2009-2010 University Catalog 
    
    Mar 28, 2024  
2009-2010 University Catalog archived

General Information


 

Heritage

Washington and Lee University’s rich historical heritage is embodied in the very name it bears today. It is an institution that has been touched and shaped by major men, women and moments in American history.

In 1749, Scotch-Irish pioneers who had migrated deep into the Valley of Virginia founded a small classical school called Augusta Academy, some 20 miles north of what is now Lexington. In 1776, the trustees, fired by patriotism, changed the name of the school to Liberty Hall. Four years later the school was moved to the vicinity of Lexington, where in 1782 it was chartered as Liberty Hall Academy by the Virginia legislature and empowered to grant degrees. A limestone building, erected in 1793 on the crest of a ridge overlooking Lexington, burned in 1803, though its ruins are preserved today as a symbol of the institution’s honored past.

In 1796, George Washington saved the school from possible oblivion, giving the school an endowment gift valued at $20,000—at that time the largest gift ever made to a private educational institution in America. This gift remains a part of the University’s endowment, and income has exceeded $500,000. Thus all Washington and Lee students can say that Washington’s gift helps pay a part of the cost of their education every year.

In 1798, the trustees expressed their gratitude to Washington by changing the name of the school first to Washington Academy and later to Washington College. By then, the college was established on its present grounds. Additional endowment was provided by the Virginia Society of the Cincinnati and from the estate of John Robinson. These gifts, added to Washington’s, formed the principal financial foundation of the college until the presidency of Robert E. Lee.

In 1865, the trustees offered the presidency to General Lee, an offer he initially hesitated to accept, fearing his name, inevitably linked in the world’s mind with the lost Confederate cause, might well prove an embarrassment to the college in a time of bitter factionalism. On the  repeated urging of the trustees and after turning down many offers of high positions, both at home and abroad, Lee accepted the presidency of Washington College. In the end his motivation had been simple—as simple as it was characteristic: from this vantage point he would undertake his final and most successful campaign, the revision of a college and a curriculum dedicated to the spiritual and material reconstruction of the South and, of equal importance to him, the reunification of a divided and embittered people.

Lee was president for only five years, long enough, nevertheless, to prove himself one of the most farsighted educational statesmen of the 19th century. By greatly expanding the range of instruction at Washington College, he transformed it into a truly national institution, a place  where young men of both North and South could study together in harmony and unity.

Lee instituted a limited electives program while broadening the science offerings. In 1866, he was instrumental in affiliating the Lexington Law School with the college and, in 1870, the School of Law became one of the regular divisions of the college. He instituted programs in business instruction that led directly in 1906 to the establishment of the third major branch of the University, the School of Commerce and Administration (renamed the School of Commerce, Economics, and Politics in 1969 and, in 1995, the Ernest Williams II School of Commerce, Economics, and Politics). He inaugurated courses in journalism, which developed by 1925 into the School of Journalism, which is now the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications. These courses in business and journalism were the first offered in colleges in the United States.

Because of his influence and the esteem in which he was held throughout the nation, Lee was able to enlarge the financial resources of the college. Cyrus H. McCormick, the inventor of the reaper and a native of the Lexington area, was among the first to contribute. Other contributors included Warren Newcomb, a New Orleans businessman; Thomas P. Scott, a former Assistant Secretary of War under Lincoln; George Peabody, a Massachusetts philanthropist; Henry Ward Beecher; and Samuel J. Tilden.

Lee died on October 12, 1870, and early the next year the name of the institution was changed to that which it bears today: Washington and Lee University. Also, in 1871, Lee’s son, G. W. Custis Lee, succeeded his father in the presidency and served for 26 years.

The development of the University quickened under succeeding administrations and continues today. New buildings were erected and old ones modernized. Standards of scholarship were raised, the curriculum expanded and modernized, the faculty strengthened, and the endowment increased. Indeed, with the exception of the World War II years, which dislocated life on every American campus, Washington and Lee has maintained its momentum.

Although Washington and Lee was historically an all-male institution, the School of Law became coeducational in 1972. Then, in July of 1984, the University’s Board of Trustees completed a comprehensive, yearlong study by voting to extend coeducation to the two undergraduate divisions. The first women undergraduates enrolled in the fall of 1985.

