In 1802, while serving as president of the United States,Thomas Jefferson wrote to artistCharles Willson Peale that his concept of the new university would be "on the most extensive and liberal scale that our circumstances would call for and our faculties meet," and it might even attract talented students from "other states to come, and drink of the cup of knowledge."[13] Virginia was already home to theCollege of William & Mary in Williamsburg, but Jefferson lost all confidence in hisalma mater, partly because of its religious nature—it required all its students to recite acatechism—and its stifling of the sciences.[14][15] Jefferson had flourished underWilliam & Mary professorsWilliam Small andGeorge Wythe decades earlier, but the college was in a period of great decline and his concern became so dire by 1800 that he expressed to British chemistJoseph Priestley, "we have in that State, a college just well enough endowed to draw out the miserable existence to which a miserable constitution has doomed it." These words would ring true some seventy years later when William & Mary fell bankrupt after theCivil War and the Williamsburg college was shuttered completely in 1881, later being revived as primarily a small college for teachers until it regained university status later in the twentieth century.[16] Jefferson envisioned his new university would "be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it."[17]
In 1817, three presidents (Jefferson,James Monroe, andJames Madison) andChief Justice of the United States Supreme CourtJohn Marshall joined 24 other dignitaries at a meeting held in the Mountain Top Tavern atRockfish Gap. After some deliberation, they selected nearby Charlottesville as the site of the new University of Virginia.[18] The UVA Board of Visitors purchased just outsideCharlottesville a farm that had once been owned by James Monroe.[19] The Commonwealth of Virginia chartered a new flagship university to be based on the site in Charlottesville on January 25, 1819.
John Hartwell Cocke collaborated with James Madison, Monroe, and Joseph Carrington Cabell to fulfill Jefferson's dream to establish the university. Cocke and Jefferson were appointed to the building committee to supervise the construction.[20] The UVA Office of Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights is continuing to "seek opportunities to engage and acknowledge with respect that we live, learn, and work on [what once was] the territory of theMonacan Indian Nation."[21] Like many of its peers,[22] the university owned slaves who helped build the campus.[23] They also served students and professors.[23] TheMemorial to Enslaved Laborers on Central Grounds was built to memorialize their lives and legacies.[24] The university's first classes met on March 7, 1825.[25]
In contrast to other universities of the day, at which one could study in either medicine, law, or divinity, the first students at the University of Virginia could study in one or several of eight independent schools – medicine, law, mathematics, chemistry, ancient languages, modern languages, natural philosophy, and moral philosophy.[26] Another innovation of the new university was that higher education would be separated from religious doctrine. UVA had no divinity school, was established independently of any religious sect, andthe Grounds were planned and centered upon a library,the Rotunda, rather than a church, distinguishing it from peer universities still primarily functioning as seminaries for one particular strain of Protestantism or another.[27] Jefferson opined to philosopherThomas Cooper that "a professorship of theology should have no place in our institution",[28] and never has there been one. There were initially two degrees awarded by the university:Graduate, to a student who had completed the courses of one school; andDoctor to a graduate in more than one school who had shown research prowess.[29]
Jefferson was intimately involved in the university to the end, hosting Sunday dinners at hisMonticello home for faculty and students. Jefferson viewed the university's foundation as having such great importance and potential that he counted it among his greatest accomplishments and insisted his grave mention only his status as author of theDeclaration of Independence andVirginia Statute for Religious Freedom, and father of the University of Virginia. Thus, he eschewed mention of his national accomplishments, such as theLouisiana Purchase and any other aspects of his presidency, in favor of his role with the young university.
Initially, some of the students arriving at the university matched the then-common picture of college students: wealthy, spoiled aristocrats with a sense of privilege which often led to brawling, or worse. This was a source of frustration for Jefferson, who assembled the students during the school's first year, on October 3, 1825, to criticize such behavior; but was too overcome to speak. He later spoke of this moment as "the most painful event" of his life.[30]
James Madison was the second rector of the University of Virginia until 1836.
Although the frequency of such irresponsible behavior dropped after Jefferson's expression of concern, it did not die away completely. Like many universities and colleges, it experienced periodicstudent riots, culminating in the shooting death of ProfessorJohn A. G. Davis, Chairman of the Faculty, in 1840. This event, in conjunction withthe new UVA Honor System and the growing popularity of temperance and a rise in religious affiliation in society in general, seems to have resulted in a permanent change in student attitudes toward reporting the bad behavior, and thus such behavior among students that had so greatly bothered Jefferson finally vanished.[30]
In the year of Jefferson's death in 1826, poetEdgar Allan Poe enrolled at the university, where he excelled in Latin.[31] TheRaven Society, an organization named after Poe's most famous poem, continues to maintain 13 West Range, the room Poe inhabited during the single semester he attended the university.[32] He left because of financial difficulties. TheSchool of Engineering and Applied Science opened in 1836, making UVA the first comprehensive university to open an engineering school.
J. Hartwell Cocke supervised construction with Jefferson.
Unlike the majority of Southern colleges, the university was kept open throughout the Civil War, despite its state seeing more bloodshed than any other and the near 100%conscription of theAmerican South.[33] AfterJubal Early's total loss at theBattle of Waynesboro, Charlottesville was willingly surrendered to Union forces to avoid mass bloodshed, and UVA faculty convincedGeorge Armstrong Custer to preserve Jefferson's university.[34] AlthoughUnion troops camped on the Lawn and damaged many of the Pavilions, Custer's men left four days later without bloodshed and the university was able to return to its educational mission. However, an extremely high number of officers of both Confederacy and Union were alumni.[35] UVA produced 1,481 officers in theConfederate Army alone, including four major-generals, twenty-one brigadier-generals, and sixty-seven colonels from ten different states.[35]John S. Mosby, the infamous "Gray Ghost" and commander of the lightning-fast43rd Battalion Virginia Cavalry ranger unit, had also been a UVA student.
