impressive is the University of Virginia with its high black student graduation rate and its small racial difference in graduation rates." In the midst of improvements to minority students' academic successes, however, racial issues remain a pertinent part of student life.[
2].
Main articles: The Lawn, The Rotunda, and The Range |
Pantheon elevation by Antoine Desgodetz, Les edifices antiques de Rome, Paris, 1779. |
 |
The Great Rotunda Fire, 1895 |
 |
The Rotunda today |
Throughout its history, the University of Virginia has won praise for its unique
Jeffersonian architecture. In January
1895 (less than a year before the Great Rotunda Fire)
The New York Times said that the design of the University of Virginia "was incomparably the most ambitious and monumental architectural project that had or has yet been conceived in this century".
[Architectural Record, 4 (January-March 1895), pp. 351-353]
In the
United States Bicentennial issue of their
AIA Journal, the
American Institute of Architects called it "the proudest achievement of American architecture in the past 200 years".
[AIA Journal, 65 (July 1976), p. 91] Today, the University of Virginia remains an architectural landmark and popular tourist destination.
The University, together with Jefferson's home at
Monticello, is a
World Heritage Site (#442), one of four man-made landmarks in America. The others are the
Statue of Liberty,
Independence Hall, and
Taos Pueblo. It was the first collegiate campus worldwide to be awarded the designation.
Jefferson's original architectural design revolves around
The Lawn, a grand, terraced green-space surrounded by residential and academic buildings. He called it the "Academical Village", and that name remains in use today to describe both the specific area of the Lawn and the larger University surrounding it. The principal building of the design,
The Rotunda (
RotundaCam), stands at the north end of the Lawn, and is the most recognizable symbol of the University. It is half the height of the
Pantheon in
Rome, which was the primary inspiration for the building. The Lawn and the Rotunda were the model for many similar designs of "centralized green areas" at universities across the country (most notably those at
Duke University in
1892,
Johns Hopkins University in
1902,
Rice University in
1910, Peabody College of
Vanderbilt University in
1915, and Killian Court at
MIT in
1916 — the last of which was coincidentally founded by
William Barton Rogers, who immediately prior to founding MIT was a
Natural Philosophy professor at the University of Virginia for 19 years). Frank E. Grizzard, Jr., a scholar at the University, has written the definitive book[
3] on the original academic buildings at the University.
Flanking both sides of the Rotunda and extending down the length of the Lawn are 10 Pavilions interspersed with student rooms. Each has its own classical architectural style, as well as its own walled garden separated by uniquely Jeffersonian Serpentine walls. These walls are called "serpentine" because they run a sinusoidal course, one that lends strength to the wall and allows for the wall to be only one brick thick, one of many innovations by which Jefferson attempted to combine aesthetics with utility.
On
October 27,
1895, the Rotunda burned to the ground with the unfortunate help of overzealous faculty member William "Reddy" Echols, who attempted to save it by throwing roughly 100 pounds (
~45 kg) of
dynamite into the main fire in the hopes that the blast would separate the burning Annex from the main building. His last-ditch effort ultimately failed. (Perhaps ironically, one of the University's main honors student programs is named for him.) University officials swiftly approached celebrity architect
Stanford White to rebuild the Rotunda. White took the charge further, redesigning the Rotunda interior — making it two floors instead of three, adding three buildings to the foot of the Lawn, and designing a President's House. He did omit rebuilding the Rotunda Annex, which had been built in
1853 to house classroom space. The classes formerly occupying the annex were now moved to the South Lawn in White's new buildings.
In concert with the
United States Bicentennial in
1976, Stanford White's changes to the Rotunda were removed and the building was returned to Jefferson's original design. Renovated according to original sketches and historical photographs, a three-story Rotunda opened on Jefferson's birthday,
April 13,
1976.
Though student enrollment has grown well beyond the original Lawn facilities, the University further distinguishes itself by extending the original Academical Village ideal with two exclusively First-Year living areas, The Old Dorms, located on McCormick Road, and The New Dorms, adjacent to Scott Stadium, both situated wholly on Grounds and considered integral to establishing peer discourse. The common bonding experience proves such a fixture to the University experience, students often identify themselves by individual "Old" or "New" dormitory.
In
2001,
John Kluge donated 7,378 acres (30 km²) of additional lands to the University. Kluge wished for the core of the land to be developed by the University, and the surrounding land to be sold to fund an endowment supporting the core. A large part of the gift was soon sold to musician
Dave Matthews, of the
Dave Matthews Band, to be utilized in an
organic farming project. It is unknown what the University will do with its "core" portion of the land.