Washington and Lee University observed its 250th Anniversary with a yearlong, national celebration during the 1998-99 academic year.

Since the incorporation of the institution in 1782, its presidents have been: William Graham (1782-1796); Samuel Legrand Campbell (1797-1799); George Addison Baxter (1799-1829); Louis Marshall (1830-1834); Henry Vethake (1834-1836); Henry Ruffner (1836-1848); George Junkin (1848-1861); Robert Edward Lee (1865-1870); George Washington Custis Lee (1871-1897); William Lyne Wilson (1897-1900); Henry St. George Tucker (Acting 1900-1901); George Hutcheson Denny (1901-1911); Henry Donald Campbell and John Lyle Campbell (Acting 1911-1912); Henry Louis Smith (1912-1929); Robert Henry Tucker (Acting 1930); Francis Pendleton Gaines (1930-1959); Fred Carrington Cole (1959-1967); William Webb Pusey III (Acting 1967-1968); Robert Edward Royall Huntley (1968-1983); John Delane Wilson (1983-1995); John William Elrod (1995-2001); Howard Laurent Boetsch Jr. (Acting 2001-2002); Thomas Gerard Burish (2002-2005); Harlan Ray Beckley (Acting 2005-2006); Kenneth Patrick Ruscio (2006 to present).

Location

Washington and Lee is located in Lexington, Virginia, a historic city of about 7,000 people in the central part of the Great Valley of Virginia. The city is some 50 miles northeast of Roanoke, 50 miles northwest of Lynchburg, and 36 miles southwest of Staunton.

Lexington is just off Interstates 81 and 64 and at the intersection of U.S. Highways 11 and 60. The Roanoke, Virginia, airport is about 45 minutes, via Interstate 81, from Lexington. Washington, D.C., is approximately three and one-half hours by automobile.

Accreditation

Washington and Lee University is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award the degrees of Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Juris Doctor, and Master of Laws. Contact the Commission on Colleges at 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia 30033-4097 or call 1.404.679.4500 for questions about the accreditation of Washington and Lee University. In addition, the Ernest Williams II School of Commerce, Economics, and Politics is accredited by AACSB International: The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business; the School of Law is a member of the Association of American Law Schools and is approved by the American Bar Association; the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications is accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications; and the Department of Chemistry is accredited by the American Chemical Society. The University is approved for veterans’ education by the Virginia Department of Education.

Academic Objectives

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Academic responsibilities come first at Washington and Lee. Courses of study are arranged so that intelligent young men and women who are willing to work—and to work hard—can prepare to attain their goals, whatever those goals may be.

In their undergraduate years at Washington and Lee, students should master much basic knowledge; they should learn to think deliberately, critically, and analytically; they should develop new powers of reasoning; and they should learn where and how to find answers to questions and to solve problems. As a result, students should be prepared to go on to graduate or professional school or to begin their life’s work immediately. In either case, they should acquire the passion for learning which will serve them and sustain them throughout life. Generations of successful Washington and Lee graduates attest to this fact, for they may be found in positions of leadership in all phases of human endeavor.

The College

The College departments and programs represent the liberal arts core of the University, ranging from the fine arts, the humanities, certain social sciences, journalism and mass communications to the natural and physical sciences, computer science, and mathematics.

The College provides the essentials of a liberal education to all undergraduates before they select their major field of study, and offers courses and majors leading to the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science. The faculty of the College encourage and mentor  independent scholarly work and offer opportunities for collaborative and independent research over the summer. The College curriculum also offers courses which prepare students for advanced professional training in engineering, journalism, law, and health.

All W&L students begin their careers in the College, and are advised by faculty members as they select their courses for their first year and sophomore year. Students typically enroll in courses that fulfill the University Foundation and Distribution Requirements, designed to introduce students to the full range of the liberal arts and sciences and to prepare them to make informed decisions about their advanced coursework and major.

A student may elect to complete one or two minors in addition to a major, or may complete two majors, or even complete two different degrees. Interdepartmental majors are available to provide emphasis in a field, such as Environmental Studies, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Neuroscience, or Russian Area Studies, rather than in a single department. Students may also design their own major in Independent Work, leading to either a B.A. or B.S., with the guidance of faculty advisers.

