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THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
A Brief Statement of Conditions
and Needs
1910
Viselniana
LD
5663
.A2
628568
1910
Coper 3
OV
JUL 11'51
To the General Assembly of Virginia:
In a statement made to the General Assembly of 1906 it was
shown that the Commonwealth of Virginia and private benefi-
cence had created at Charlottesville an institution of higher learn-
ing representing at that time a monetary value of $2,328,000,
subdivided as follows:
1. Buildings, equipment and land,
With the exception of the original build-
ings, valued at $400,000, the land at
$100,000, and the new hospital valued
at $70,000, this great property had come
to the State in the form of gifts from
private persons-equal in value to
$980,000
2. Endowment Fund,
3. Bonded debt, incurred by fire and restora-
tion (not included in total), $200,000
$1,550,000
778,000
$2,328,000
A similar statement made to-day would show that the Univer-
sity of Virginia represents a monetary valuation of $3,780,268,
subdivided as follows:
1. Buildings, equipment and land,
2. For new buildings and equipment,-hos-
pital, dining hall, President's house, law
building,
$1,550,000
168,079
3. Remodelling old buildings, repairs, etc.,
for laboratory purposes,
25,357
4. Electric plant,
4,300
5. Laboratories, all departments, new equip-
ment,
38,992
6. Library, Law and General,
15,540
7. Endowment Fund,
778.000
8. Increase in Endowment Fund since 1094,
1,200,000
9. Bonded debt (not included in total),
$200,000
$3,780,268
Increase in monetary value of this founda-
tion since 1904,
$1,452,268.
One million two hundred thousand dollars of this sum repre-
sents the gifts of private individuals; one hundred and fifty
[3]
thousand represents direct appropriation from the State; and
one hundred and fifty-two thousand represents the application of
income from all sources to material equipment. The fact that
the University of Virginia has attracted to its use private gifts
amounting to nearly two millions of dollars is unique in the his-
tory of State institutions. I believe this beneficence would quickly
cease if, by reason of it, the State itself should in any way slacken
its commendable efforts to build up its chiefest seminary of
learning.
Total annual income of the University of Virginia in 1904-
1905:
1. From State appropriation,
$50,000
2. From tuition and other fees,
71,000
3. From interest on endowment funds,
32,390
4. From rents and other sources,
10,260
$163,650
Annual expenditures of the University of Virginia in 1904-
1905:
1. Salaries of professors, instructors, ex-
ecutive,
$103,320
2. Interest on debt and sinking fund,
3. Insurance, labor, improvements, repairs,
4. Summer School, advertising and printing,
fellowships, scholarships and all other
12,000
31,480
expenses,
29,500
$176,300
In 1904-1905, then, it will be seen that the annual deficit of the
University of Virginia was in the neighborhood of $13,000, and
the University was shorthanded in every department and far
from satisfactorily equipped. The student attendance for that
year was 706.
Total annual income of the University of Virginia for 1909-
1910:
1. From State appropriation,
$80,000
2. From tuition and fees (estimated),
73,000
3. From endowment funds,
81,234
4. From rents and all other sources,
6,946
$241,180
[4]
It will thus be seen that in the five year period under considera-
tion, the University of Virginia has increased its value as a per-
manent educational foundation by the sum of $1,452,268, and has
increased its annual income by the sum of $77,530. Thirty thou-
sand dollars of this income increase is due to the wisdom and gen-
erosity of the State, and $47,530 of this increase is due to the
interest on private gifts from citizens of this country interested in
the higher education in general and in this University in particular.
The total expenditures of the University for the session 1909-
1910 are as follows:
1. General Administration,
2. College and Graduate Department,
3. Law Department,
$21,616.00
85,250.00
14,080.00
4. Medical Department and Hospital,
47,345.00
5. Engineering Department,
10,940.00
6. Summer School,
1,500.00
7. General Library,
5,771.00
8. Buildings and Grounds,
25.314.00
9. Gymnasium,
1,305.00
10. Business advertising and bonded debt,
14,650.00
11. Commons Hall,
2,000.00
12. Miscellaneous,
3,700.00
13. General appropriation for equipment,
6,440.00
Total
$239,911.00
The expenditures of the University of Virginia in 1904-1905
were, as has been stated, in round numbers, $176,000, being
$13,000 in excess of income.