Thanks to a grant from the Commonwealth of Virginia, tuition became free for all Virginians in the year 1875.[36] During this period, the University of Virginia remained unique in that it had no president and mandated nocore curriculum from its students, who often studied in and took degrees from more than one school.[36] However, the university was also experiencing growing pains. As the originalRotunda caught fire andwas gutted in 1895, there would soon be sweeping changes, much greater than merely reconstructing the Rotunda in 1899.
Edwin Alderman was UVA's first president between 1904 and 1931 and instituted many reforms toward modernization.
Jefferson had originally decided the University of Virginia would have no serving president. Rather, this power was to be shared by a rector and theBoard of Visitors. But as the 19th century waned, it became obvious this cumbersome arrangement was incapable of adequately handling the many administrative and fundraising tasks of the growing university.[37]Edwin Alderman, who had only recently moved from his post as president ofUNC-Chapel Hill since 1896 to become president ofTulane University in 1900, accepted an offer as president of the University of Virginia in 1904. His appointment was not without controversy, and national media such asPopular Science lamented the end of one of the things that made UVA unique among universities.[38]
Alderman stayed 27 years, and became known as a prolific fund-raiser, a well-known orator, and a close adviser to U.S. president and UVA alumnusWoodrow Wilson.[37] He added significantly to the University Hospital to support new sickbeds and public health research, and helped create departments of geology and forestry, theSchool of Education and Human Development (originally the Curry School of Education), theMcIntire School of Commerce, and the summer school programs in which youngGeorgia O'Keeffe took part.[39] Perhaps his greatest ambition was the funding and construction of a library on a scale of millions of books, much larger than the Rotunda could bear. Delayed by theGreat Depression, Alderman Library was named in his honor in 1938. Alderman, who seven years earlier had died in office en route to giving a public speech at theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, is still the longest-tenured president of the university.
In December 1953, the University of Virginia joined theAtlantic Coast Conference for athletics. At the time, UVA had a football program that had just broken through to be nationally ranked in 1950, 1951, and 1952, and consistently beat its rivals North Carolina and Virginia Tech by scores such as 34–7 and 44–0. Other sports were very competitive as well. However, the administration ofColgate Darden de-emphasized athletics, defunding the department and declining to join the ACC before being overruled by the Board of Visitors on that decision. It would take until the 1980s for the bulk of athletics programs to fully recover but approaching the year 2000 UVA was again one of themost successful all-around sports programs with NCAA national titles achieved in an array of different sports; by 2020, it had twice won theCapital One Cup for overall athletics excellence in men's sports programs.
The University of Virginia first admitted a few selected women to graduate studies in the late 1890s and to certain programs such as nursing and education in the 1920s and 1930s.[40] In 1944,Mary Washington College inFredericksburg, Virginia, became the Women's Undergraduate Arts and Sciences Division of the University of Virginia. With this branch campus in Fredericksburg exclusively for women, UVA maintained its main campus in Charlottesville as near-exclusively for men, until a civil rights lawsuit in the 1960s forced it to commingle the sexes.[41] In 1970, the Charlottesville campus became fully co-educational, and in 1972 Mary Washington became an independent state university.[42] When the first female class arrived, 450 undergraduate women entered UVA, comprising 39 percent of undergraduates, while the number of men admitted remained constant. By 1999, women made up a 52 percent majority of the total student body.[40][43]
The university admitted its first black student when Gregory Swanson sued to gain entrance into the university's law school in 1950.[44] Following his successful lawsuit, a handful of black graduate and professional students were admitted during the 1950s, though no black undergraduates were admitted until 1955, and UVA did not fully integrate until the 1960s.[44] When Walter Ridley graduated with a doctorate in education, he was the first black person to graduate from UVA.[44] UVA's Ridley Scholarship Fund is named in his honor.[44]
The fight for integration and coeducation came to the foreground particularly in the late 1960s, leading up to theMay Strike of 1970, in which students protested for higher black enrollment, equal access to UVA admission by undergraduate women, unionization of employees, and against the presence of armed university police and recruiters of government agencies such as theCIA andFBI on Grounds.[45]
Due to a continual decline in state funding for the university, today only 6 percent of its budget comes from the Commonwealth of Virginia.[46] A Charter initiative was signed into law by then-GovernorMark Warner in 2005, negotiated with the university to have greater autonomy over its own affairs in exchange for accepting thisdecline in financial support.[47][48]
The university welcomedTeresa A. Sullivan as its first female president in 2010.[49] Just two years later its first woman rector,Helen Dragas, engineered a forced-resignation to remove President Sullivan from office.[50][51] The attempted ouster elicited a faculty Senate vote of no confidence in Rector Dragas, and demands from student government for an explanation.[52][53] In the face of mounting pressure including alumni threats to cease contributions, and a mandate from then-GovernorRobert McDonnell to resolve the issue or face removal of the entire Board of Visitors, the board unanimously reinstated President Sullivan.[54][55][56] In 2013 and 2014, the board passed new bylaws that made it harder to remove a president and possible to remove a rector.[57]
In November 2014, the university suspended fraternity and sorority functions pending investigation ofan article byRolling Stone concerning an alleged rape story, which was later determined to be ahoax after the story was confirmed to be false through investigation byThe Washington Post.[58][59][60] The university nonetheless instituted new rules banning "pre-mixed drinks, punches or any other common source of alcohol" such as beer kegs and requiring "sober and lucid" fraternity members to monitor all parties.[61] In April 2015,Rolling Stone fully retracted the article after theColumbia School of Journalism released a scathing and discrediting report on the "anatomy of a journalistic failure" by its author.[62][63] Even before release of the Columbia University report, theRolling Stone story was named the "Error of the Year" by thePoynter Institute.[64] The UVA chapter ofPhi Kappa Psi settled a defamation suit againstRolling Stone and received $1.65 million.[65]
In August 2017, the night before the infamousUnite the Right rally, a group of non-student and mostly non-Virginianwhite nationalists marched on the university'sLawn bearing torches and chantingantisemitic andNazi slogans after the city ofCharlottesville decided to remove all remainingConfederate statues from the city including one depictingRobert E. Lee.[66][67] They were met by student counter-protesters near the statue ofThomas Jefferson in front of the Rotunda, where a fight broke out.