The Ernest Williams II School of Commerce, Economics, and Politics

The Ernest Williams II School of Commerce, Economics, and Politics consists of the Departments of Accounting, Business Administration, Economics, and Politics and is housed in Huntley Hall and Holekamp Hall. The Williams School offers the Bachelor of Science degree with Special Attainments in Commerce and the Bachelor of Arts degree with majors in economics and politics. Although each has its own faculty and is administered by its own dean, there is a close relationship between the College and the Williams School. Students majoring in the College often elect courses in the Williams School to fulfill certain requirements or to take courses they particularly desire. In the same way, students in the Williams School frequently elect courses in the College.

The School of Law

The School of Law, with its own dean and faculty, offers the Juris Doctor degree, awarded upon completion of the three-year, post-baccalaureate course of study. In addition, it offers the Master of Laws degree in United States Law for international law graduates who are awarded the degree on completion of one year of study. The intensive instructional program is designed to equip students with a legal education in the fullest sense; it provides not only the technical tools needed for the practice of law, but also a deep understanding of how law operates in our society and a sensitivity to the ethical imperatives of the profession. The law program values highly its close faculty involvement in the tradition of a liberal education.

The University Library

The University Library is comprised of the James G. Leyburn Library and the Robert Lee Telford Science Library. The separately administered Wilbur C. Hall Law Library serves the Law School. Leyburn Library is located directly behind Washington Hall on the University’s back campus. The main level of Leyburn was renovated in 2008 and features a central information desk where both library services and computer support are offered. As part of this renovation, the Writing Center relocated to Leyburn Library and private study rooms, a multimedia lab, enhanced computer workstations and meeting rooms were added. Leyburn also has individual study carrels for more than 500 students, 31 locked studies for students writing honors theses and faculty research, conference and seminar rooms, and a 100-person auditorium for campus and community cultural events. Leyburn also offers several “smart” training rooms and multiple computer clusters. Wireless Internet access is available at most points in Leyburn.

Telford Science Library is located in the Science Addition. Telford houses the sciences collections and provides services supporting the biology, chemistry, computer science, geology, mathematics, physics and engineering, and psychology departments. Wireless Internet access is available at most points in Telford.

The online library catalog, Annie (in honor of Annie Jo White, Librarian 1895-1922), provides access to materials in all formats in Leyburn and Telford Libraries and the Wilbur C. Hall Law Library. The library staff maintains a library Web site to facilitate access to resources on the World Wide Web. Access to library resources is available to the University community both on and off campus. The library is a member of the Southeastern Library Network (SOLINET) and uses the OCLC national database for cataloging and interlibrary loan purposes.

Leyburn Library and the Telford Science Library are open to students and faculty 24 hours daily when classes are in session. Individual reference assistance is available 57 hours per week. In addition, the reference librarians lecture to specific classes and teach research methods and resources in a number of disciplines, including art, biology, East Asian studies, economics, English, history, journalism and mass communications, and sociology. The Special Collections Department includes rare books and manuscripts and the University archives, with a collection emphasis on the history of the University and Rockbridge County, Lee and Washington, and the Shenandoah Valley.

Special Academic Opportunities

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The University offers a variety of programs of exceptional academic merit, intellectual stimulation, and practical value. The details of these programs will be found in Requirements and Regulations  and Special Academic Opportunities and Resources  and include:

  • Honors majors
  • University Scholars Program
  • Robert E. Lee Undergraduate Research Program
  • Student Summer Independent Research Program
  • Independent work and interdepartmental majors, including Environmental Studies, Medieval and Renaissance studies, Neuroscience, and Russian Area Studies
  • Intensive four-week spring term courses
  • Study abroad
  • Program in Society and the Professions: Studies in Professional Ethics
  • Knight Program in the Ethics of Journalism
  • The Shepherd Program for the Interdisciplinary Study of Poverty and Human Capability
  • Interdisciplinary academic programs in African-American Studies, East Asian Studies, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Environmental Studies, Poverty and Human Capability Studies, and Women’s and Gender Studies
  • The Seven-College Exchange Program with area colleges and exchange agreements with Bates, Morehouse, and Spelman Colleges, and the Virginia Military Institute
  • Combined degree (3-3) with School of Law for students in the College or the Williams School of Commerce, Economics, and Politics

Special Features

The Arts: The Art and Art History Department offers majors in studio art and art history, and minors in art history and museum studies. Housed in Wilson Hall, the new art and music building, and located next to the Lenfest Center for the Arts, the department offers a wide range of  courses for both majors and non-majors. Attractive classrooms and studios overlook Woods Creek. Regular exhibitions of paintings, sculpture, prints and photographs are held in the Staniar Gallery.