The expenditures for 1909-1910 are, in round numbers,
$240,000, or $64,000 in excess of the former period. This increase
of income has been used to add to the power of the University
of Virginia in the following directions:
1. The deficit of $13,000 has been liquidated.
2. Twelve new professors and adjunct professors and
eighteen new instructors have been added to the
staff of teachers in the college, at a cost of
$26,633.
3. Salaries, and expenditures in Library, for additional
instruction in Law:
1 Professor,
2 Instructors,
Library,
$2,500
1,500
1,000
$5,000
[5]
4. Salaries, and expenditures in laboratories, for addi-
tional instruction in Medicine:
7 Professors,
2 Adjunct Professors,
6 Instructors,
Increased laboratory appropriation,
Hospital, etc.,
$16,000
1,650
7,500
$25,150
5. Salaries and expenditures for additional
instruction in technical Engineering:
$3,500
6. Additional expenditures for Library (gen-
eral), Gymnasium, fuel, administration
and miscellaneous:
$4,417
The total cost of these new departments, increased teaching
power, and improved laboratories amounts to $64,700, or a few
dollars in excess of the increased income.
1. Total increase in teaching staff,
2. The increase in the number of
courses offered has been about
3. The increase in the number of
students has been
35; or 96 per cent.
25 per cent.
126; or 16 per cent.
The new professorships which have been established are the
following:
(1) In the College and the Department of Graduate
Studies.
(a) One full Professor in each of: Education, Sec-
ondary Education, Economic Geology, and
Chemistry.
(b) One Associate Professor in Biblical History and
Literature.
(c) One Adjunct Professor in each of: Physics, Ro-
manic Languages, Biology, Chemistry, Eco-
nomic Geology, and Public Speaking.
(2) In the Department of Medicine.
(a) One full Professor in each of: Pathology, Phys-
iology, Surgery, Obstetrics, Diseases of the Eye,
Diseases of the Ear, Nose and Throat.
(b) One Adjunct Professor in each of:
Clinical
Medicine, Surgery, Anatomy, Histology and
Embryology, Pathology, and Chemistry.
(3) In the Department of Engineering.
(a) One full Professor in each of: Chemistry and
Economic Geology.
[6]
(b) One Adjunct Professor in each of: Civil En-
gineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics,
and Chemistry.
(4) In the Department of Law.
One Professor of Law.
One Adjunct Professor of Law in 1910.
It should be clear, therefore, that the added income both from
State appropriation and private endowments, which has come to
the University, was absolutely necessary to make this University
what it should be in the modern world, offering the best instruc-
tion in the five great departments of the College, Law, Medicine,
Engineering, and the Graduate School. On its old income, how-
ever devoted and able its teachers, it must have languished and
fallen away from leadership. Our numbers have not greatly in-
creased, though we now have reached practically the eight hundred
mark, owing to just or inevitable causes, but the scope and quality
of instruction have increased many hundred fold. A great mod-
ern university of 800 students, comprising well equipped profes-
sional schools, cannot do the highest quality of work on an income
less than $300,000 a year, as may be discovered by examining the
resources and services rendered by other institutions.
The Board of Visitors in its memorial to the General Assembly
of 1906 petitioned that the sum of $154,000 be appropriated for
the pressing needs of the institution in the direction of buildings,
equipment, and repairs. The amount appropriated was $85,000.
The Board again in 1908 set forth the need for $324,000 for sim-
ilar purposes.
The amount appropriated was $65,000. The
amounts appropriated have been wisely used, but, of course, many
of these needs still exist and cannot be supplied from any endow-
ment funds.
I shall not re-enumerate all of the unsupplied needs, for I am
aware of the State's necessities and its other obligations. The
Rector and Visitors will ask for no increase in the regular appro-
priation for purely instructional purposes of the University. They
beg, however, most earnestly to set forth three urgent and prac-
tical needs of the institution, and to ask that the General Assembly
provide for these needs, if the State's resources permit. Two of
these needs involve additional annuity, and one necessitates a
special appropriation.
[7]
I. Additional annuity for maintenance of the State Hospital lo-
cated at the University, $10,000.