James E. Ryan, a graduate of theUniversity of Virginia School of Law, became the university's ninth president in August 2018.[68] His first act upon his inauguration was to announce that in-state undergraduates from families making less than $80,000 per year would receive full scholarships covering tuition, and those from families making under $30,000 would also receive free room and board.[69] Ryan was previously dean of theHarvard School of Education.
On the night of November 13, 2022, three students were killed and two others injured ina shooting on acharter bus that was returning to the campus from a play for a class trip inWashington, D.C.[70] All three fatalities were current members of theVirginia Cavaliers football team[71] and the alleged shooter was briefly a member of the team during the 2018 season.[72]
In 2025, theUnited States Department of Justice called for PresidentRyan to resign, citing university-wide efforts to stall and misrepresent the dismantling of the University's diversity, equity and inclusion policies.[73] Ryan announced his resignation on June 27, 2025.[74] In October 2025, the university made a deal with theTrump administration, agreeing to "not engage in unlawful racial discrimination in its university programming, admissions, hiring or other activities".[75]
The university has several affiliated centers including theRare Book School, headquarters of theNational Radio Astronomy Observatory,University of Virginia Center for Politics, Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership, Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, andMiller Center of Public Affairs. TheFralin Museum of Art is dedicated to creating an environment where both the university community and the general public can study and learn from directly experiencing works of different art. The university has its own internal recruiting firm, the Executive Search Group and Strategic Resourcing. Since 2013, this department has been housed under the Office of the President.
In 2006, President Casteen announced an ambitious $3 billion capital campaign to be completed by December 2011.[82] During theGreat Recession, President Sullivan missed the 2011 deadline, and extended it indefinitely.[83] The $3 billion goal would be met a year and a half later, which President Sullivan announced at graduation ceremonies in May 2013.[84]
As of 2013[update], UVA's $1.4 billion academic budget is paid for primarily by tuition and fees (32%), research grants (23%), endowment and gifts (19%), and sales and services (12%).[85] The university receives 10% of its academic funds through state appropriation from the Commonwealth of Virginia.[85] For the overall (including non-academic) university budget of $2.6 billion, 45% comes from medical patient revenue.[85] The Commonwealth contributes less than 6%.[85]
UVA's endowment is among the highest among universities in the United States.[86] As of 2013, the University of Virginia was one of only twopublic universities in the United States that had aTriple-A credit rating from all three major credit rating agencies.[87]
Although UVA is the flagship university of Virginia, state funding has decreased for several consecutive decades.[46] Financial support from the state dropped by half from 12 percent of total revenue in 2001–02 to six percent in 2013–14.[46] The portion of academic revenue coming from the state fell by even more in the same period, from 22 percent to just nine percent.[46] This nominal support from the state, contributing just $154 million of UVA's $2.6 billion budget in 2012–13, has led President Sullivan and others to contemplate the partial privatization of the University of Virginia.[88] UVA's Darden School and Law School are already self-sufficient.Hunter R. Rawlings III, President of the prominentAssociation of American Universities research group of universities, came to Charlottesville to make a speech to university faculty which included a statement about the proposal: "there's no possibility, as far as I can see, that any state will ever relinquish its ownership and governance of its public universities, much less of its flagship research university".[88] He encouraged university leaders to stop talking about privatization and instead push their state lawmakers to increase funding for higher education and research as a public good.[88]
The University of Virginia offers 48bachelor's degree programs, 94 master's degree programs, 55doctoral degree programs, 6 educational specialist degree programs, and 2 first-professional degrees (Medicine andLaw). UVA does not bestow honorary degrees.[89][90][91]
TheJefferson Scholarship is a competitive merit scholarship. Around 30 scholars are selected annually from a direct application pool of 4,500 nominating schools, each able to nominate only one student. Covering all tuition, books, room and board, the scholarship also provides scholars finances for summer enrichment, independent research and study abroad.