The Music Department is also located in Wilson Hall which has numerous practice rooms, many with grand pianos, a state-of-the-art concert hall, an ensemble rehearsal hall, a composition/recording studio, a music/theory lab, a listening lab, and classrooms equipped with the latest technology. The department offers a comprehensive major and a minor. Courses in theory, composition, and music history are available, as well as instruction in piano, voice, strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion, and choral and instrumental ensembles. Through the Concert Guild, a traditional classical music series, and Sonoklect, the modern music series, the department makes numerous professional concerts available to the University community each year.

The Theater Department offers a major and minor in theater, as well as courses in all areas of dance. In Lenfest Hall the department produces a season of theatrical events drawn from a wide range of periods and styles that engage students in all areas of the performing arts. The performance season includes elaborately presented main-stage plays and musicals, dance concerts, a playwright festival, a series of student-directed, one-act plays, and a variety of student-generated workshop productions. Each year the department invites a number of  distinguished guest actors, directors, playwrights, choreographers, dancers, designers, or theater scholars to share their expertise with students.

Art Collections: The University possesses major art collections, including the Washington-Custis- Lee portraits, the Vincent L. Bradford collection of 19th-century American paintings, the Thomas F. Torrey II collection of landscape paintings, the Stan Kamen collection of Western art, the Sydney and Frances Lewis collection of 20th-century art, and the Jacob and Bernice Weinstein collection of modern art. In 1967, the University received 4,000 ceramic objects from Mr. and Mrs. Euchlin D. Reeves, including an important collection of 17th-, 18th-, and 19th-century Chinese Export porcelain. This collection and the paintings of Mrs. Reeves (Louise Herreshoff) are housed in the Reeves Center, a research and exhibition center on campus. Recent additions to the art collections of the University include Chinese, Japanese, and Korean ceramics, bronzes, and jades on exhibit in the Watson Pavilion for Asian arts which opened in 1993. The Watson Pavilion also houses an authentic Japanese tearoom.

International Education: Washington and Lee is committed to the idea that education for the 21st century must be global in its scope, perspective, and commitment. To support this belief, the University has, in recent years:

  • emphasized study- and internship-abroad opportunities for all students (see Study Abroad ),
  • welcomed a more representative body of international students in the community,
  • expanded globally-oriented studies throughout the curriculum, and
  • invited more visiting scholars and faculty from abroad.

Many academic departments offer special opportunities for students to develop and explore their interests in this area. The Center for International Education at 21 University Place coordinates the University’s global learning initiative and provides resources, support, and assistance to both students and faculty.

Journalism and Mass Communications:
The Lee Memorial Journalism Foundation was established at Washington and Lee in 1925 through an endowment inaugurated by the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association. The foundation honored General Lee because of his interest in promoting college-level instruction in journalism. Its successor, the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications, is accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications. The department operates Cable 18 as a laboratory for television news and production courses, and The Rockbridge Report, http://rockbridgereport.wlu.edu, a fully converged multimedia Web site for local news produced by journalism classes. The department offers a mass-communications sequence for students interested in advertising, public relations, law or other non-journalism careers, and it offers two preprofessional sequences: journalism and business journalism. The professional sequences are highly interconnected, reflecting media convergence in the professional world and using the latest digital systems for print, video and Web news production. The faculty includes holders of two endowed chairs, the Knight Chair in journalism ethics and the Donald W. Reynolds Chair in business journalism.

Sciences:
Washington and Lee’s facilities for teaching and research in the sciences include well equipped classrooms and laboratories for general instruction, special laboratories for faculty and student research activities, departmental libraries, and museums. Additional features include a greenhouse in biology, an instrumental analysis laboratory with a 400 MHz FT-NMR in chemistry, a seismograph and scanning electron microscope with analytical capabilities in geology, and light microscopy with digital imaging and electrophysiological recording facilities in psychology.