On
June 10,
1940, U.S. President
Franklin D. Roosevelt came to the University's Memorial Gymnasium to watch his son
Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. graduate, and to give the commencement address. Instead, "in this university founded by the first great American teacher of democracy" he made his impromptu [ftp://webstorage2.mcpa.virginia.edu/library/nara/fdr/audiovisual/speeches/fdr_1940_0610.mp3 "Stab in the Back"] speech denouncing the act of
Italy joining beside
Nazi Germany to invade
France on that day.[
4] (Graduation ceremonies are traditionally held on the Lawn, but rain had forced a move to "Mem Gym" for the Class of 1940.)
Nearly two decades later, in
1958, Senator
John F. Kennedy visited and spoke in the same space with brothers
Robert Kennedy and
Ted Kennedy, the latter of whom was managing JFK's 1958 Senatorial re-election campaign from his dormitory at the University of Virginia.
To commemorate the anniversary of America's independence, Britain's
Queen Elizabeth II strolled The Lawn and lunched in the Dome Room of The Rotunda, one of five American sites she publicly visited.
The
Dalai Lama and
Desmond Tutu stayed on Grounds for one week in
1998 while attending the University's Nobel Laureates Conference.
|
Georgia O'Keeffe (photo at U.Va.–1915) was inspired to take up painting again during Summer Session, and was later a Teaching Assistant for several years, before becoming one of the world's most famous modernists. |
The University of Virginia does not award honorary degrees. This policy was instituted by Thomas Jefferson. When the Virginia Legislature's Committee of Schools and Colleges was reconsidering it in 1845, future
MIT founder and then U.Va. professor
William Barton Rogers wrote "the legislators of the University have, we think, wisely made their highest academic honor—that of Master of Arts of the University of Virginia—the genuine test of diligent and successful literary training, and, disdaining such literary almsgiving, have firmly barred the door against the demands of spurious merit and noisy popularity."
The University of Virginia places
#1 among public universities and
#6 overall in the United States in the production of
Rhodes Scholars (trailing only
Harvard,
Yale,
Princeton,
West Point, and
Stanford). Tuition is lower for both in-state and out-of-state students than at most other top universities. The student composition of the University is such that it was described in the
2006 America's Best Colleges edition of
U.S. News and World Report ("
Jefferson's Public Ivy") as being "chock full of academic stars who turn down private schools like Duke, Princeton, and Cornell for, they say, a better value."
|
Edgar Allan Poe lived on the Range during the University's second session before dropping out in 1826 after going into debt. |
First in
1993, and again 8 times since,
U.S. News and World Report ranked the University of Virginia as
#1 among U.S. public universities (seven times outright, and once in a tie with the
University of California, Berkeley). In the most recent (
2006) edition, the undergraduate program at U.Va. currently ranks
#2 out of roughly 200 national public universities in the United States. In every published edition of the report, the University of Virginia has retained its position as the highest ranking university in the state of Virginia.
The Jefferson Scholars Foundation offers four year full-tuition scholarships based on regional, international, and at-large competitions. Students are nominated by their high schools, interviewed, then invited to weekend-long series of tests of character, aptitude, and general suitability. Approximately 3% of those nominated are successful.
Echols (College of Arts and Sciences) and Rodman (School of Engineering and Applied Sciences) Scholars, which include 6-7% of undergraduate students, receive no financial benefits, but are entitled to special advisors, priority course registration, and residence in designated dorms, and fewer curricular constraints than other students.
The University offers 48
bachelor's degrees, 94
master's degrees, 55
doctoral degrees, 6 educational specialist degrees, and 2 first-professional degrees (
Medicine and
Law) to its students.
The University of Virginia Library System holds 5 million volumes. Its Electronic Text Center[
5], established in
1992, has put 70,000 books online as well as 350,000 images that go with them. No university in the world can claim more electronic texts. These e-texts are open to anyone and, as of
2002, were receiving 37,000 daily visits (compared to 6,000 daily visitors to the physical libraries).
The University of Virginia hosts the headquarters of the
National Radio Astronomy Observatory (which owns the
Very Large Array of radio telescopes made famous in the
Carl Sagan television documentary
Cosmos and film
Contact) and the North American
Atacama Large Millimeter Array Science Center. It also hosts the
Rare Book School, a non-profit organization that studies the history of books and printing. The University is one of 60 elected members of the
Association of American Universities, and the only member representing the state of Virginia. It is the United States' sole member of
Universitas 21, an international consortium of research-intensive universities.
The University of Virginia possesses a distinguished faculty, including a Nobel Laureate, 25 Guggenheim fellows, 26 Fulbright fellows, six National Endowment for the Humanities fellows, two Presidential Young Investigator Award winners, three Sloan award winners, three Packard Foundation Award winners, and the Chairman of the NAACP. The University's faculty were particularly instrumental in the evolution of Internet networking and connectivity. Physics professor James McCarthy was the lead academic liaison to the government in the establishment of
SURANET, and the University has also participated in
ARPANET,
Abilene,
Internet2, and
Lambda Rail. On
March 19,
1986 the University's website
Virginia.edu became the first contribution to the
World Wide Web originating from the
Commonwealth of
Virginia.