Echols Scholars (College of Arts and Sciences) andRodman Scholars (School of Engineering and Applied Science), which include 5% of undergraduate students, receive no financial benefits, but are entitled to special advisors, priority course registration, residence in designated dorms and fewer curricular constraints than other students have.[92]
Shannon Library is home to 1.7 million books.[93] It is one of eleven libraries at UVA, and hosts one-third of the 1.9 million visitors to the system each year as of 2018.[94]
Full tuition scholarships are given to each in-state student from families earning under $100,000 per year.[69] Each in-state student from families earning under $50,000 per year also receives free room and board.[69] These scholarships are initiatives of President Ryan, who announced them upon his inauguration in 2018.[69]
According to theNational Science Foundation, UVA spent $614 million on research and development in 2019, ranking it 44th in the nation and first in Virginia.[97] Built in 1996, North Fork (formerly the UVA Research Park[98]) is an extensive 3.7-million square foot, 562 acreresearch park nine miles north of UVA's North Grounds.[99][100] It houses the UVA Applied Research Institute as well as many private R&D efforts by such firms asBattelle, The MITRE Corporation, Signature Science, and CACI.[100][101]
UVA is also home to globally recognized research onhypersonic flight for NASA and other organizations.[102] TheUnited States Air Force, National Science Foundation, and National Center for Hypersonic Combined Cycle Propulsion have each also granted UVA researchers millions in funding for the university's ongoing broad and deep research into ultra-high velocity flight.[102] Starting in 2015, a UVA team led by mechanical engineering professor Eric Loth began Department of Energy-funded research into an original design ofoffshore wind turbines that would potentially dwarf the size and scope of any being produced or researched anywhere else.[103] The innovative design inspired bypalm trees led to Loth being named to aPopular Science list of "The Brilliant Minds Behind The New Energy Revolution".[103][104][105]
UVA was recognized byScience as leading two of the top 10 scientific discoveries in the world in 2015.[106] The first breakthrough was whenUVA School of Medicine researchers Jonathan Kipnis and Antoine Louveau discovered previously unknown vessels connecting thehuman brain directly to thelymphatic system.[106] The second breakthrough was when UVA psychology professor Brian Nosek examined the reproducibility of 100 psychology studies and found fewer than half could be reproduced.[106] More than 270 researchers on five continents were involved, and twenty-two students and faculty from UVA were listed as co-authors on the scientific paper.[106]
As of the 2023 rankings,U.S. News & World Report ranks UVA's undergraduate programs 24th among national universities overall. Its undergraduate business school, McIntire, is ranked 4th (and 1st among public universities) in the United States by the UK-based business school websitePoets & Quants as of 2023.[116] In its (most recent as of 2024) undergraduate business school rankings of 2016,Bloomberg BusinessWeek ranked theMcIntire School of Commerce, UVA's undergraduate business program, 5th overall and 2nd among public universities.[117] In its 2024 ranking,Bloomberg.com ranks UVA as the #3 business school in the nation and 1st among public universities.[118]
U.S. News & World Report's 2024 rankings placed itslaw school fourth-best overall and 1st among public universities, its graduateDarden School of Business 10th nationally, themedical school 30th overall in the "Research" category, and theengineering school tied for 37th overall. TheSchool of Education was ranked 8th in the nation. The specialization in special education, as well as in curriculum and instruction, were both ranked 4th in the nation.[119] In the 2022Academic Ranking of World Universities, the School of Education was ranked 8th in the world.[119]
Washington Monthly ranked UVA 37th in its 2024 ranking of national universities based on its contribution to the public good, as measured by social mobility, research, and promoting good public service.[120]
The University of Virginia has also been recognized for consistently having the highest African American graduation rate among national public universities.[124][125][126] According to the Fall 2005 issue ofJournal of Blacks in Higher Education, UVA "has the highestblack student graduation rate of thePublic Ivies" and "by far the most impressive is the University of Virginia with its high black student graduation rate and its small racial difference in graduation rates."[127]
For the undergraduate Class of 2027, the University of Virginia received a record 56,439 applications, admitting 16.2 percent.[130] The early action acceptance rate was 27 percent for in-state Virginians and 12 percent for out-of-state applicants.[131] The regular decision acceptance rate was 13 percent for in-state Virginians and 8 percent for out-of-state applicants.[130] UVA is required, by Virginia state law, to matriculate two-thirds of its undergraduate student body from its pool of in-state applicants;[132] it is barred, by Virginia state law, from giving admissions preference to the children of its alumni.[133] Approximately 40 percent of those admitted to UVA are non-white.[132] Matriculated students come from all 50 states and 147 foreign countries.[134][135] The university has seen steady increases to its applicant pool in recent decades, and the number of applications has more than tripled since the Class of 2008 received 15,094 applications.[136] Admission to the university is among the mostselective in the United States among public universities.[137] As of 2014, 93 percent of admitted applicants ranked in the top 10 percent of their high school classes.[135][138] For the Class of 2027, some 1,167 students were accepted after having had their application fees waived as either low-income or first-generation college students.[130]
Admission isneed-blind for domestic applicants.[139] PresidentJames Ryan announced at his inauguration in fall 2018 that in-state students from families earning less than $80,000 a year will receive full tuition scholarships.[69] Those from families earning less than $30,000 will also receive free room and board.[69] The university already met 100 percent of demonstrated need for all admitted undergraduate students, making it one of only two public universities in the U.S. to reach this level of financial aid for its students.[140][141] For 2014, the university ranked fourth overall by thePrinceton Review for "Great Financial Aid".[142] In 2008 the Center for College Affordability and Productivity named UVA the top value among all national public colleges and universities; and in 2009, UVA was again named the "No. 1 Best Value" among public universities in the United States in a separate ranking byUSA TODAY and thePrinceton Review.[143][144][145]Kiplinger in 2014 ranked UVA second out of the top 100 best-value public colleges and universities in the nation.[146]
Student life at the University of Virginia is marked by a number of unique traditions. The campus of the university is referred to as the "Grounds". Freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors are instead called first-, second-, third-, and fourth-years to reflect Jefferson's belief that learning is a lifelong process, rather than one to be completed within four years.