The University’s science center provides expanded teaching and research spaces for the science departments, as well as the Telford Science Library, shared instrumentation rooms, an animal-care facility, computer laboratories and University classrooms.

Many members of the science faculty participate in on-campus research programs sponsored by a host of federal and private granting organizations. Undergraduates often assist professors in this research, and students in the sciences are frequent participants in the University’s pioneering Robert E. Lee Research Program, which provides funds for summer research.

The Tucker Multimedia Center (TMC) supplies advanced methodologies with the support of technological tools to its users in the teaching and learning of foreign languages, as well as in other areas unique to the humanities. The TMC has been established with university funds and with gifts from the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Charles E. Culpeper Foundation, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund for equipment acquisition, curriculum and faculty development, and methodology enrichment. The Center is entirely digitized. Users at individual student stations have access to all materials housed on the latest multimedia servers. The TMC has three separate teaching areas, two of which having their own computer video/data distribution systems. Users will also find that analog audio and video programs can be distributed to classrooms, as well as to student stations, and to the overhead projection system within the facility. A wide assortment of prepackaged, textbook-associated computer programs is available for student use, as well as computer applications developed in part or in their entirety by staff and faculty  awarded research and teaching development grants. The collection of resource materials continues to expand through faculty and staff development of methodologies utilizing technological teaching tools. The TMC also serves as the modern foreign language testing center and hosts numerous video conferences with schools and colleges abroad for the purposes of language development and culture enrichment. More information about the TMC can be found at http://tmc.wlu.edu.

Information Technology Services

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Washington and Lee is committed to providing the technology tools necessary to give its students, faculty, and administration excellent access to the information they need, along with the skills and knowledge necessary to use that information efficiently and effectively. Information Technology Services is the office charged with providing those resources and capabilities. Its mission is “to provide innovative leadership and excellent support to empower the University community in the successful use of information technology.”

ITS has expended considerable effort recently to renew and expand the technology infrastructure on campus, and students in all campus residence halls now enjoy wireless access to the network in addition to high-speed wired connections. The overall capacity of the University’s connection to the Internet more than doubled in 2008-2009, and ITS also implemented new collaborative tools, such as the Sakai course management system. In the fall of 2009, a new e-mail solution was implemented for students, providing additional flexibility and storage capacity. Nearly all students bring their own computers to campus, and the University also provides more than 300 computers in general purpose computing labs, teaching labs, and departmental labs. Departmental labs provide high-end workstations and other specialized equipment dedicated to specific analytic and instructional functions. In addition, the majority of university classrooms are equipped with the most modern technology tools to aid in instruction.

The University licenses anti-virus and office productivity software for all student-owned computers. Support for students’ information technology and research needs is provided through the newly established Information Desk. This resource, combining the expertise of information  technology professionals and librarians, is provided on the newly renovated main floor of Leyburn Library. The Information Desk provides support for digital video editing, creating and printing posters, creating digital maps, analyzing data and a variety of other information technology needs. ITS also provides support for students through a Web-based system that efficiently tracks and directs requests for assistance with information technology.

W&L student workers are partners with the University’s IT professionals in supporting the use of IT at W&L, and students are encouraged to seek part-time job opportunities with ITS. More information about the information technology environment at W&L, including recommendations for new students, is available on the ITS Web site at its.wlu.edu.

Shenandoah

Since 1950, the University has published Shenandoah: The Washington and Lee University Review. Starting as a folio publication, Shenandoah’s initial issues were edited by students, with faculty members acting in an advisory capacity. Among the young men who founded the magazine and contributed to its pages were Tom Wolfe and William Hoffman, who have taken their places among the best writers in the nation. Early contributors to Shenandoah also included e. e. cummings, Arnold Toynbee, Caroline Gordon, G. S. Fraser, and W. H. Auden.

Since its illustrious beginning, Shenandoah has increased in size and circulation to become the 180-page international literary triquarterly it is today. Its reputation for high quality fiction, poetry, and essays from new and established writers continues to attract the best talent in the world. The works of people such as James Dickey, Katherine Anne Porter, Eudora Welty, Reynolds Price, Mary Oliver and Seamus Heaney have routinely graced its pages, and its fiction and poetry are annually selected for inclusion in award volumes, including The Pushcart Prize, The O. Henry Awards, and The Best American Essays.

