University of Virginia - Corks and Curls Yearbook (Charlottesville, VA)

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CORKS l- ND CLIFLS OF NINETEEPQ HUPQDREEDPWQD THIRTY-FOUR Nevertheless, a young woman made application to the faculty for permission to take a course of study and attempt examinations in some schools. At that time, the faculty met and passed a regulation to the effect that women could take examinations in the various courses and some private instructions, but would not be allowed to attend classes. N 0 degree was given to a woman but she was allowed to receive certificates of proficiency in individual courses. In the next year, however, the faculty began to worry about the matter and finally passed a new regulation restricting admission entirely to males. They gave as a reason for their action the fear that women, if admitted, would be certain to grow boisterous, familiar, and bold in manners, and perhaps even rudely aggressive. Nothing daunted, the women carried the battle to the legislature and after a long siege in which they demanded a co-educational or at the least a co-ordinate system at the University, they succeeded in gaining admission in 1920. At the present time, there are over one hundred of these co-eds at the University and opinions vary as to whether or not the prophecy of the faculty has been fulfilled. In the past few years, with the advent of younger and more attractive co-eds, student objections have become less and less audible. In 1895, a catastrophe occurred, which, like so many catastrophes, was destined to be a great influence for the Universityls progress. Early one Sunday morning a thin wreath of smoke was observed to come from the Rotunda and, upon examination, it was found that a serious Fire had started. Although nothing could be done to stop the conllagration, students and professors laid to with a will and began to carry out the books, statues, and other valuables. Many of the important and priceless articles were saved, but the entire building was burned down and with it were destroyed innumerable books, periodicals, and journals which were irreplaceable. Again it was the faculty who stepped into the breach and made what might have been a serious detriment, a chance for expansion. Stanford White, a noted architect from New York, was engaged, and he submitted a plan for reconstruction which included not only the re-building of the Rotunda-fortunately without the abortive Northern Annex which had been erected in 1853-but the adding of three new buildings which are now Cabell Hall, the Physical Laboratory, and the Mechanical Laboratory. These plans were approved and the buildings were completed by 1899 at a cost of approximately four hundred thousand dollars. The construction of new buildings gave a decided impetus to registration which jumped from 504 in 1896 to 613 in 1903. During all of the first seventy-nine years of the University's history, the authority of administration remained in the hands of the faculty, subject of course, to the I221

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CORKS AND CLIB..S OF NINETEEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FOUR players should be genuine students and should receive no money for their eHorts. Some suggestions for athletic scholarships were made but were immediately rejected by the faculty. A year later, the foundation of a physical education department was suggested with the idea that gymnastic work be required for a degree. The faculty lost no time in condemning this movement as repugnant to the spirit of the elective system as recognized at the University. Later, they changed their minds, and such a de- partment was founded with the suggested requirements. This idea became so firmly entrenched that subsequently the names of over fifteen hundred students on a petition for its discontinuance were not able to bring about any change. Extra-curricular activities showed the same trend toward organization and ex- pansion during that period. CORKS AND CURLS, the University yearbook, which owed its origin to the social fraternities and whose business has remained in their hands up to the present day, made its first appearance in 1887. It was followed in the next year by College Topics, a student newspaper, still in existence. This publica- tion was shortly taken over by the G. A. A. and, in spite of frequent attempts to gain freedom, has been its unofiicial organ ever since. Student organizations came in vogue in the late eighties with the formation of Eli Banana, a society which gained great power and led all forms of student activities for a number of years. T. I. L. K. A. and Zeta soon followed and reached an ascendancy when Eli was disbanded by the faculty for repeated misdemeanors, most of them having to do with much wine and some song. All of these societies were supposed to include the most outstanding students in the University, but there were and are many criticisms directed at them for basing their selections more on qstylishness than any real ability. In 1894, a new development in the Honor System arose which directed it along the course it has followed up to the present. At that time, the question came up as to whether or not the system should apply to student conduct other than that during examinations.- Apparently, the point was immediately decided in favor of all conduct, for the next year, we find College Topics expressing extreme indignation over the fact that a student who had been caught cheating had had the effrontery to remain at the University over twenty-four hours. By that time, the Honor System had gained in strength and was entirely in the hands of the student body. It was in 1862 that a question was raised before the faculty which was to be fought over for the next thirty years. Before this time, the Univearsity had been solely a mans school with no one considering the possibility that a member of the other sex might have the desire, least of all the eHrontery, to request admittance. I211

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COBKS AND CLIRLS OF NINETEEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FOUR regulations of the Board of Visitors. Before the nineteenth century ended, however, it was felt by many that the University should have a president, who could better cope with the more intricate problems of administration and act as a representative of the institution than could any chairman, elected annually from the faculty body. After much discussion for and against the idea of a University president, the legislature empowered the Board of Visitors to elect such an officer, and in June of 1904, Edwin A. Alderman, a native of North Carolina and an important figure in the educational development of the South, was elected. Dr. Alderman brought to the University a mind which was in perfect accord with the lines of modern progress and, fortunately, an innate dignity and respect for traditions which made it possible for him to maintain a happy balance between the two. In fact, he paid more respect to the traditions, of the University than its student body deserved, after their recent discarding of the traditional silver and crimson colors, representing a blood-stained Confederate uniform, and their replacing them in a chance fashion with orange and blue, signifying nothing. The innovations he made in the field of student life were, in fact, only along the lines of strengthening the dignity and the intrinsic meanings of the traditions. At the same time, he attacked the old system of administration with its many intricacies and taboos, and developed a smooth-running, well-integrated administrative machinery. That his service in representing the University was valuable is best shown by the many donations which the school received under his regime and the cumulative increases in registration which in 1915 reached the magic number of one thousand. The reaction of the University to the World War was marked by enthusiasm and patriotism on the part of both students and faculty. That there was some opinion on the side of pacifism is indicated by the fact that a professor at the University was severely reprimanded and ultimately dismissed for delivering a speech of pacifistic tendencies to the students of Sweet Briar College. It is interesting, in this day of education against war, to conjecture as to the fate of a man in the same situation to-day. In those times there was little argument about the matter, and what opinion there might have been in favor of the culprit was quickly dispelled by the vigorous and outspoken condemnation which came from the pen of President Alderman. Shortly before war was declared, an R. O. T. C. unit was formed at the University and both students and professors were drilled and instructed in preparation for duty. Immediately after the oHicial declaration, many of the students volunteered, and it is estimated that over twenty-seven hundred men who received education at the University were in the service of the government during the War. R'Iembers of the faculty were immediately instructed to devote most of their energies toward L231