Professors are traditionally addressed as "Mr." or "Ms." at UVA instead of "Doctor" (although medical doctors are the one exception) in deference to Jefferson's desire to have an equality of ideas.[150]
First-year students in the College of Arts & Sciences have the opportunity to take four Engagements, two per semester, with the goal of students expanding their thinking.[151]
Select faculty live atBrown College at Monroe Hill,Hereford College,International Residential College, and in Pavilions onthe Lawn. This living arrangement gives more opportunities for professors to invite students to lunches and dinners, which regularly happens, and creates chances for impromptu meetings and interactions between faculty and students around Grounds.
Reflecting this close student-faculty interaction at UVA, it welcomed Nobel LaureateWilliam Faulkner to a position as "Writer-in-Residence" in 1957.[152] He had no teaching responsibilities, and was paid merely to live among the students and write. He was badly injured in a horse riding accident in 1959, and did not return to the state before his death in 1962.[152] Faulkner then bequeathed the majority of his papers to Shannon Library, giving UVA the largest Faulkner archives in the world.[153]
UVA was previously the academic sponsor forSemester at Sea, a multi-country study abroad program conducted on a cruise ship.
The University of Virginia received the 2015 Paul Simon Award for Comprehensive Internationalization, by the Association of International Educators.[154] This award confirms the university's success and commitment in educating its students on a global scale as well as nationally.[154]
There are a number of UVA undergraduate leadership opportunities that are offered in addition to the standard student government or fraternity and sorority positions found at many other universities. They include UVA'ssecret societies and debating societies, thestudent-run honor committees, and the chance to be recognized as a fourth-year student at the pinnacle of student leadership by being asked to live onthe Lawn.
TheFrank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, established in 2007, expands on these unique student leadership opportunities to study Leadership itself as a cross-disciplinary subject of focus and is closely aligned with many of the university's schools, including theArchitecture,Education,Engineering,Law,Medical, andDarden schools, as well as with programs in politics, economics, and applied ethics.
The University of Virginia has a long history of student activists who formed radical environmental, religious, and political groups to champion various social changes.[155] An especially intense period of student activism occurred in the 1970s during the May Days strikes against the Vietnam War.[156] More recently, theSchool of Education and Human Development and its Youth-Nex Center held a national conference in 2019 to promote student activism at UVA and beyond.[157]
The mark ofone out ofmany secret societies active on Grounds at the university
Student societies have existed on Grounds since the early twentieth century. Secret societies have been a part of University of Virginia student life since the first class of students in 1825. While the number of societies peaked during the 75-year period between 1875 and 1950, there are still six societies active that are over 100 years old, and several newer secret societies.
On my honor, I have neither given nor received aid on this assignment.
The nation's first codified honor system was instituted by UVA law professorHenry St. George Tucker, Sr. in 1842, after a fellow professor was shot to death onthe Lawn. There are three tenets to the system: students simply must notlie,cheat, orsteal. For its first 180 years it was a "single sanction system", meaning that committing any of these three offenses would result in immediate expulsion from the university. In the spring of 2022, following decades of criticism and waning support, a proposal to replace the penalty of expulsion with a two-semester suspension passed a student referendum with over 80% of the vote and took effect immediately.
The honor system is intended to be student-run and student-administered.[159] If accused, students are tried before their peers—fellow students, never faculty, serve as counsel and jury. Although Honor Committee resources have been strained by mass cheating scandals such as a case in 2001 of 122 suspected cheaters over several years in a single large Physics survey course, and federal lawsuits have challenged the system, its verdicts are rarely overturned.[160][161][162] There is only one documented case of direct UVA administration interference in an honor system proceeding: the trial and subsequent retrial of student Christopher Leggett.[163]
Many events take place at the University of Virginia,on the Lawn and across Grounds. One of the largest events at UVA is Springfest, hosted by the University Programs Council. It takes place every year in the spring, and features a large free concert, various inflatables, games. Another popular event and tradition is Lighting of the Lawn in the winter. Established in 2001 as a tribute to theSeptember 11 attacks, Lighting of the Lawn consists of a light and music show on the Lawn. Another popular event isFoxfield, asteeplechase and social gathering that takes place nearby inAlbemarle County in April, and which is annually attended by thousands of students from the University of Virginia, neighboring colleges, and local residents.[164]
The University Amphitheater is often used for outdoor lectures and student gatherings.
The student life building is called Newcomb Hall. It is home to the Student Activities Center (SAC) and the Media Activities Center (MAC), where student groups can get leadership consulting and use computing and copying resources. It also features several meeting rooms for student groups. Student Council, the student self-governing body, holds meetings Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. in the Newcomb South Meeting Room. Student Council, or "StudCo", also holds office hours and regular committee meetings in the newly renovated Newcomb Programs and Council (PAC) Room. The PAC also houses the University Programs Council and Class Councils. Newcomb basement is home to both the office of the independent student newspaperThe Declaration,The Cavalier Daily, and the Consortium of University Publications.
