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.

Brian Hogg, Senior Historic Preservation Planner:

“The elevator was so unreliable that when the Board of Visitors was meeting there, they actually would have one of UVa's elevator maintenance people on site for the entire time of the meeting just in case it got stuck.

“The Rotunda has always been the most important building on the Lawn. So we started really looking at the building, thinking it needed some attention. This was all happening around 2005, 2006.

“The air conditioning was old, the roof they put on in the 1970s was leaking, and a big piece of stone fell off onto one of the walkways around the building.

“In the first year that it was reopened, the number of people through the door went from about 108,000 to 210,000.”

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.

Brian Hogg, Senior Historic Preservation Planner:

“The elevator was so unreliable that when the Board of Visitors was meeting there, they actually would have one of UVa's elevator maintenance people on site for the entire time of the meeting just in case it got stuck.

“The Rotunda has always been the most important building on the Lawn. So we started really looking at the building, thinking it needed some attention. This was all happening around 2005, 2006.

“The air conditioning was old, the roof they put on in the 1970s was leaking, and a big piece of stone fell off onto one of the walkways around the building.

“In the first year that it was reopened, the number of people through the door went from about 108,000 to 210,000.”

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.

Beth Meyer, Merril D. Peterson Professor in Landscape Architecture, School of Architecture:

“Easters was a 3 to 4 day long weekend, totally out of control. The big events were the bands that were playing in Mad Bowl. People turned the fire hydrants on, it became a big mud space.

“I graduated in ‘78. I have to admit to some really fond memories, and also some scary, like ‘I can’t believe I survived’ memories from that weekend, where friends kind of picked me up -- literally picked me up -- and threw me in the mud.

“You’re just surrounded by thousands of scary, inebriated people and everybody’s slipping and sliding in mud, holding glass. From photographs, it just looks like our version of Woodstock every spring, but it was a risky behavior.”

“Easters was a 3 to 4 day long weekend, totally out of control. The big events were the bands that were playing in Mad Bowl. People turned the fire hydrants on, it became a big mud space.

“I graduated in ‘78. I have to admit to some really fond memories, and also some scary, like ‘I can’t believe I survived’ memories from that weekend, where friends kind of picked me up -- literally picked me up -- and threw me in the mud.

“You’re just surrounded by thousands of scary, inebriated people and everybody’s slipping and sliding in mud, holding glass. From photographs, it just looks like our version of Woodstock every spring, but it was a risky behavior.”

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.

Beth Meyer, Merril D. Peterson Professor in Landscape Architecture, School of Architecture:

“Easters was a 3 to 4 day long weekend, totally out of control. The big events were the bands that were playing in Mad Bowl. People turned the fire hydrants on, it became a big mud space.

“I graduated in ‘78. I have to admit to some really fond memories, and also some scary, like ‘I can’t believe I survived’ memories from that weekend, where friends kind of picked me up -- literally picked me up -- and threw me in the mud.

“You’re just surrounded by thousands of scary, inebriated people and everybody’s slipping and sliding in mud, holding glass. From photographs, it just looks like our version of Woodstock every spring, but it was a risky behavior.”

“Easters was a 3 to 4 day long weekend, totally out of control. The big events were the bands that were playing in Mad Bowl. People turned the fire hydrants on, it became a big mud space.

“I graduated in ‘78. I have to admit to some really fond memories, and also some scary, like ‘I can’t believe I survived’ memories from that weekend, where friends kind of picked me up -- literally picked me up -- and threw me in the mud.

“You’re just surrounded by thousands of scary, inebriated people and everybody’s slipping and sliding in mud, holding glass. From photographs, it just looks like our version of Woodstock every spring, but it was a risky behavior.”

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.

Beth Meyer, Merril D. Peterson Professor in Landscape Architecture, School of Architecture:

“It was a bit of a shock when we got here, to see that not everybody was so excited about us being here.

“In ‘74, I had actually entered in the architecture program. There were kind of two university cultures overlapping, like the all-male and the coeducational. So many things have changed.

“A lot of upper-class guys roamed the dorms. I mean, doors were not locked back then, so they’d come into the halls and the suites, you know, basically just checking out, like, the new crop of girls, right? It was very weird.

“And I remember one of them who was in the architecture school looking at me and saying, ‘Oh, you seem like too much fun. Chances are you won’t be in the architecture school after this semester.”

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.

Beth Meyer, Merril D. Peterson Professor in Landscape Architecture, School of Architecture:

“It was a bit of a shock when we got here, to see that not everybody was so excited about us being here.

“In ‘74, I had actually entered in the architecture program. There were kind of two university cultures overlapping, like the all-male and the coeducational. So many things have changed.

“A lot of upper-class guys roamed the dorms. I mean, doors were not locked back then, so they’d come into the halls and the suites, you know, basically just checking out, like, the new crop of girls, right? It was very weird.

“And I remember one of them who was in the architecture school looking at me and saying, ‘Oh, you seem like too much fun. Chances are you won’t be in the architecture school after this semester.”

For more: www.uvastories.org

David Sariti is a professor of baroque and classical violin and director of the Baroque Orchestra at the University of Virginia.

David Sariti is a professor of baroque and classical violin and director of the Baroque Orchestra at the University of Virginia.

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.

Beth Meyer, Merril D. Peterson Professor in Landscape Architecture, School of Architecture:

Meyer: “Oh, it’s a very vivid memory. I was a junior in high school, and I went to a college fair one evening. And this very persuasive Admissions Director John Casteen was talking about how fantastic UVa was going to be for women, and a bunch of us got snookered into applying.”

Interviewer: “So John Casteen was your admissions officer?”

Meyer: “Right. And then he was the president who helped recruit me back on the faculty.

“You know, the first year I was back on the faculty, I went to reunions just to hear how John spoke to our alums. He talked about excellence coming out of the diversity of the student body. And he didn’t need to be saying that in front of an older group of alums, so I think it was heartfelt.”

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.

Beth Meyer, Merril D. Peterson Professor in Landscape Architecture, School of Architecture:

Meyer: “Oh, it’s a very vivid memory. I was a junior in high school, and I went to a college fair one evening. And this very persuasive Admissions Director John Casteen was talking about how fantastic UVa was going to be for women, and a bunch of us got snookered into applying.”

Interviewer: “So John Casteen was your admissions officer?”

Meyer: “Right. And then he was the president who helped recruit me back on the faculty.

“You know, the first year I was back on the faculty, I went to reunions just to hear how John spoke to our alums. He talked about excellence coming out of the diversity of the student body. And he didn’t need to be saying that in front of an older group of alums, so I think it was heartfelt.”

For more: www.uvastories.org