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Virginia's
Alma Maters
Halls
of Public Ivy in the Old Dominion
If
you want to know what 21st–century college life is
really like, check out College
Prowler, a student-written guide on the top 200
colleges in the nation. Three of Virginia’s public
universities – The
College of William and Mary, the University
of Virginia and Virginia
Tech made the cut, as well as some of our
private institutions. In its pages, you’ll learn
that, at W&M, dining hall frozen yogurt is known
as “fro-yo,” and that student I.D.s are known as
“Hokie Passports” at Virginia Tech.
At
various schools in the U.S. – perhaps including
our own – this year’s freshmen can download
lectures as podcasts; order late-night snacks on the
Web and get them delivered to their dorms; and even
check online to see when machines in local
laundromats are free (USA
Today, August 28, 2006).
Times
have definitely changed since 1693, when King
William III and Queen Mary II granted a charter to
establish the College of William and Mary – the
oldest public institution of higher education in the
U.S. (Only Harvard – a private university – is
older.) To finance the new college, the king
provided 1,985 pounds, 14 shillings and 10 pence
from land taxes (called quitrents
at the time) collected in the Colony of Virginia. He
also allocated a penny tax on every pound of tobacco
exported from Maryland and Virginia, as well as tax
revenue from several other sources.
Since
then, W&M has had an illustrious history.
Presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe and John
Tyler attended the college, as well as Supreme Court
Justice John Marshall and 16 signers of the
Declaration of Independence. George Washington was
the school’s first chancellor. Also, the academic
society Phi Beta Kappa, was founded at the college.
But, perhaps most importantly to today’s college
students, The Daily Show’s Jon
Stewart is a graduate!
Virginia’s
oldest college is not the only public academic
institution with a pedigree. W&M graduate Thomas
Jefferson founded and designed the University of
Virginia, which opened in 1825 as an “academic
village.” Jefferson set up an expanded
curriculum of philosophy, arts, foreign languages,
science, law and medicine. During the university’s
first year, Jefferson hosted Sunday dinners at
Monticello for its students, who considered him
quite a living legacy. The young Edgar Alan Poe, who
attended the university for a year, was among
Jefferson’s guests at those soirées. Many, many
decades later the likes of Katie
Couric, and “O.C.” star Benjamin
McKenzie graduated from UVA.
Today,
among the commonwealth’s 107 universities and
colleges, 38 are public
institutions. They include 15 four-year colleges
and universities, one junior college and 22
community colleges. The youngest four-year
university is Christopher
Newport University in Newport News. It first
opened with 117 students in 1961 as a two-year
branch of W&M. It became a four-year institution
in 1971 and separated from W&M in 1977. Today,
more than 4,800 students attend CNU.
In
terms of enrollment, the five largest public
universities in the Old Dominion are: George
Mason University in Fairfax; Virginia
Commonwealth University in Richmond; Virginia
Tech in Blacksburg; the University
of Virginia in Charlottesville; and Old
Dominion University in Norfolk. They each have
more than 20,000 students. Those with the smallest
enrollment include the University
of Virginia's College at Wise and the Virginia
Military Institute in Lexington. VMI has the
distinction of being the only state-supported
military college in the nation. It’s also, as one
might expect, the only public college or university
in the state with no part-time students. The
military school’s most famous graduate is World
War II General George
C. Marshall, who graduated 15th out of 34 in the
Class of 1901, and was the architect of the Marshall
Plan, which helped Europe recover from the
ravages of war.
In
all, more than 400,000 students were enrolled in all
state colleges and universities last year, and
Virginia’s public institutions awarded more than
51,000 undergraduate and graduate degrees.
Virginia’s public universities and colleges are
also a bit of a bargain. Tuition at W&M, which
ranks 31st in U.S.
News & World Report America's Best Colleges
2007, is only $8,490 per year for in-state students,
plus $6,932 for room and board ($25,048 for out-of
state students). At Brandeis, which tied W&M for
the 31st slot, tuition is $34,035 plus $9,463 for
room and board!
In-state
tuition at the University of Virginia, which ranks
24th on the list, is $7,845 plus $6,909 for room and
board compared with $9,988 and $7,838 for room and
board at the University of Michigan – also tied
for 24th place. Out-of-state tuition for each is
$25,945 and $30,179 respectively. Whether in-state
or out, tuition has raised a pretty penny since
“higher education” came to Virginia. Both then
and now, a good education is still to be found in
the Old Dominion. Just ask Jon Stewart!
NEXT:
Skeletons in the Closet: Bones of Virginia
--
December 18, 2006
(Got
a question? Check out Ask
a Librarian Live.)
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