Faculty were originally housed in the
Academical Village among the students, serving as both instructors and advisors, continuing on to include the McCormick Road Old Dorms, though this has been phased out in favor of undergraduate student resident advisors (RAs). Several of the faculty, however, continue the University tradition of living on Grounds, either on the Lawn in the various Pavilions, or as fellows at one of three residential colleges (
Brown College at Monroe Hill, Hereford College, and the International Residential College).
Some of the University of Virginia's faculty have become well-known national personalities during their time in Charlottesville.
Larry Sabato has, according to
The Wall Street Journal and
The Washington Post, become the most cited professor in the country by national and regional news organizations, both on the Internet and in print.
[Center For Politics website. Retrieved June 23, 2006.] Julian Bond, a lecturer at the University since
1990, has been the Chairman of the
NAACP since
1998.
The
Cavalier Daily student newspaper in 2004 posted faculty members' salaries. The information is still accessible
online.
The University does not provide domestic partnership benefits to its faculty and staff even though majority of its peer institutions do.
With
$3.5
billion (as of April 30, 2006) for approximately 19,800 students, the University of Virginia has the largest endowment-per-student of any national public university in the
United States at $177,000. (However, if
Cornell University were counted as a public university, as it has several public colleges administered by the private university, it would rank just ahead of U.Va. at $206,000 per student.)
When compared to other public universities of its state, the per-student endowment at the University of Virginia is several times larger than its nearest competitors (
College of William and Mary–$59,000;
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University–$16,000). It is also several times larger than the highest among flagship institutions of nearby states (
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill–$55,000;
University of Maryland at College Park–$8,600).
Considering public university endowments nationwide, the
University of California System, the
University of Texas System, the
Texas A&M University System, and the
University of Michigan have greater absolute endowments of $4.9 billion to $11.6 billion, but place lower on a per-student basis because of their substantially larger enrollments ranging from 39,000 to 191,000 students.
*
School of Architecture*
College of Arts & Sciences*
Darden Graduate School of Business Administration*
McIntire School of Commerce*
School of Continuing and Professional Studies*
Curry School of Education*
School of Engineering and Applied Science*
School of Law*
School of Medicine*
School of Nursing*
University of Virginia's College at Wise - branch campus in
Wise, VirginiaBased on the number of students attending the best graduate schools,
The Wall Street Journal studied the undergraduate backgrounds of entering students at Top 5 programs (e.g.,
Harvard Business School,
Wharton School,
Yale Law School,
Stanford Law School, and
Johns Hopkins Medical School). The University of Virginia (82 placements, 2.6% of class) placed first statewide and third among all public universities [
6] in elite graduate placement. No other public university on the
Atlantic Seaboard had greater than one-third the number of placements as the University of Virginia.
Main article: Virginia Cavaliers
The University of Virginia's athletics program competes in
Division I-A and since
1953 as a member of the
Atlantic Coast Conference. Their teams, the
Virginia Cavaliers (also called "Wahoos" or "Hoos") have won 16 recognized
NCAA National Championships, 13 of them since
1980. Virginia has won at least two national titles each in five different sports, including three men's sports (
boxing,
soccer, and
lacrosse) and two women's sports (lacrosse and
cross country).
In
2006, the latest championship season culminated with the University of Virginia's fourth
NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship. Virginia handily won the final game 15-7 over
UMass in front of a record crowd of 47,062 at
Lincoln Financial Field in
Philadelphia, the first lacrosse crowd to surpass the
Final Four of men's basketball and the largest crowd to witness any
NCAA Championship during the year.
The team finished the season a perfect 17–0, the best record in NCAA Lacrosse history.
Some of the best known athletic facilities at the University of Virginia include
Scott Stadium,
University Hall,
Klöckner Stadium, and the Aquatics and Fitness Center (
webcam).
John Paul Jones Arena (
construction webcam) opened
August 1,
2006.
Student life at the University of Virginia is marked by a number of unique traditions. The campus of the University is referred to as "the Grounds," and freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors are instead called first-, second-, third-, and fourth-years. Professors are traditionally addressed as "Mr." or "Ms." vice "Dr." (although medical doctors are the exception and are called "Doctor") or "Professor", in deference to Mr. Jefferson's desire to have an equality of ideas, discriminate upon merit but unburdened by title.
|
The University's students have a reputation for being from upper class and white collar backgrounds. Yet tuition rates are low, minority enrollments and graduation rates are high, and grants to replace all loans are now guaranteed up to twice the poverty level with AccessUVa. |
A number of
secret societies at the University, most notably the
Seven Society,
Z Society, and
IMP Society, have operated for decades, leaving their painted marks on University buildings. Other significant secret societies include Eli Banana, T.I.L.K.A., the Purple Shadows (who commemorate Jefferson's birthday shortly after dawn on the Lawn each
April 13), and the Rotunda Burning Society (who commemorate the Great Rotunda Fire). [
7] Not all the secret societies keep their membership unknown, but even those who don't hide their identities generally keep most of their good works and activities far from the public eye.
