College of William and Mary - Colonial Echo Yearbook (Williamsburg, VA)

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About Our Past things material, is rich in tradi- that money cannot buy. Every college and inii ersity in America has been moulded by those precepts that had their beginning at the College of William and Mary, ll is the fust college that received its charter direct fmni the crown of England : it is the only one in the Western Hemisphere to receive a cost-of-arms from the College of Heralds in London. In 1729 it boasted a full facultv of professors, consisting of a president, six professors, an usher, and a writing master. It was the tirst college in the United States to have a complete faculty. William and larv was the first college to adopt the lecture system, now prevalent in college and universities the world over. Dr. William Small, who adopted this system, was the favorite professor of Thomas Jel ' ferson ; and it is of him that Jefferson wrote, He fixed my destinies in life. Later Small went back to England where he aided James Watts in his experiments with the steam engine. William and Mary was the first college to establish the elective system. Jefferson was very enthusiastic aljout this (jlan, and he wrote to Francis Epjjes : At William and Mary, students are allowed to attend the schools of their choice, and those branches of science only which will be useful to them in the line of life they propose to follow. Perhaps the priority that William and Mary views with the most pride is the honor svstem. For some time it had been the custom of the jirofessors to control the students without harrassing them with petty regulations or subjecting them to a system of espionage in the class-room and on examinations. This prin- ciple found fertile soil at ' illiam and Mary, and as early as 1779 we have record of the honor svstem. The influence had by the honor system on education the world over is indeed a heritage. During the same year, the college widened its scope, and became the first university in the country. In tlii universit) ' were given for the first time, courses in municiiml and constitutional law, modern languages, ]iolitical science and history. William and Mary i responsible for the I ' hi Beta Kappa Society, the honorary fraternity made up of scholars all over the country. Phi Beta Kap]3a is the mother of the vast system of intercollegiate fraternities that honey-comb colleges and universities today. A great part of the work of wielding the thirteen colonies into the L ' nion was done by alumni of William and Mary. George Wythe, who in 1764 wriite Virginia ' s first remonstance to tlie House of Commons about the Stamp Act; Page 17