Reasons:
The hospital at the University is a State Hospital, owned and
controlled by the State, and its facilities are at the call of the
people of the State. During the twelve months ending Septem-
ber 1, 1909, 1,232 patients were admitted to this hospital, repre-
senting 23,944 days of hospital treatment. Of these patients, 437
were free, paying nothing for board, nursing, operations, or dress-
ing, and representing 10,308 days of hospital treatment. Five
hundred and thirteen were part pay, paying only $5.00 per week,
and representing 9,661 days of hospital treatment, and 282 were
private patients. An idea of the amount of work being done may
be gathered from the fact that during the last 28 months about
250 cases of appendicitis and 100 cases of rupture have been op-
erated upon, while, during the present year, there have been al-
most 70 operations for gall stones.
Our cases come from all sections of the State, but chiefly from
the western half as, at present, the sick of the eastern portion of
the State are cared for in the Norfolk and Richmond hospitals.
We hope that, as it becomes more generally known that we are
prepared to care for the indigent sick of the State free of cost, the
number of patients from the eastern section will increase. How-
ever, our accommodations are now greatly taxed and there is ur-
gent need of an addition to our building.
As you will see from the bursar's report for the fiscal year end-
ing July 1st, 1909, the total expenditures of the hospital, which
were $27,432.03, exceeded the receipts by $10,742.61. It will thus
be seen that even now the hospital is a severe drain upon the re-
sources of the University, and as the work continues to grow at a
rapid rate, the burden is likely to be still greater unless the State
comes to our rescue and gives its support to an institution which
is doing so much for its indigent sick, and at the same time play-
ing such an important part in the advancement of medical educa-
tion in the State.
It is not necessary to make any lengthy argument to this body
of intelligent public men for the necessity of a well-equipped State
Hospital at the University of Virginia for the use of the Institu-
tion and for the larger use of the State. It is desired to make it
[8]
practically free to all needy people of the entire Commonwealth,
and the University would welcome any legislation looking to that
end. It is an extremely costly department, and its burdens should
not be borne out of the fund appropriated for purely instructional
purposes. When I first knew this hospital, it made a demand
upon the University for less than $3,000 a year, independent of
its earnings. It will soon demand at least $15,000, independent of
its earnings. It is impossible to keep the highest grade of men in
it, if it is not properly equipped and maintained. A gift of
$50,000, from Mr. Charles Steele, has been made to the hospital,
in a sense conditional upon this appropriation, for the building of
a modern dispensary and outdoor patient department and clinical
laboratory. I believe the State will make a wise use of the funds
to give us the power to make this Institution what it should be in
the advancement of public health in the State. There is no more
practical servant of the State than the doctor, and it is fast be-
coming to be recognized that his greatest function in our civiliza-
tion is not only to cure and restore to economic efficiency those
who are sick, but to keep the community at large in a normal con-
dition of health. The modern hospital is not only a great humane
institution to relieve human suffering, but it is a great clinical
laboratory. The greatest triumphs of modern medicine are along
the lines of surgery, serum-therapy and preventive medicine, and
these great subjects can be properly studied only in first rate
hospitals.
II. Increase of Fund for the Maintenance of the Property of the
University, $5,000.
Reasons:
1. The State of Virginia has an investment of two and one-half
millions of dollars, and has attempted to maintain it in a state of
repair for one-fourth of one per cent. Such an investment held
by a corporation or an individual could not be maintained for less
than three-fourths of one per cent., and most investments require
double that amount. For this reason the physical condition of
the University has not been kept up, and there falls upon the
present administration the task not only to keep up current re-
pairs, but also those repairs having accumulated through the past
thirty or forty years.
[9]
2. Mechanics' wages, labor hire, and materials, have advanced
thirty per cent., in the last twelve years.
3. The University plant has changed in character by the in-
crease in amount of plumbing, heating, electric lighting, water sup-
ply and sewerage-all requiring much more frequent repairs than
the old-time college equipment.
4. Five new buildings have been added, the equipment necessi-
tating care and maintenance.
III. A Building for the Department of Chemistry, $75,000.
Reasons:
Chemistry is the great basic subject of the modern industrial
world. Men trained in Chemistry will be in demand throughout
the South for the next decade. Our own graduates are sought
after and engaged even before graduation. For forty years, un-
der extremely able leadership, the University of Virginia has led
the South in this important branch of education. Its students are
found everywhere in practical life and as the heads of institutions.
It was the pioneer in the teaching of Industrial Chemistry under
the inspiring leadership of a great scholar and teacher, John W.
