University of Richmond
The University of Richmond is a private liberal arts college in Richmond, Virginia, United States. It is a primarily undergraduate, residential institution with approximately 3,900 undergraduate and graduate students in five schools: the School of Arts and Sciences; the E. Claiborne Robins School of Business; the Jepson School of Leadership Studies; the University of Richmond School of Law; and the School of Professional & Continuing Studies. It is classified among "Baccalaureate Colleges: Arts & Sciences Focus".
The university's athletics teams are known as the "Richmond Spiders," after the university's distinctive mascot. A participant in the U.S. Navy's V-12 Navy College Training Program during World War II, Richmond commissions U.S. Army officers through its ROTC program, which is partnered with Hampden-Sydney College and Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia.
Richmond faculty and alumni have included numerous educators, judges and politicians. 17 NFL players have graduated from the University of Richmond, and U.S. Senator Tim Kaine is a former UR professor. David Burd, known under his stage name as Lil Dicky, graduated summa cum laude from Richmond's business school, and the first three presidents of Hargrave Military Academy were Richmond graduates.
History
The University of Richmond traces its history to a meeting of the Baptist General Association of Virginia held on June 8, 1830. The BGAV resolved "that the Baptists of this State form an education society for the improvement of the ministry." Thus, the Virginia Baptist Education Society was instituted. However, the society did not have enough funds for a proper school yet. In the meantime, they asked their vice-president, Rev. Edward Baptist, "to accept into his home young men wishing to prepare for the ministry." Baptist was an 1813 graduate of Hampden–Sydney College. In August 1830, William Allgood, the first student of this ministry school, came to Baptist's Dunlora Plantation to attend classes in "a building of three or four rooms." The school, eventually known as Dunlora Academy, enrolled nine students in its first year. After two years, the society purchased for $4,000 "Spring Farm," located about five miles north of Richmond. This farm was the home of the Virginia Baptist Seminary which opened July 1, 1832, and began classes July 4 under the leadership of Robert Ryland.The Virginia Baptist Seminary offered courses in Latin, Greek, and mathematics. Each day, students worked for three hours at farm labor. President Ryland thought highly of this system as it was "improving the health, diminishing the expenses, and perhaps guarding the humility of the young preachers." In reality, the farming experiment proved to be unprofitable and was dropped from the school after a couple of years. Over time, enrollment and faculty increased to a point where the education society began looking for a more suitable property than the small "Spring Farm," where dorms consisted of log cabins while the schoolrooms and the chapel were in a barn.
In 1834, the Virginia Baptist Education Society bought the former Haxall family plantation. This property was much larger and more efficient than "Spring Farm." It was situated in the main house, Columbia, and other brick buildings. As the seminary grew, it became in need of funds. The education society was unable to receive bequests or hold property as it was an unincorporated organization. The seminary could not receive a charter from the legislature as it was a theological school. Therefore, around 1840 the seminary applied for a charter as a liberal arts college, which was granted on March 4 of that year. At this time, the society turned over the land and buildings of the school to the trustees of the newly minted Richmond College.
Richmond College officially opened on January 2, 1843. It had "68 students, 3 teachers, land and buildings valued at $20,000, a small endowment, and a library of 700 volumes". For an eleven-month session, tuition and room and board cost $120. The salaries of the teachers were $900 for President Ryland, and $600 and $500 for the other two.
During the American Civil War, the entire student body formed a regiment and joined the Confederate army. Richmond College's buildings were used as a hospital for Confederate troops and later as a barracks for Union soldiers. The college invested all of its funds in Confederate war bonds, and the outcome of the war left it bankrupt. In 1866, James Thomas donated $5,000 to reopen the college. The T.C. Williams School of Law opened in 1870.
In 1894, the college elected Frederic W. Boatwright president. President Boatwright would serve for 51 years. He is most remembered for raising the funds needed to move the college in 1914 from its original uptown location to a new 350-acre campus in what is now Westhampton area of Richmond, and in doing so created Westhampton College for women.
Westhampton College opened with 82 students on September 17, 1914, as Richmond Women's College. Its first dean was May Keller, with Boatwright serving as treasurer. The college was housed in the Richmond Women's College Building, built between July 1911 and 1913. Shortly afterward, the building was renamed Westhampton College. In 1948, the building received its current name of North Court. The building was divided into an academic wing and living space for the students and faculty. In addition, the female students had access to the library and science buildings of Richmond College.
The institution's main library, Boatwright Memorial Library, is named in Boatwright's honor. Symbolically, the library and its soaring academic gothic tower occupy the highest spot on the grounds. Its grounds were landscaped in 1913, by Warren H. Manning under the supervision of Charles Gillette.
The institution was renamed the University of Richmond On September 21, 1920. This established a corporation that combined the renamed Richmond College for Men and Westhampton College. The respective parts of the campus continue to be referred to as the Westhampton and the Richmond "sides". “
File:Richmond-Rummell View.jpg|thumb|The campus of Richmond College in 1915, shortly after the transition to Richmond's West End., Rummell, Richard, Littig & Co. 1915
In 1949, the E. Claiborne Robins School of Business opened, followed by the School of Continuing Studies in 1962. In 1969, when financial issues threatened closing the institution or turning it over to the Commonwealth of Virginia, E. Claiborne Robins Sr., a trustee and alumnus, donated $50 million to the institution, the largest gift made to an institution of higher education at the time. In constant dollars, it remains among the largest. Robins' goal was to make Richmond one of the best private universities in the country. In partnership with the institution's president E. Bruce Heilman and development director H. Gerald Quigg the $10 million matching grant component of the gift raised over an additional $60 million, making the institution's total endowment at the time one of the highest in the country.
During World War II, Richmond was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program which offered students a path to a Navy commission.
In 1987, a donation of $20 million by Robert S. Jepson Jr. facilitated the opening of the Jepson School of Leadership Studies.
On October 15, 1992, presidential candidates George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Ross Perot came to campus for the first-ever "town hall" televised presidential debate, viewed by 200 million people worldwide. Addressing a crowd of nearly 9,000, President Obama visited the University of Richmond to present the American Jobs Act on September 11, 2011.
On, February 23, 2015, the University of Richmond announced to the student body via email that the board of trustees elected Ronald Crutcher as the tenth president of the institution. He took office on July 1, 2015, and his inauguration ceremony was held at the Robins Center on October 30, 2015, becoming the first African American president of the institution.
In August 2021, Kevin F. Hallock became the 11th president of the institution. Hallock, a labor economist, previously served as the Dean of the SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University.
The Henry Mansfield Cannon Memorial Chapel, North Court, and Ryland Hall were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.