Founded in 1819, the University of Virginia's first classes did not meet until March
1825. Jefferson hosted Sunday dinners at his home in nearby Monticello for faculty and students (including Edgar Allan Poe) until his death the next year.Many of America's political leaders have gravitated to the University of Virginia over the years. In 1826, Fourth U.S. President James Madison became Rector
of the University, at the same time America's Fifth President James Monroe
made his home on the Grounds (and was a member of the Board of Visitors). 28th U.S. President Woodrow Wilson attended the University of Virginia Law School, as did assassinated 1968 candidate for the Presidency, Robert
Kennedy, and his brother, Ted Kennedy. Other alumni in leadership roles
have included three United States Supreme Court
Justices, two Surgeon
Generals, a Speaker of the House, a Senate Majority Leader, Secretaries of State, Defense, Energy, Transportation, Treasury, and the Navy, and the Secretary General of
both NATO and the Council of the European Union.Unlike many other southern schools, the University of Virginia remained open through the American Civil War. In March 1865, Union General George Armstrong Custer marched troops into Charlottesville.
Faculty and community leaders convinced him to spare the University. Union troops camped on the Lawn and ravaged many of the
Pavilions but left four days later without any bloodshed."Public Ivy" is a term that was first coined to describe the University of Virginia. The term is attributed to Pulitzer and
Nobel Prize winner William Faulkner at around the time the Ivy League was forming in the northeast. Some at the time thought the University should
privatize a few of its schools (in the style of Cornell
University) and attempt to join them. Later, in 1957, Faulkner became
writer-in-residence at the University, keeping open office hours until his death in 1962.Though all-white until 1950 and all-male until 1970, the University of Virginia is now much more diverse. The makeup of the entering Class of 2008 was 10% African-American, 14% Asian-American, 5% Hispanic, 5% Other and 5% International. Less than
two-thirds identified themselves as being white.In 2004, the University of Virginia became the first public university in the United
States to receive more of its funding from private sources than from the state with which it is associated. UVa, Virginia
Polytechnic Institute and State University ("Virginia Tech"), and the College of William and Mary are currently undergoing a Charter initiative that would enable
these institutions to run themselves more independently in the face of continued budget cutbacks in the state's General
Assembly.