UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

John Casteen, Professor and Former UVa President 1990-2010

“I don’t know that anybody would have guessed, say, thirty years ago, that women’s studies would become a major force in almost every academic discipline.

“That African-American studies would turn out to be a university prize item. We were struggling to try to make it happen. Over time it has become significant, it is really an important part of who we are.

“We also looked at something else in those days. I would have appointments with students who would turn up in my office to demand that we create a discipline that we didn’t have. The brain science programs, and there are a couple of them, are results of those student demands. They knew what they wanted. And in that field, and in many others, they were right.

“So it was a time of evolution. That was fun.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

John Casteen, Professor and Former UVa President 1990-2010

“I don’t know that anybody would have guessed, say, thirty years ago, that women’s studies would become a major force in almost every academic discipline.

“That African-American studies would turn out to be a university prize item. We were struggling to try to make it happen. Over time it has become significant, it is really an important part of who we are.

“We also looked at something else in those days. I would have appointments with students who would turn up in my office to demand that we create a discipline that we didn’t have. The brain science programs, and there are a couple of them, are results of those student demands. They knew what they wanted. And in that field, and in many others, they were right.

“So it was a time of evolution. That was fun.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

John Casteen, Professor and Former UVa President 1990-2010

“There are a lot of sins, political sins, visited on people, and especially in states in the southeast.

“Virginia’s history of slavery and long-time repression of women and slow acceptance of immigrant populations after the beginning of the state. It’s not that that’s the university’s fault, but we’re the agency that can lead in something like reforming the state. But we do it one enlightened citizen at a time.

“We’re not running for office, we’re not looking to claim huge results. Watching the way Washington works right now, with the president claiming huge results, that’s the opposite of what a university does. We wait for the results to be claimed by our products: students, faculty members, and so on.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

John Casteen, Professor and Former UVa President 1990-2010

“There are a lot of sins, political sins, visited on people, and especially in states in the southeast.

“Virginia’s history of slavery and long-time repression of women and slow acceptance of immigrant populations after the beginning of the state. It’s not that that’s the university’s fault, but we’re the agency that can lead in something like reforming the state. But we do it one enlightened citizen at a time.

“We’re not running for office, we’re not looking to claim huge results. Watching the way Washington works right now, with the president claiming huge results, that’s the opposite of what a university does. We wait for the results to be claimed by our products: students, faculty members, and so on.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

John Casteen, Professor and Former UVa President 1990-2010

“When I was hired, I was told that we ought to try to raise about $50 million in about ten years.

“That first campaign, the goal was set at $250 million, then $350 million, then $500 million. When it passed $1 billion was I had a board member who wanted to just stop doing this. The numbers were frightening. Maybe not nowadays, but the numbers were frightening then. And the idea that we actually had secured $1 billion puzzled people. Real people, giving real assets that they had acquired.

“That campaign went to, I think the final tally was $1.43 billion. We rolled from the first one right into the setup for the second one, which raised quite a lot of money.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

John Casteen, Professor and Former UVa President 1990-2010

“When I was hired, I was told that we ought to try to raise about $50 million in about ten years.

“That first campaign, the goal was set at $250 million, then $350 million, then $500 million. When it passed $1 billion was I had a board member who wanted to just stop doing this. The numbers were frightening. Maybe not nowadays, but the numbers were frightening then. And the idea that we actually had secured $1 billion puzzled people. Real people, giving real assets that they had acquired.

“That campaign went to, I think the final tally was $1.43 billion. We rolled from the first one right into the setup for the second one, which raised quite a lot of money.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

John Casteen, Professor and Former UVa President 1990-2010

“On Friday afternoon, if you were headed for Sweet Briar or Randolph-Macon Women’s or some place, you got out and you hitchhiked on Route 29. We hitchhiked all over the place.

“I can remember, without even thinking it was a crazy thing to do, hitchhiking through Scottsville in the middle of the night, and a police officer picking me up and taking me to his little station house so I could warm up.

“It was just understood that university students hitchhiked all over the place. We did the hitchhiking with our coats and our neckties. How strange. Again, I never heard of anybody getting hurt doing it, it was just an odd thing to do. It was a different era. So that’s a difference.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

John Casteen, Professor and Former UVa President 1990-2010

“On Friday afternoon, if you were headed for Sweet Briar or Randolph-Macon Women’s or some place, you got out and you hitchhiked on Route 29. We hitchhiked all over the place.

“I can remember, without even thinking it was a crazy thing to do, hitchhiking through Scottsville in the middle of the night, and a police officer picking me up and taking me to his little station house so I could warm up.

“It was just understood that university students hitchhiked all over the place. We did the hitchhiking with our coats and our neckties. How strange. Again, I never heard of anybody getting hurt doing it, it was just an odd thing to do. It was a different era. So that’s a difference.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

John Casteen, Professor and Former UVa President 1990-2010

“I remember crossing one of the bridges in the library between the lobby and the stacks. Someone had told me that President Kennedy had been shot.

“People began moving in a kind of way to the Newcomb Hall coffee shop because it had a television. That was an awful day.

“But there was a sourly disposed economist who was in the place and who began speaking to the crowd. He was ridiculing the president and his family. You had to make a choice. You couldn’t just stand there and let this guy say vile stuff without responding. The vast majority were against him. It was not a real debate, nobody wanted to talk to him.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

UVA's Bicentennial Stories initiative from WTJU 91.1 FM tells our collective story. It helps us understand our shared history and make meaning in the University today. And as we look ahead, these stories help us shape the future of the University and our role in a democratic society.

John Casteen, Professor and Former UVa President 1990-2010

“I remember crossing one of the bridges in the library between the lobby and the stacks. Someone had told me that President Kennedy had been shot.

“People began moving in a kind of way to the Newcomb Hall coffee shop because it had a television. That was an awful day.

“But there was a sourly disposed economist who was in the place and who began speaking to the crowd. He was ridiculing the president and his family. You had to make a choice. You couldn’t just stand there and let this guy say vile stuff without responding. The vast majority were against him. It was not a real debate, nobody wanted to talk to him.”

For more: www.uvastories.org