Shenandoah offers three annual awards: The Jeanne Charpiot Goodheart Prize for Fiction, The Thomas H. Carter Prize for the Essay, and The James Boatwright III Prize for Poetry. The current editor is R. T. Smith.

Lectures and Conferences

Throughout the year many important lectures, readings, and panel discussions are presented on both scholarly topics and issues current in public life. Visiting speakers often remain on campus for a day or two, sometimes longer, meeting with students in classes, in small groups, and at meals for face-to-face exchanges of ideas. Many of these talks and programs are endowed, including the following:

The Phi Beta Kappa-Society of the Cincinnati Convocation: Phi Beta Kappa sponsors a lecture to honor those newly inducted into the Society. The University-wide assembly is held in the spring and brings to the campus outstanding scholars from a variety of fields.

The Society of the Cincinnati Lecture: Each year the Society of the Cincinnati in the state of Virginia generously funds a public lecture on American history, 1715-1815. The history department serves as co-sponsor and assumes responsibility for securing a speaker and making local arrangements.

The Omicron Delta Kappa-Founders’ Day Lecture: Held on or about January 19, the Founders’ Day assembly is traditionally addressed by the president of the University. In recent years, the lecture has also served as the opening event in the University’s Institute for Honor.

The Tucker Lecture: This lecture was named for the late John Randolph Tucker, dean of the School of Law, president of the American Bar Association, and member of Congress.

The Glasgow Endowment: Established in 1960 by the late Arthur G. Glasgow, the program has brought to Washington and Lee many distinguished novelists, poets, dramatists, and critics.

The Philip Fullerton Howerton Fund for Special Programs in the Department of Religion: The Howerton Fund sponsors a broad array of events and activities treating the relevance of Christian faith to contemporary culture and life, most often through visiting lecturers, conferences, and course supplements.

The Shannon-Clark Lecture in English: Established in 1982, the program was named in honor of both a longtime head of the University’s English Department and a relative of the donor.

University Lectures Fund: This fund supports visits of several scholars to campus in a wide variety of disciplines. Each scholar is expected to interact with students in a class or seminar and also gives a public lecture open to the University community.

Class of ’63 Endowment: This fund supports visits of distinguished scholars to campus in a wide variety of disciplines. Scholars spend two to five days on campus, give some type of a University lecture, and interact in a meaningful way with students and faculty from a specific department.

Institutes in the Ethics of Journalism: Two-day seminars and lectures during both the fall and winter terms that involve both students and professional journalists. The journalists come from newsrooms around the country, both print and broadcast. They bring with them for examination cases of ethical conflict from their own experience.

Contact:
This program is financed and administered by the student body through a committee representing a wide variety of student interests and perspectives. Contact strives to sponsor prominent speakers who address important contemporary issues in the United States and worldwide.

Mock Convention

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Washington and Lee’s famous Mock Convention attracts national attention when it is held in the winter term of every presidential election year. The entire student body participates in this political exercise aimed at choosing the presidential candidate of the party out of power in the White House. The Mock Convention has achieved a remarkable record of accuracy and is considered to be the most realistic event of its kind in the nation. Every student has an opportunity to participate in at least one Mock Convention during a four-year career at Washington and Lee. The next Mock Convention is planned for 2012.

ROTC

Washington and Lee offers students the opportunity to enroll in an Army ROTC program through an agreement with the established ROTC unit at neighboring Virginia Military Institute. The program is voluntary and open to all students who meet the character, citizenship, age, medical  and physical fitness requirements for military service. All instruction takes place at VMI, in accordance with the VMI class schedule, and is provided at no expense to Washington and Lee students. The program also offers competitive campus-based four-, three-, and two- year scholarships. Army ROTC is divided into a two-year Basic Course, designed for first-year students and sophomores, and a two-year Advanced Course, designed for juniors and seniors. Enrollment in the Advanced Course requires the completion of the Basic Course during the student’s first-year and sophomore year or successful completion of the Army’s Leader Training Course (LTC), usually between the sophomore and junior years. The Advanced Course student must agree to complete the Military Science curriculum, which includes attendance at the five-week National Advanced Leadership Camp at Fort Lewis, Washington. The Advanced Course graduate must accept a commission as a second lieutenant in the active Army, Army Reserves or National Guard.

