University of Virginia
Seal of the University of Virginia
| Established | 1819 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Founder | Thomas Jefferson | ||
| School type | Public University | ||
| President | John T. Casteen III | ||
| Location | Charlottesville, Va., USA | ||
| Enrollment | 13,000 undergraduate 6,200 graduate | ||
| Faculty | 2,015 | ||
| Endowment | US $2 billion | ||
| Campus | World Heritage Site 1,682 acres | ||
| Mascot | Cavaliers | ||
| Athletics |
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| Website | Virginia.edu | ||
| Signature of Thomas Jefferson | |||
The University of Virginia (also referred to as U.Va. and often called simply Virginia for short) is a major research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. It was founded by Thomas Jefferson, and remains the only university in the United States to be established by a U.S. President. It also possesses the only college campus worldwide that is designated as a World Heritage Site. Some time before his death, Jefferson insisted that his grave bear the words FATHER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA as one of the three greatest accomplishments of his life — more meaningful to him than orchestrating the Louisiana Purchase, or being President. Today, the university bearing his vision for a "bulwark of the human mind in the Western hemisphere" is widely regarded as one of the best institutions of higher learning in the United States, a premier "Public Ivy", and the flagship of higher education in a state known for its great universities.
History
Founded in 1819, the University of Virginia's first classes met in March 1825. At this time, it became the first university to offer students their own choice of elective courses, rather than a fixed schedule determined by school administrators. (Nearly all universities in the United States have long since adopted the idea, offering their own electives.) Jefferson explained: "This institution of my native state, the hobby of my old age, will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind to explore and to expose every subject susceptible of its contemplation." Jefferson hosted Sunday dinners at his Monticello home for faculty and students, including Edgar Allan Poe, until his death the next year.
Many of America's political leaders have gravitated to the University of Virginia over the years. In 1826, Fourth U.S. President James Madison became Rector of the University, at the same time America's Fifth President James Monroe made his home on the Grounds and was a member of the Board of Visitors. 28th U.S. President Woodrow Wilson attended the University of Virginia Law School, as did 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.
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Unlike many other southern schools, the University of Virginia remained open through the American Civil War. This was especially remarkable because Virginia was the site of more battles during this war than any other state. In March 1865, Union General George Armstrong Custer marched troops into Charlottesville, where faculty and community leaders convinced him to spare the university. Union troops camped on the Lawn and damaged many of the Pavilions, but left four days later without bloodshed. The University was then able to return to its educational routines.
"Public Ivy" is a term that was first coined to describe the University of Virginia. The term is attributed to Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winner William Faulkner at around the time the Ivy League was forming in the northeast. Some at the time thought the University should privatize a few of its schools and attempt to join them. Later, in 1957, Faulkner became writer-in-residence at the University, keeping open office hours until his death in 1962.
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 much 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.
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. U.Va., Virginia Tech, and William and Mary recently helped pass a Charter initiative that will enable public universities to run themselves more independently from the state of Virginia if they choose to do so.
Grounds
Jefferson's original architectural design is centered 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, is at the north end of the Lawn, and stands as one of the founder's greatest architectural achievements. 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 "central green areas" at universities across the country (most notably the East campus of Duke University in 1892, the Peabody Campus of Vanderbilt University in 1914, and Killian Court at MIT in 1916 — the last of which was originally founded by William Barton Rogers, a former professor at U.Va.) Frank E. Grizzard, Jr., a scholar at the University of Virginia, has written the definitive book on the original academic buildings at the university (http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/grizzard).
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."
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 (now moved to the South Lawn in White's new buildings).
In 1940, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt came to the University's Memorial Gymnasium and made his "Stab in the Back" speech denouncing Italy's declaration of war on France. Two decades later, John F. Kennedy visited and spoke in the same space with brothers Robert and Edward (both graduates of the University's law school) at his side.
In concert with the bicentennial of the United States in 1976, Stanford White's Rotunda was demolished and returned to Jefferson's original design. Renovated according to the original plans, a three-story Rotunda opened on Jefferson's birthday, April 13, 1976. 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, among many others of the world's dignitaries, graced The Lawn with their presence in 1998 while attending the University's Nobel Laureates Conference.
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.
In the near future, the Lawn will change considerably. The McIntire School of Commerce will move to a new building adjoining Rouss Hall and the College's Economics department. At this time, Monroe Hall (current home of the McIntire School) will become part of the College. New Cabell Hall will be torn down, and in its place will be a technology-equipped classroom space that will straddle both sides of Jefferson Park Avenue. The Lawn will then extend to the space above where today is a faculty parking lot across the street.