In 2005, the university was named "Hottest for Fitness" byNewsweek magazine,[165] due in part to 94% of its students using one of the four indoor athletics facilities. Particularly popular is the Aquatics and Fitness Center, across the street from the Alderman Dorms. The University of Virginia sent more workers to thePeace Corps in 2006[166] and 2008[167] than any other "medium-sized" university in the United States. Volunteerism at the university is centered around Madison House which offers numerous opportunities to serve others. Among the numerous programs offered are tutoring, housing improvement, an organization called Hoos Against Hunger, which gives leftover food from restaurants to the homeless of Charlottesville rather than allowing it to be discarded, among numerous other volunteer programs. Many students also choose to volunteer as emergency responders, the most common stations being Charlottesville Albemarle Rescue Squad (CARS) in the city of Charlottesville and Seminole Trail Volunteer Fire Department (STVFD) in Albemarle County.[168]
As at many universities, alcohol use is a part of the social life of many undergraduate students. In 2005, concerns particularly arose about fourth-years consuming excessive alcohol during the day of the last home football game.[169] President Casteen then announced a $2.5 million donation fromAnheuser-Busch to fund a new UVA-based Social Norms Institute in September 2006.[170] A spokesman said: "the goal is to get students to emulate the positive behavior of the vast majority of students". On the other hand, the university was ranked first inPlayboy's 2012 list of Top 10 Party Schools based on ratings of sex, sports, andnightlife.[171]
The University of Virginia has a number offraternities and sororities on campus, encompassing the traditional social fraternities and sororities as well as coeducationalprofessional,service, andhonor fraternities. Social life at the university was originally dominated by debating societies.[172] The first fraternity chapter founded at UVA wasDelta Kappa Epsilon in 1852, and it was quickly followed by many more; the University of Virginia was the birthplace of two national fraternities,Kappa Sigma andPi Kappa Alpha, which exist at the university as of 2023.[173][174][175]
Through the twentieth century, the roles of these organizations on campus expanded to encompass social sororities, professional fraternities and sororities, service fraternities, honor societies, black fraternities and sororities, and multicultural fraternities and sororities. Roughly 30% of the student body are members of social fraternities and sororities, while additional students are involved with service, professional, and honor fraternities.[176]"Rush and pledging" occur in the spring semester for most Greek organizations. Kappa Sigma and theTrigon Engineering Society hold reserved rooms on the Lawn, while Pi Kappa Alpha holds the only undergraduate room on the Range.[177]
A set of bus lines operated by the university's University Transit Service connect different parts of the UVA Grounds with adjacent parking facilities. This is complemented by a set of bus lines operated byCharlottesville Area Transit that connect the University of Virginia with other parts of Charlottesville. TheVirginia Department of Transportation maintains the roads through the university grounds asState Route 302.[178]
Megabus began serving Charlottesville with inexpensive direct express routes to and from Washington, D.C. in 2018.[179] Megabus also runs up to four trips per day from Charlottesville to New York City with several stops between.[180] Like the trains, the Megabus stop is at the nearby Amtrak station.[180]
Virginia has ranked near the top of collegiate athletics programs in recent years. In 2015 and 2019, UVA won the nationwideCapital One Cup for overall men's sports excellence.[181] The teams and athletes representing Virginia incollege athletics have been dubbed theCavalierssince 1923, predating the NBA'sCleveland Cavaliers by nearly half a century.
Virginia's athletics director is Carla Williams, the first African American woman to hold the position at anypower conference university. The previous athletics director wasCraig Littlepage, the first African American to have that title in the ACC. He held the position for sixteen years and, under his leadership, UVA added many significant hires who have demonstrated success near the top of their respective sports, including recent NCAA ChampionsTony Bennett,Lars Tiffany,Brian O'Connor, and Todd DeSorbo, as well as former football coachBronco Mendenhall. Among coaches who have longer tenures,George Gelnovatch has won two NCAA men's soccer national titles since 2009. Steve Swanson has led women's soccer teams to six ACC titles and 24 consecutive winning seasons. Kevin Sauer has led UVA women's rowing to two NCAA titles since 2010.
UVA lacrosse has won 11 national championships, including nine national titles since NCAA oversight began.
In the 21st century alone, UVA teams have won 22 NCAA championships. The men's teams have won NCAA titles in basketball (2019); lacrosse (2003, 2006, 2011, 2019, and 2021); baseball (2015); soccer (2009 and 2014); and tennis (2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2022, and 2023). UVA women have won recent NCAA titles in rowing (2010 and 2012) and swimming & diving (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025). The Cavaliers rankfirst in the ACC (apower conference) with 23 men's NCAA Championships, and rank second in the conference with 11 women's NCAA Championships.
UnderTony Bennett theCavaliers have experienced a basketball renaissance, winning the2019 NCAA Championship, winning theACC tournaments of 2014 (over Duke) and 2018 (over North Carolina), and winning regular-season championships in 2014, 2015, 2018, and 2019. UVA became the third program in ACC history to win 30 or more games in consecutive seasons andJohn Paul Jones Arena is considered one of the more intimidating trips for opposing teams to make. The women's basketball program fell just short of its own NCAA Championship in 1990, losing the Championship Game in overtime.