Washington and Lee grants up to 12 transfer credit hours toward graduation for successful completion of the courses offered at VMI. These military science credits are awarded at the end of each term and do not count toward each term’s full-time course load.

Military Programs

Other military opportunities exist for Washington and Lee students. Army ROTC at VMI offers the Cadet Battery and Ranger Challenge as extracurricular activities. Additionally, the Army ROTC program offers opportunities to attend Airborne, Air Assault and other select Army schools. The U.S. Navy sponsors the Nuclear Power Officers’ Candidate, Seaman/Airman and Ready Mariners Programs; the U.S. Marine Corps sponsors the Marine Corps Platoon Leaders Class. Further information on these programs may be obtained by contacting the respective ROTC offices in Kilbourne Hall located on VMI’s campus.

Career Services

Career Services enriches the educational experience of students by providing the resources and professional guidance needed to:

  • Assess their interests and values
  • Recognize and use their skills and talents
  • Promote the strengths of their liberal arts education, and
  • Develop and implement their academic/career plans.

We provide a supportive environment encouraging individual responsibility, creativity, openmindedness, and integrity. Our comprehensive, career-related services emphasize collaborative relationships with employers, alumni, faculty, the Washington and Lee community, and peer institutions.

National and international employers recruit Washington and Lee students for both full-time positions and internships. Career Services provides an employer recruitment program that includes interviewing opportunities for both jobs and internships. Through the Selective Liberal Arts Consortium, Washington and Lee seniors are chosen for employment interviews conducted in Boston, Chicago, New York City, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. The Big Apple Recruiting Consortium provides Washington and Lee University seniors interviews in New York City with the leading advertising, public relations, law, media, publishing and nonprofit organizations.

Students are prepared for a successful job search through numerous informational sessions and workshops, including résumé and cover letter preparation, interviewing training, practice interviews, and résumé critique sessions. Individual career counseling, interest testing, extensive online resources, alumni career presentations and the active alumni career network are available to all students. Many of the Career Services resources, including the Report on the Graduating Class and Recruitment Activities, can be accessed through the Web site at careers.wlu.edu.

Accommodations For Students With Disabilities

It is the policy of Washington and Lee University and its School of Law to provide equal access to educational opportunities to qualified students with physical or mental (cognitive, psychiatric, or emotional) disabilities, in accordance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973  and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Students requesting accommodation will need to provide appropriate documentation of: (1) a disability, which is a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities; and (2) a need for accommodation, by virtue of the specific functional limitations of the disability, to have equal access to educational opportunities. The University and the School of Law intend to provide an interactive process of dialogue and timely exchange of information between the student and the designated Dean.

It is the responsibility of a student with a physical or mental disability who may require any type of accommodation to make the accommodation request in a timely manner. In order to allow sufficient time for the eligibility and accommodation decision process and to make arrangements for appropriate accommodations, the student should contact the Dean within one week of the start of the academic term. The designated Dean will inform the student of further specific procedures and required documentation.

Undergraduate students should contact the Office of the Dean of the College, Washington Hall 23, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia 24450, (540) 458-8746.

Law students should contact the Associate Dean for Student Services, Sydney Lewis Hall 528, Washington and Lee University School of Law, Lexington, Virginia 24450-2116, (540) 458-8533.

Accommodation policies, procedures, and informational documents and forms are available on the University Web site at counsel.wlu.edu/policy/DisabilityGuidelines.pdf.

The Campus

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The Washington and Lee campus is renowned for its beauty, charm, and historical significance. In 1972, the front campus was designated a National Historic Landmark by the Department of the Interior, only the third college campus in the country to be so designated. The main  campus consists of approximately 50 acres. In addition, there are about 40 acres of playing fields, 215 acres of unimproved land, and 17 acres in various sections of Lexington. The university’s conference center, Skylark, consists of 365 acres on the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains northeast of the campus, including a complex which allows for day and overnight meetings and research.

The Washington College Group comprises the three oldest buildings on the campus: Washington Hall, Robinson Hall and Payne Hall. These three buildings together with Newcomb Hall and Tucker Hall, general academic buildings, form the Colonnade, one of the University’s most picturesque features.