The student life building on the University of Virginia is called Newcomb Hall. It is home to the Student Activities Center, where student groups can get leadership consulting and use computing and copying resources, as well as several meeting rooms for student groups. The office of the independent student newspaper,
The Cavalier Daily, is located here. It is also home to the University Programs Council, which uses money from student activities fees to provide events for the student community. Newcomb Hall includes a dining hall, a theatre, a ballroom, an art gallery, and several rooms for magazine and newspaper production.
A positive attitude regarding the libraries exists among the students. A national publication's survey recently revealed that U.Va.'s students give their library system higher marks than students at any other school in the United States. The best-known library is Alderman Library for the humanities and social sciences, which contains 10 floors of stacks with many useful study nooks hidden among them. U.Va.'s renowned Small Special Collections Library feature one of the premier collections of American Literature in the country as well as an
original copy of the
Declaration of Independence. Clemons Library, next to Alderman, is a popular study spot. Hundreds of students can be found gathered on its various quiet floors on any given night. Clark Hall, home of the Science & Engineering Library, also scores high marks. Clark Hall is also notable for a large Greek-style mural on the ceiling and walls of the library entrance.
Volunteerism at the University is centered in Madison House, which offers numerous opportunities to serve others. Among the numerous programs offered are tutoring, housing improvement, and an organization called Hoos Against Hunger, which gives leftover food made at restaurants to Charlottesville's homeless rather than allowing it to be thrown away.
One of the largest events at the University of Virginia is called Springfest. It takes place every year in the spring, and features a large free concert and various inflatables and games.
Among the individuals who have attended or graduated from the University of Virginia are
Edgar Allan Poe, New York Giants Running Back
Tiki Barber, three
astronauts, singer-songwriter
Stephen Malkmus, painter
Georgia O'Keeffe, journalist
Katie Couric,
Buffalo Bills founder and owner
Ralph Wilson, and the president of
NASDAQ. Those involved in the sciences have helped to cure
yellow fever, and to "crack the code" of
DNA.
Numerous political leaders have also attended the University of Virginia.
Woodrow Wilson, the 28th U.S. President, attended for one year the University of Virginia Law School, the same institution from which graduated
Robert Kennedy, his son
Robert Kennedy Jr., and his brother,
Ted Kennedy. Other alumni in leadership roles have included three
United States Supreme Court Justices, two
Surgeons General, a
Speaker of the House, a
Senate Majority Leader, numerous
Senators and
Representatives, Secretaries of
State,
Defense,
Energy,
Transportation,
Treasury, and the
Navy, and the
Secretary General of both
NATO and the
Council of the European Union.
Many universities' students and alumni refer to their respective institutions as "the university" for short. At the University of Virginia, this title is capitalized as a proper noun (i.e., "The University" or "the University")[
8] in reference only to this particular school, much like
The Lawn and
The Rotunda. In recent decades many of the school's alumni and students have sported university-licensed bumper stickers and window decals of simply
THE UNIVERSITY in the school's colors ([
9]), a practice not always well understood or appreciated by outsiders, leaving some to declare such usage to be elitist.[
10] However, the vernacular tradition goes back more than a hundred years, as indicated in this excerpt from a
Marie Manning novel[
11] first published in
1903:
But hardest of all to leave had been Archie, best and most promising of young brothersâ€"Archie, who had come out ahead of his class in the high-school, all ready to go to The Universityâ€"the University of Virginia is always "The University"; but who, it had seemed at a certain dark season, must give up this long-cherished hope for lack of the wherewithal... "The University of Virginia does not award honorary degrees. In conjunction with the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, the University presents the Thomas Jefferson Medal in Architecture and the Thomas Jefferson Award in Law each spring. The awards, recognizing excellence in two fields of interest to Jefferson, constitute the University's highest recognition of scholars outside the University."
aviator for
France, shot down before the U.S. entered
World War I.]]
:"MIT's founder, William Barton Rogers, regarded the practice of giving honorary degrees as 'literary almsgiving ... of spurious merit and noisy popularity....' Rogers was a geologist from the University of Virginia who believed in Thomas Jefferson's policy barring honorary degrees at the university, which was founded in 1819."
*
University of Virginia home page*
University of Virginia Library website*
University Programs Council (events planning)*
U.Va. History*
Online tour*
Jefferson's Academical Village*
University of Virginia Athletics website*
The Cavalier Daily*
U.Va. Bookstores website