TheVirginia men's andwomen's lacrosse programs are two of the most dominant in the history of the sport, winning ten of UVA's twenty-nine NCAA Championships between them and two more (for a total of 11 recognized national championships) before NCAA oversight began. 2019 and 2021 NCAA champion men's head coachLars Tiffany has brought UVA back to prominence afterDom Starsia retired as the all-time ACC leader in men's lacrosse wins. All three UVA head coaches in the position prior to Tiffany still rank (as of 2019) inthe top 20 of career wins. Three-time NCAA champion head coach Julie Myers leads women's lacrosse and under her guidance, Virginia is the only program to qualify for 24 straight NCAA tournament berths as of 2019.[184]
TheUVA men's tennis program won "three-peat" NCAA Championships in 2015–2017 after winning the Cavaliers' first in 2013. The team won back-to-back championships in 2022 and 2023. The program has regularly featured international talent combined with locally grown high school tennis talent from Virginia (oftenNorthern Virginia).[185]
Official ACC designated rivalry games include theVirginia–Virginia Tech rivalry and the Virginia–Louisville series. These two rivalries are guaranteed an annual game in all sports, and a home-and-away series in men's and women's basketball. The Cavaliers competed against the Hokies in theCommonwealth Challenge and more recently competed in theCommonwealth Clash, under new rules, for many sports in which they compete head-to-head. The Cavaliers went 2–0 against the Hokies in theChallenge and 3–2 in theClash (5–2 overall). Perhaps the two most significant rivalry games played between the Cavaliers and Hokies were both in men's basketball, in March 2007 and January 2019. In the former, the two teams met with identical 10–4 ACC records and the winner would clinch a share of the regular-season conference championship. UVA won the game 69–56 and took their fifthof 11 ACC titles. In the latter, No. 4 UVA beat No. 9 Virginia Tech 81–59 in the only game between two AP Top 10 teams in the rivalry's history.
The ACC is often regarded as the best college basketball conference,[190][191][192][193][194] and UVA leads the series in its official yearly home-and-away ACC basketball rivalries:against Virginia Tech 99–61, and against Louisville 23–7, as of 2025[update]. Otherbasketball rivalries include those against North Carolina and Maryland. Notably the1982 ACC tournament championship game whereDean Smith had his team of future NBA stars (such asMichael Jordan andJames Worthy) hold the ball for seven minutes, against a Virginia team featuringRalph Sampson, led to the advent of theshot clock and thethree-point line. The Maryland rivalry is now mostly dormant, but was reignited for the 2014 and 2018 editions of theACC–Big Ten Challenge, with both Challenges won by the Cavaliers on the road in College Park.
Virginia men's lacrosse, as one of the all-time great NCAA programs, has a championship rivalry with fellow ACC program Syracuse (the Cavaliers and Orange holding 18 NCAA Championships between them) as well as rivalries against Big Ten programs Johns Hopkins and Maryland. The Syracuse and Johns Hopkins rivalries are played out at least once each season (Syracuse playedtwice in 2021[195]) with the teams often finding themselves facing off a second or third time in the ACC and NCAA tournaments.Virginia women's lacrosse, also a multi-NCAA Championship program, maintains several of those same rivalries.
The Virginia football team competes against North Carolina in theSouth's Oldest Rivalry, a historic football rivalry game which a sitting President of the United States,Calvin Coolidge, made time to attend in Charlottesville in 1924. The 1960s and 1970s were particularly dark decades for the football program, which later experienced a resurgence in the 1980s and 1990s underGeorge Welsh. Coach Welsh led the program to its first bowl bids starting with the1984 Peach Bowl. Welsh, who even reached AP No. 1 rankings for Virginia in October 1990, is a member of theCollege Football Hall of Fame after compiling the second-most wins in ACC history afterBobby Bowden.[196] In a historic rivalry between two legendary coaches, Welsh finished two games up in the head-to-head series against Virginia Tech coachFrank Beamer, 8–6. He was also dominant against UNC in the South's Oldest Rivalry, finishing 13–5–1, including a perfect 10–0 record against North Carolina atScott Stadium.
Faculty were originally housed in theAcademical Village among the students, serving as both instructors and advisors, continuing on to include the McCormick Road Old Dorms, though this has been phased out in favor of undergraduate student resident advisors (RAs). Several of the faculty, however, continue the university tradition of living on Grounds, either on the Lawn in the various Pavilions, or as fellows at one of three residential colleges (Brown College at Monroe Hill,Hereford College, and theInternational Residential College).
Larry Sabato has, according toThe Wall Street Journal andThe Washington Post, become the most-cited professor in the country by national and regional news organizations, both on the Internet and in print.[201] Civil rights activistJulian Bond, a professor in the Corcoran Department of History from 1990 to 2012, was the chairman of theNAACP from 1998 to 2009 and was chosen to host the Nobel Laureates conference in 1998.
Famous current and former UVA faculty and staff in residence
As of December 2014[update], the University of Virginia has 221,000 living graduates.[202] According to a study by researchers at the Darden School and Stanford University, UVA alumni have founded over 65,000 companies which have employed 2.3 million people worldwide with annual global revenues of $1.6 trillion.[202] Extrapolated numbers show companies founded by UVA alumni have created 371,000 jobs in the state of Virginia alone.[202] The relatively small amount that the Commonwealth gives UVA for support was determined by the study to have a tremendousreturn on investment for the state.[202]
Thirty U.S. state or U.S. territorial Governors have graduated from UVA, including fifteenGovernors of Virginia,[e] and fifteen Governors of other U.S. states and territories as well.[f]
^This figure refers to the consolidated operating budget. The consolidated operating budget, including the Academic Division, theMedical Center and theCollege at Wise, totals $5.8 billion.[3]
^The total number of administrative staff listed here represents the total number of Classified Staff and University Staff.[6]
^The percentage of students who received an income-based federalPell grant intended for low-income students.
