UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA

Charlottesville Daily Progress
Published: September 6, 2007

From the fall Convocation in August to Final Exercises in May, the University of Virginia is steeped in tradition.

In the fall, Charlottesville's population swells from 40,000 to 60,000 as students flock back to the city.

On home football game days, some students dress in ties and sundresses and nearly all sing "The Good Old Song" to cheer the Cavaliers to victory.

Other traditions last the whole year, including the honor code. Adopted in 1840 after a masked student shot and killed a law professor, UVa's honor system is the oldest in the nation.

The public school's campus, known locally as the Grounds, takes up nearly 1,700 acres of Charlottesville, and UVa seems to need every inch of the space, with about 13,400 undergraduates, 6,500 graduate students and 2,100 faculty members.

Today the school has an endowment of more than $3.5 billion, and in the past decade and a half, it has frequently been named the top public university in the nation.

To ensure its place near or at the top, the university began a $3 billion capital campaign in 2006 to address priorities in every school and program. As of May 31, the university has raised $1,328,326,794.

Part of the capital campaign is for the South Lawn Project, which will extend from UVa's Central Grounds over Jefferson Park Avenue and will include classrooms and common areas for students. Construction began on the $105 million project in September 2006. The plan is the most significant undertaking on the Central Grounds in a century.

Jefferson's beloved Academical Village first opened its doors to students in March 1825, and since then, the institution has defined the city as a vibrant center of intellectual life.

At the heart of the university is the Rotunda, designed by founder Thomas Jefferson. It was rebuilt after burning down in 1895.

Students have included writer Edgar Allan Poe, President Woodrow Wilson, Supreme Court justices, astronauts, Cabinet members and military and economic leaders. Past teachers include writer William Faulkner and painter Georgia O'Keeffe.

The school first allowed nonwhites to attend in 1950, and almost all students were male until 1970, when UVa began to allow females to take undergraduate classes.

The university offers 51 bachelor's degrees, 83 master's degrees and 59 doctoral degrees. The school does not award honorary degrees.