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 came here in August of 1990, the university did not have plans for its future.

“The governor was recommending at the time that we retrench, which meant close schools, close departments, ratchet down the university’s academic presence. When the governor gave that advice, we had to say, No, thank you.

“He described a mission that tier-one or major universities simply don’t have in this country. We tried to engage a lot of people in the planning. We had big open meetings for neighbors, for alumni, students came, their parents came. Because we felt that a lot of people needed to own what we were planning to do. And we did not stop.”

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 came here in August of 1990, the university did not have plans for its future.

“The governor was recommending at the time that we retrench, which meant close schools, close departments, ratchet down the university’s academic presence. When the governor gave that advice, we had to say, No, thank you.

“He described a mission that tier-one or major universities simply don’t have in this country. We tried to engage a lot of people in the planning. We had big open meetings for neighbors, for alumni, students came, their parents came. Because we felt that a lot of people needed to own what we were planning to do. And we did not stop.”

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 telling one of our governors to sit tight, that we’d finance the place on our own. He said, You can’t do that. I said, Watch, we’re gonna do it.

“It’s not that the state money didn’t matter after it was cut, it was that it mattered in a different way. I never thought that there was any reason to talk about the university becoming a private institution, that used to be happy chatter all over the place.

“Friends of mine who would say, We’re in favor of that, you have to get it done this year or next year. Other people whom I knew from Richmond would tell me, You can’t do that, that’s not going to happen. Well, I never thought it would happen, I never wanted it to happen.

“What I wanted was the best state university in the country for Virginia. Never wanted to be anything but the state university. I can’t tell you that that’s always the way it will be, but that’s how I think it ought to be.”

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 telling one of our governors to sit tight, that we’d finance the place on our own. He said, You can’t do that. I said, Watch, we’re gonna do it.

“It’s not that the state money didn’t matter after it was cut, it was that it mattered in a different way. I never thought that there was any reason to talk about the university becoming a private institution, that used to be happy chatter all over the place.

“Friends of mine who would say, We’re in favor of that, you have to get it done this year or next year. Other people whom I knew from Richmond would tell me, You can’t do that, that’s not going to happen. Well, I never thought it would happen, I never wanted it to happen.

“What I wanted was the best state university in the country for Virginia. Never wanted to be anything but the state university. I can’t tell you that that’s always the way it will be, but that’s how I think it ought to be.”

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

“Well right now, talk about democracy in the country is sort of pseudo-economics. How much can people after they take some course in a college.

“I think that a university of this kind if charged in a unique way with elevating people’s perceptions of the world around them and of themselves internally. That a student may be here for four years, five years, or whatever it is. The effects on that person’s life may not be apparent for fifty years.

“If a student is almost compelled to work right at her or his margins of capacity, I think that plays out in one’s life. Now, does it make me earn more money? No. Does it have much to do with life? I think it does. The reason good colleges survive in America is because good citizens need them.”

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

“Well right now, talk about democracy in the country is sort of pseudo-economics. How much can people after they take some course in a college.

“I think that a university of this kind if charged in a unique way with elevating people’s perceptions of the world around them and of themselves internally. That a student may be here for four years, five years, or whatever it is. The effects on that person’s life may not be apparent for fifty years.

“If a student is almost compelled to work right at her or his margins of capacity, I think that plays out in one’s life. Now, does it make me earn more money? No. Does it have much to do with life? I think it does. The reason good colleges survive in America is because good citizens need them.”

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

“Used to be that if you ate dinner late, you’d be down on the Corner. But when you were all done and you started back, the place would be pitch black.

“And there’s an odd kind of pleasure involved in roaming around a place like this in the dark. It’s encapsulated in that poem that has the line “Purple shadows on the Lawn.” You’d find a way through one of the alleys between the gardens on east side. Make your way up to the Lawn, you’d hang around the Lawn a little bit, look around, find the alley you wanted to go through on the other side.

“We realized that the absence of effective lighting was a terrible thing. And it wasn’t that I felt that what we were giving up, we should fight to save, at all. But it was a realization that this was an experience of this place. You don’t have those now, because the lighting is better.”

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

“Used to be that if you ate dinner late, you’d be down on the Corner. But when you were all done and you started back, the place would be pitch black.

“And there’s an odd kind of pleasure involved in roaming around a place like this in the dark. It’s encapsulated in that poem that has the line “Purple shadows on the Lawn.” You’d find a way through one of the alleys between the gardens on east side. Make your way up to the Lawn, you’d hang around the Lawn a little bit, look around, find the alley you wanted to go through on the other side.

“We realized that the absence of effective lighting was a terrible thing. And it wasn’t that I felt that what we were giving up, we should fight to save, at all. But it was a realization that this was an experience of this place. You don’t have those now, because the lighting is better.”

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

“Some crises come to the president because other people can’t or don’t resolve them. I’ll tell you one that has been a rolling crisis for most of my life.

“Too few Virginians from most of the state, and more than we were prepared to accommodate from northern Virginia. I remember in the late ‘70s, I was the admission dean, and Frank Hereford had told me it was time to get the university beyond the crisis over historic racial segregation.

“We got to every corner of the state. YWCAs to church meetings, and eventually into people’s homes, sat in the living room or sat in the backyard while somebody cooked whatever was being cooked. And we learned why we were failing.”

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

“Some crises come to the president because other people can’t or don’t resolve them. I’ll tell you one that has been a rolling crisis for most of my life.

“Too few Virginians from most of the state, and more than we were prepared to accommodate from northern Virginia. I remember in the late ‘70s, I was the admission dean, and Frank Hereford had told me it was time to get the university beyond the crisis over historic racial segregation.

“We got to every corner of the state. YWCAs to church meetings, and eventually into people’s homes, sat in the living room or sat in the backyard while somebody cooked whatever was being cooked. And we learned why we were failing.”

For more: www.uvastories.org