Lee Chapel, constructed under President Lee’s supervision, faces the Colonnade. Its auditorium seats approximately 600 persons. The Chapel is a National Historic Landmark. The downstairs museum area was renovated in 1998. General Lee and many members of his family are buried in the Chapel.

Other principal buildings on the front campus are the Lee House, also built to Lee’s specifications; five antebellum houses (including the Lee-Jackson House, the residence of the Dean of Students; the Morris House, the University’s guest house and seminar/reception center; the Reeves Center for Research and Exhibition of Porcelain and Paintings; the Gilliam Admissions House; and the Hotchkiss Alumni House, a former faculty house renovated through the contributions of alumni).

Also located on the front campus is the Watson Pavilion for Asian arts, which exhibits collections of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean ceramics given or on loan to the University. The Watson Pavilion also houses an authentic Japanese tearoom. Buildings on University Place (below Letcher Avenue) include the Center for International Education, the Financial Aid Office, and the offices of the Director of Lee Chapel.

Buildings on the Stemmons Plaza include Huntley Hall, the James G. Leyburn Library, duPont Hall, Reid Hall, and the Science Addition along with Howe Hall and Parmly Hall science buildings. Between Huntley Hall and Graham-Lees Residence Hall is Holekamp Hall, renovated in 2007.

The John W. Elrod University Commons is also located near Graham-Lees Residence Hall. The Commons contains the University Store, Career Services, Student Affairs, the Marketplace food court, a café and convenience store, campus theater, student organization offices, meeting rooms and lounge spaces. Across Washington Street from Graham-Lees are other first-year residences Frank J. Gilliam Hall, John W. Davis Hall, and Newton D. Baker Hall, which houses faculty offices. Letitia Pate Evans Hall, the university’s formal dining room, is adjacent to the residence-hall complex and is connected to Early-Fielding, which includes the Business, Counseling, Human Resources, Institutional Effectiveness, and University Registrar’s Offices, and the Student Executive Committee suite.

A little farther down Washington Street and adjacent to the first-year residence halls is the Francis P. Gaines Residence Hall. Woods Creek Apartments, located on the back campus, provide additional housing. Across Nelson Street from Gaines Hall is the Lenfest Center for the Performing Arts, comprised of Lenfest and Wilson Halls.

Sydney Lewis Hall, on the northern edge of the campus, houses the School of Law, which contains the archived papers of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr., and Wilbur F. Hall Law Library.

Athletic and physical education facilities include Doremus Gymnasium and the Fitness Center, Jonathan Westervelt Warner Athletic Center, and the Duchossois Outdoor Athletic Complex, including Wilson Field, Cap’n Dick Smith Baseball Field, Richard L. Duchossois Tennis Center, Artificial Turf Field, Alston Parker Watt Field, William C. Washburn Tennis Courts, a championship field for men’s and women’s soccer and women’s lacrosse, and other athletic and recreation facilities, including 14 outdoor tennis courts.

Natural Environment

Washington and Lee is fortunate in its natural surroundings. The environment is primarily rural, and Lexington remains remarkably free from the problems associated with highly industrialized and urbanized areas.

In 1805, a Washington Academy professor, surveying the countryside from atop the college building, exclaimed: “If this scene were set down in the middle of Europe, the whole continent would flock to see it!” The English poet John Drinkwater said Washington and Lee’s setting was the most beautiful of any college in America.

Washington and Lee people quickly become at ease with their surroundings—the mountains, the rivers, and the forests. Within a two-hour drive, we have access to over four million acres of national and state forests and to treasures like Shenandoah National Park and the Appalachian Trail. It doesn’t take long for new students to begin planning trips to places like House Mountain, which dominates the Lexington skyline, or Goshen Pass, where they can swim or sun on a rock in the middle of the Maury River. When winter comes, students often drive to one of the nearby ski resorts. With such a rich environment, it is no wonder that the Outing Club is one of the most active organizations on campus.

Located near the Blue Ridge Mountains at an elevation of 1,100 feet, Lexington enjoys a varied and delightful climate. In the spring wildflowers abound, in the fall leaves change to brilliant reds and yellows, and in the winter snow sometimes blankets the campus and surrounding  mountains. The richness of the animal and plant life of the southern Appalachians is legendary. Students regard this remarkable environment as one of the most memorable aspects of their years at Washington and Lee.