Being chosen for residence in one of the 54 Lawn rooms is considered prestigious. All undergraduate students who will graduate at the end of their year of residency are eligible to apply to live in one of the 47 rooms open to the general student body. Applications -- which vary from year to year, but generally include a résumé, personal statement and responses to several questions -- are reviewed by a reading committee and the top vote-getters are offered Lawn residency (with several alternates also given notice of potential residency). Five of the remaining seven rooms are "endowed" by organizations on Grounds: the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society (Room 7), Trigon Engineering Society (Room 17), Residence Staff (Room 26), the Honor Committee (Room 37) and the Kappa Sigma fraternity (Room 46). These groups have their own selection process for choosing who will live in their Lawn room (although the vice president for student affairs renders final approval). The Gus Blagden "Good Guy" room (15) resident is chosen from a host of nominees and does not necessarily belonging to any particular group. Residency in the John K. Crispell memorial pre-med room (2) is usually granted to an outstanding pre-med student from among the group of 47 offered regular Lawn residency.
Residence in the ten pavilions is also desirable. The University's Board of Visitors has final approval over which faculty members may live in a pavilion. Pavilion residency is typically offered as a three- or five-year contract with the option to renew. Pavilion residents are expected to interact with their younger "Lawnie" neighbors, as Jefferson intended, although in modern times such interaction has become less consistent.
The Grounds of the University of Virginia, together with Monticello, are a World Heritage Site. No other college campus in the world is designated as such. In fact, this honor is bestowed on only three other man-made sites in the United States: the Statue of Liberty, Independence Hall, and Pueblo de Taos.
Academics
First in 1993, and again 8 times since, U.S. News and World Report ranked the University of Virginia as America's #1 public university. The contest for this title is a perennial battle between U.Va. and the University of California, Berkeley. In the most recent (2006) edition, Berkeley was ranked #1 and U.Va. #2 out of roughly 200 doctorate-granting public universities in the United States. In addition to Berkeley, there is a friendly academic rivalry with #6, the College of William and Mary. The seeds of this rivalry are twofold: (1) U.Va. and William & Mary are undeniably the top-ranked universities in the same state and (2) Thomas Jefferson was educated at the College of William & Mary. Many consider the University of Virginia to have the better end of this classic academic rivalry as its undergraduate education has been ranked higher than that of William & Mary every year since the first U.S. News rankings (1983 to present), and among the graduate programs of the two schools, the disparity is much larger. But Virginia is one of only two states (California being the other, with Berkeley and UCLA) to have two public universities that are so highly regarded, and both schools' students and alumni have come to appreciate this fact.
The University of Virginia possesses a distinguished faculty, including 25 Guggenheim fellows, 26 Fulbright fellows, six National Endowment for the Humanities fellows, two Presidential Young Investigator Award winners, three Sloan award winners. and three Packard Foundation Award winners. The University is known for its schools of Architecture, Business, Commerce, Law, Medicine, and Education, as well as for its departments of Art History, Astronomy, Astronomy-Physics, Biology, Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Economics, English, Finance, French, German, History, Management Information Systems, Physics, Politics, Psychology, Religious Studies, Spanish/Portuguese, and Systems Engineering. U.Va. hosts the National Radio Astronomy Observatory headquarters.
The University of Virginia Library System holds 5,000,000 volumes. Its Electronic Text Center, 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 that is one reason that the electronic collection gets ten times as many visitors per day as do the physical libraries at the University.
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 also participated in Arpanet and now participates in Internet2 and Abilene. In March of 1986, the University's website Virginia.edu became the first contribution to the World Wide Web originating from the state of Virginia.
The University of Virginia offers numerous special scholars programs. The Echols and Rodman Scholars programs include 6-7% of undergraduate students and offer these students the "keys" to the university, in the form of advisors, separate first-year dorms, and priority course registration. Echols Scholars are also freed from the area requirements of the basic liberal arts curriculum. Perhaps the most selective program is the Jefferson Scholars Foundation, which offers full 4-year scholarships based on rigorous regional, international, and at-large competitions. Students are nominated by their respective high schools, and then have to pass various interviews before being invited, for a weekend, to participate in various tests of character, aptitude, and general suitability. Approximately 3% of those nominated are successful, making the scholarship one of the most competitive in the nation.
Organization
Colleges and schools
- School of Architecture
- College of Arts & Sciences
- School of Continuing and Professional Studies
- Curry School of Education
- Darden Graduate School of Business Administration
- School of Engineering and Applied Science
- School of Law
- McIntire School of Commerce
- University of Virginia School of Medicine
- School of Nursing
- University of Virginia's College at Wise - Satellite campus in Wise, Virginia
Athletics
The University of Virginia's sports teams are called the Cavaliers. The mascot is a mounted swordsman referring to the time when Virginia earned its nickname, the "Old Dominion." The Commonwealth was a hotbed of persons loyal to the English crown, called cavaliers in the days of the English Civil War and Interregnum. An unofficial moniker, the Wahoos (or 'Hoos for short), based on the University's rallying cry "Wah-hoo-wah!" is also commonly used. Though originally only used by the student body, both terms (Wahoos and Hoos) have come into use by the media.