Mallet. Owing to the wisdom of the last General Assembly, it
is well equipped in teaching corps. Its greatest need now is a
proper building and physical equipment. Its main laboratory was
built nearly forty years ago, to meet the conditions of that age.
A building, formerly used as a professor's residence, was this
year converted into a temporary laboratory to relieve an unbear-
able condition of overcrowding during the past session. This
great subject needs a modern home to provide for the work it will
have to do for the present century. Without such a home we
cannot expect to retain the leadership we have hitherto held, when
our sister institutions are laying great stress upon this funda-
mental subject.
If anyone will take note of the huge sums which are being
freely spent on the housing and equipment of Chemistry in the
newer Western and Northwestern states-in Illinois and Wis-
consin, in Kansas and Nebraska-even in the Dakotas and Okla-
homa-he will gain some idea of the pressure of enlightened de-
mand in this direction in the education of the present day.
The fact should not be overlooked that Chemistry forms of
[10]
necessity a part of the work of the University in almost all of its
fields. Four large bodies of students have regularly to be pro-
vided for: First, Academic or College students, who take Chemistry
as part of a liberal or disciplinary education; second, Engineering
students; third, Medical students; fourth, students who propose to
make a profession of Chemistry itself, as Analysts, Assayers, Di-
rectors of Chemical factories, etc. In this last class, there are
now a number of men in positions of great responsibility in various
parts of the United States who were educated in Chemistry at the
University of Virginia. Under the same head may be grouped the
teachers of Chemistry, many of whom-now professors in other
universities and colleges-are among the alumni of the University
of Virginia.
For many years the old chemical laboratory was adequate to
meet the needs of chemical instruction in the University of Vir-
ginia, for the reason that this instruction, for the greater number
of students at least, was largely didactic or by the method of lec-
tures and lecture-table demonstrations. To-day everything is
different. The didactic method of instruction in Chemistry has
been superseded in large measure by the laboratory method. The
latter method, as you are aware, requires that each student be
provided with sufficient working space in the laboratory and with
the chemicals and apparatus necessary for the proper carrying out
of certain typical, chemical experiments. The result is that, not
only are chemical lecture-rooms required, but large laboratories
as well, and instead of equipment for one, two or a dozen men at
most, apparatus must be provided for fifty or a hundred men, or
in certain classes even for a greater number. In this connection
it does not devolve upon me to enter upon any discussion of the
relative merits for educational purposes of these two methods of
instruction. The fact remains that while the lecture still holds its
place in the curriculum of chemical studies, it has been largely su-
perseded by the laboratory method in the more progressive Amer-
ican colleges and universities. Furthermore it is a fact that in
all of the colleges and universities with which the University of
Virginia is in closest competition, good laboratory facilities for
chemistry have already been provided. In these days of almost
universal enlightenment on matters of this kind it is scarcely nec-
essary for me to point out that Chemistry, as a branch of human
[11]
knowledge, is not only of pedagogic value as an aid to sound
mental training and discipline, but that it is also of profound sig-
nificance in its relation to all economic and industrial development.
As a science it deals directly with matter or with the various sub-
stances composing the material universe, and in correlation with
physics it also deals with energy. The result is that in the de-
velopment of our natural resources the science of Chemistry
touches us on every hand, and in the industrial development of the
South, the trained chemist and engineer are destined to play prin-
cipal roles. They will be the real captains of industry, in the
sense that they will be the men to outline the methods by which
labor and capital can combine to produce the greatest result, with
the least expenditure of time and money. If the universities and
schools of technology throughout the South can supply chemists
and engineers of the requisite training and efficiency, so much the
better; if not, it will be necessary to import them from the North
and West, or it may be from England, France and Germany,
and as not the case with many imported articles, they are very
expensive. Furthermore it stands to reason that in all proba-
bility they would never take quite the same degree of pride and
satisfaction in the development of our own resources as would
our sons, had the opportunity been afforded them. As you are
aware, there was a time not so remote in the world's history,
when all processes of agriculture, mining, metallurgy and man-
ufacture, and the utilization of our natural resources, were purely
empirical. Everything was done by rule of thumb. To-day
everything has changed. In many places throughout the United
States agriculture is being conducted along strictly scientific lines.