^The percentage of students who are a part of theAmerican middle class at the bare minimum.
^"History".University of Virginia Bicentennial. Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia. Archived fromthe original on March 3, 2020. RetrievedMarch 3, 2020.
^abc"Employees".Institutional Research and Analytics, U.Va. Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia.Archived from the original on February 20, 2022. RetrievedFebruary 26, 2020.
^abc"Enrollment".Institutional Research and Analytics. Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia.Archived from the original on December 4, 2023. RetrievedDecember 4, 2023.
^"An Account of James Monroe's Land Holdings".Archived from the original on December 3, 2023. RetrievedDecember 1, 2023. Research conducted for the Ash Lawn-Highland Museum and the Institute for Public History of the University of Virginia in 1998: in 1788-9 George Nicholas had sold the land to James Monroe (without a recorded deed); in 1810 Monroe's attorney sold it to George Divers to pay Monroe's creditors; in 1810 it was resold to John Nicholas; in 1814 resold again to John Perry; and in 1820 the Proctor of the University bought the land from its then-owner John Perry for the University.
^"Indigenous/UVA Relating".eocr.virginia.edu. November 2019.Archived from the original on September 26, 2021.'acknowledge with respect that we live, learn, and work on the traditional territory of the Monacan Indian Nation.'
^abSmith, Stephen (September 4, 2017)."Shackled Legacy: History shows slavery helped build many U.S. colleges and universities".American Public Media.Archived from the original on June 15, 2020. RetrievedJune 9, 2018.The university bought a number slaves to work with free black and white laborers. Slaves did all facets of the work, leveling the ground, planing the timber, quarrying the stone and firing the bricks. ... More than 100 slaves worked on campus at a given time, serving more than 600 students and faculty, records show.
^abEncyclopedia VirginiaPresident Edwin AldermanArchived December 28, 2011, at theWayback Machine "By the turn of the 20th century the administrative affairs had grown to such an extent that the old form of government became too cumbersome. The appointment of Alderman brought a new era of progressivism to the university and service to Virginia." Retrieved January 25, 2012
^Popular Science, July 1905 Volume 67, "The Progress of Science"
^Rice, Andrew (September 11, 2012)."Anatomy of a Campus Coup".New York Times.Archived from the original on September 17, 2012. RetrievedSeptember 17, 2012.
^The Hook, a Charlottesville weekly, posted a series of articles detailing events as they occurred, collected atHawes Spencer."The Ousting of a President".The Hook. Archived fromthe original on November 13, 2014. RetrievedNovember 13, 2014.(2012–13)
^UVa's main grounds lie on the border of the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County. Although maps may include this area within the city boundaries, most of it legally is in the county. Exceptions include the University Hospital, built in 1989 on land that remains part of the city. Detailed PDF maps are available at:"Space and Real Estate Management: GIS Mapping". University of Virginia. RetrievedApril 25, 2008. See also:Loper, George (July 2001)."Geographical Jurisdiction".Signs of the Times. Archived fromthe original on April 16, 2008. RetrievedApril 25, 2008.
^"UVA Research Park".University of Virginia Foundation.Archived from the original on May 15, 2019. RetrievedMarch 5, 2020.
^Rector and Visitors of The University of Virginia (1995)."Chapter 4: University Regulations: Honorary Degrees". Rector and Visitors of The University of Virginia. Archived fromthe original on August 31, 2006. RetrievedMay 7, 2006. "The University of Virginia does not award honorary degrees. In conjunction with the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, the University presents the Thomas Jefferson Medal in Architecture and the Thomas Jefferson Award in Law each spring. The awards, recognizing excellence in two fields of interest to Jefferson, constitute the University's highest recognition of scholars outside the University."
^"No honorary degrees is an MIT tradition going back to ... Thomas Jefferson". MIT News Office. June 8, 2001.Archived from the original on April 14, 2006. RetrievedMay 7, 2006.:"MIT's founder, William Barton Rogers, regarded the practice of giving honorary degrees as 'literary almsgiving ... of spurious merit and noisy popularity ... ' Rogers was a geologist from the University of Virginia who believed in Thomas Jefferson's policy barring honorary degrees at the university, which was founded in 1819."
^In 1983 the Fourth Circuit rejected a challenge brought by an expelled law student, theHenson caseArchived November 25, 2014, at theWayback Machine, concluding U VA's student-run honor system afforded sufficient due process to pass constitutional scrutiny.
Bruce, Philip Alexander (1920–1922).History of the University of Virginia, 1819–1919: The Lengthening Shadow of One Man (five vol. ed.). New York:Macmillan.
Ragosta, John A.; Peter S. Onuf, and Andrew J. O'Shaughnessy (eds.) (2019),The Founding of Thomas Jefferson's University. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press.
Taylor, Alan (October 15, 2019).Thomas Jefferson's Education. W. W. Norton & Company.ISBN978-0393652420.
This list is incomplete. The Covenant School Hickory Campus, Charlottesville Catholic School, andTandem Friends School have Charlottesville, VA postal addresses but are in adjacent Albemarle County.
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