Virginia's athletic teams have participated in the Atlantic Coast Conference since the league's first year in 1953. Its men's basketball team has five times been part of the NCAA Elite Eight (1981, 1983, 1984, 1989, 1995), twice advancing to the Final Four (1981 and 1984). The Virginia Cavaliers football team has twice been honored as ACC Co-Champions (1989 with Duke, and 1995 with FSU). The soccer and lacrosse programs have both been incredibly successful, winning numerous NCAA National Championships in the past fifteen years. The men's soccer team has won five national titles, four consecutively (1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994) and men's lacrosse added national championships in 1999 and 2003. The women's lacrosse team won the University's most recent NCAA championship in 2004.
Scott Stadium sits across from the first-year dorms along Alderman Road, and it is home to the University of Virginia's most popular sport: football. The University's team shares the "Oldest Rivalry in the South" (among Division I-A programs) with UNC-Chapel Hill and the schools have played 109 times, including every year since 1919. In what has become an even more heated rivalry, the team faces off with in-state foe Virginia Tech annually for the Commonwealth Cup, given to the winner of this game played 85 times and every year since 1970.
Basketball is also very popular at the University. At its recent height in the 1980s, the men's basketball team was better than perennial power Duke and second only to UNC in that decade's cumulative ACC standings. The 1990s and 2000s have seen a bit of a slide for the program to the middle of the pack in the conference, but U.Va. is currently building a new facility, John Paul Jones Arena, to replace the second-smallest (and for many years the smallest) facility in the ACC, University Hall. The new arena is scheduled to open in the Fall of 2006.
Funding from benefactor Carl Smith created the foundation for the Cavalier Marching Band, which was introduced in 2004 and has grown to 230 pieces. This replaced the controversial Virginia Pep Band in its official capacity at athletic events.
Student life
The motto around Grounds is "work hard, play hard". Students at the University take this motto seriously, and they combine their academic pursuits with a lot of exercise and partying (not necessarily at the same time). It is often joked that "everyone is a runner" at the University, and many students can be seen on a run in any season of the year. Indeed, the 2005 Kaplan/Newsweek guide "How to Get into College", which lists twenty-five universities its editors consider notable in some respect, recognizes U.Va. for being the "Hottest for Fitness", mentioning that 94% of the students take advantage of at least one of the four recreation centers. Rugby Road and the fraternities are home to much of the social scene, as are private apartments along Jefferson Park Avenue and around the outskirts of the University.
Student life at U.Va. is marked by a number of unique traditions that set the University apart from other American colleges. The campus of the University is referred to as "the Grounds," and seniors, juniors, sophomores and freshmen are instead called Fourth-, Third-, Second- and First-Years. A number of secret societies, from The 7 Society to The Z Society, have operated at the University for decades, leaving painted marks on buildings. Other significant secret societies include the IMP Society (whose markings are also found on University buildings), the Purple Shadows (which commemorate Jefferson's birthday shortly after dawn on the Lawn each April 13), and the Rotunda Burning Society (which commemorates the Great Rotunda Fire).
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 seemingly endless 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. 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 gets high marks.
Relative to many other public and private universities, the University of Virginia has minimal red tape, paperwork, or bureaucracy. U.Va.'s ratio of staff-to-faculty is kept low, allowing for an efficient allocation of funds directly into paying faculty (who enjoy the top 1% among public university salaries across the country) and educating its students. It is also a frequent observation that the faculty are very approachable and enjoy interacting with their students. Several of the faculty live 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 Residential College, and the International Residential College).
Volunteerism at the University is centered around Madison House, which offers numerous opportunities to serve others. Among the numerous programs offered are Tutoring, Housing Improvement, and Hoos Against Hunger (where leftover food made at restaurants is given to Charlottesville's homeless rather than being thrown away).
The ideas of student governance, left from the school's Jeffersonian roots, still hold strong at the University. One aspect of this is U.Va.'s Honor System, originated in 1842 and was the first to be administered by student elected officials, with student juries. In this "single sanction" system, the penalty for lying, cheating, or stealing is expulsion from the University. The Honor System here was the model for similar systems in place at West Point, Washington and Lee, and other American universities notable for their adherence to systems of honor. A well-known verse written by a student over 100 years ago (James Hay Jr. in 1903) ends "I have worn the Honors of Honor; I graduated from Virginia."
Distinguished Alumni
- Main article: Notable Alumni of the University of Virginia.
Among the people who have attended or graduated from U.Va. are Edgar Allan Poe, Woodrow Wilson, several Kennedys, numerous actors and media personalities, several Supreme Court Justices, several Astronauts, the President of NASDAQ, and many leaders of the political and economic spheres of the United States, and even the European Union. Those involved in scientific pursuits have helped to cure yellow fever, and directed the Human Genome Project.
External links
- University of Virginia home page
- University of Virginia Athletics website
- University Programs Council (events planning)
- Cavalier Daily (student newspaper)
- Corks & Curls (student yearbook)
- The Declaration (student weekly)
- U.Va. History
- Online tour
- Jefferson's Academical Village
- Cavalier Marching Band
- Virginia Pep Band
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