To be a successful farmer to-day calls for at least some actual
working knowledge of chemistry, physics, botany, zoology,
entomology, etc., etc. Similarly the successful dairyman must
be not only a judge of cattle, but he must also have some
actual working knowledge of hygiene and sanitation and of
bacteriology, and he or some one connected with his establish-
ment must, at least, know enough chemistry to determine the
amount of butter-fat in cream and milk by the Babcock method.
Improvements in mining and metallurgy are the direct results of
exhaustive and painstaking investigations carried out in the chem-
ical and engineering laboratory. The result is that we have im-
[12]
proved methods for the extraction of metals from their ores,
waste materials are continually being turned to account, and new
uses for even rare elements discovered, as may be seen in the
utilization of titanium and vanadium in the manufacture of steel,
in the utilization of certain of the rare earths in the manufacture
of gas burners of the Welsbach type, and in the use of tantalum
and tungsten instead of carbon in the making of filaments for
the incandescent lamp. The applications of chemistry to the
manufactures in general, and in the utilization of our natural
resources, are too numerous to mention in an article of the pres-
ent scope. Suffice it to say that it has been turned to the greatest
possible account in the manufacture of dyes and foodstuffs, in
the refining of oil, in the turpentine industry, in the manufacture
of cottonseed oil, in the production of essential oils and per-
fumes, such as those of the lemon, rose and violet, in the dyeing
of cloth, in the manufacture of soap and candles, in the utiliza-
tion of animal refuse for various purposes, in the manufacture
of lime and cement, in the selection of building materials and
materials of construction generally, in the manufacture and cur-
ing of tobacco, in wine making, in the brewing industry, in the
manufacture of distilled liquors, in the manufacture of paints
and varnishes, in the manufacture of drugs and in the extraction
of the active principles of plants, and in the manufacture of
high explosives. As a matter of fact the more closely we ex-
amine into the matter the more clearly do we perceive how in-
timately the science of chemistry touches us in all of the daily
affairs of life, and how largely it contributes to our daily needs.
While it is not my purpose to enter upon the consideration
of the many forces, political or otherwise, which have made the
South a distinct entity in the life of our nation, it will be ad-
mitted by all who have given the matter any thought that it has
been able to preserve its integrity and unity largely for the reason
that industrially and economically it has been self-contained.
As is well known there was a time in its history not so remote,
when all that was actually required for the maintenance of a
high order of civilization was produced within its own borders,
and despite its many reverses it still remains in climate, natural
fertility of soil and abundance of natural resources in the way
of mineral wealth, water power, etc., etc., one of the richest
[13]
sections of our country. In order to preserve its distinct entity
as an integral part of the nation, however, it will be necessary
to develop its natural resources as far as practicable without
aid from the outside. In other words, if the wealth of the South
is to be preserved for its own people it will be necessary for them
to furnish the labor, capital and the trained intellect necessary
for its proper development and conservation. In this develop-
ment the chemist and engineer and the physician will play an
important part. With proper educational facilities within her
own borders, there is no more reason why the South should not
now produce her own chemists, engineers, and skilled physicians
than that in times past she produced great lawyers and statesmen.
In conclusion, I submit three considerations. The annual ap-
propriation from the State of $80,000 amounts to about one-third
of the necessary revenue to carry on the work of the University
of Virginia. Indeed our total income, like all Gaul, is divided
into three parts: $80,000 from the State; $80,000 from endow-
ment, $50,000 of which has come into our life in the last four
years; and $80,000 from fees and earnings. The State appro-
priation would not run the University at its present rate and
standards over three months. To operate, maintain, insure, ad-
vertise, and pay interest on debt-in other words the material
maintenance of the University-requires for each year approxi-
mately $50,000. The University Hospital will require $15,000.
Free tuition is given to 246 Virginia students, averaging $115.00
per student, making a total of $28,290. The sum total is $93,000.
Our annual appropriation is thus more than exceeded in caring
for the property and plant and providing free instruction for
State students in the Academic Department.
We are trying to build a great University of Virginia that
shall be a permanent source of help and power to every agency
working for the betterment of life in the State. It is a great
task requiring time, patience, devotion, and money. Effort has
not been spared to bring to the struggling institution power from
outside, but after all, its noblest power comes from the source
which created it and which must be depended upon to sustain it.
Submitted for the Rector and Visitors of the University of
Virginia, by
EDWIN A. ALDERMAN, President of the University.
January 1, 1910.
[14]
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