Edwin Alderman

Edwin Anderson Alderman (May 15, 1861 – April 30, 1931) was an American scholar and university administrator who served as president of the University of North Carolina, Tulane University, and, most notably, the University of Virginia.

Alderman was the key leader in higher education in Virginia during the Progressive Era as president of the University of Virginia, 1904–31. His goal was the transformation of the Southern university into a force for state service and intellectual leadership. Alderman successfully professionalized and modernized Virginia's system of higher education. He promoted international standards of scholarship and a statewide network of extension services. Joined by other college presidents, he promoted the Virginia Education Commission, created in 1910. Alderman's crusade encountered some resistance from traditionalists, but never challenged the Jim Crow system of segregated schooling. A reassessment of Alderman's legacy began in the 2010s, culminating in the removal of his name from the University of Virginia's main library in 2024.

Early years Alderman was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, on May 15, 1861.

At the University of Virginia In 1904, the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia invited Alderman, then president of Tulane University, to become the first president of the University of Virginia. Since its founding in 1819, university had been governed by its Board of Visitors, but increasing discord between Visitors and the faculty, as well as the rising administrative burden of dealing with expanding academic departments and burgeoning student enrollments, led to the decision to move forward with the creation of the office of the president. University chairman James Morris Page stepped down in 1904, as the office of chairman was dissolved, to be replaced with a presidency.

Alderman was not the first choice for the new office. After considering other candidates, including Virginia Law former student Woodrow Wilson, the Board had first invited its former member George W. Miles, a colonel who had served on the staff of Virginia Governor James Hoge Tyler. The faculty opposed Miles' nomination and he was forced to withdraw. Other candidates were proposed, including Francis Preston Venable (who had succeeded Alderman as president of the University of North Carolina), but Alderman was unanimously chosen as the consensus candidate on June 14, 1904. He began to serve in the fall of 1904 but was not formally inaugurated until April 13, 1905 (Thomas Jefferson's birthday, celebrated as Founder's Day).

The University of Virginia changed in several significant ways under Alderman's guidance. First, he focused new attention on matters of public concern, helped create departments of geology and forestry, added significantly to the University Hospital to support new sickbeds and public health research, helped create the School of Education and Human Development (formerly the Curry School of Education), established the extension and summer school programs, and helped create the first school of finance and commerce at the school. He then restructured existing programs, separating the former “academic department” into the College of Arts and Sciences and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, in accordance with a growing move to standardize college educations by the Association of American Universities. The enrollment of the school greatly increased under his administration, as well, going from 500 regular session students in 1904 to 2,200 in 1929. By the end of his presidency the endowment would increase to $10 million. During the late 2010s, the name started to come under criticism in light of his racial attitudes and policies. During his tenure at the University, Alderman had recruited eugenicists to the University's faculty, from which they disseminated eugenic theories that asserted the genetic inferiority of Black people and supported segregation and forced sterilization. In September 2019, fliers quoting racist comments made by Alderman were anonymously posted around the University's campus. One quote read: "It is settled, I believe, that this white man who has shown himself so full of courage and force, shall rule in the South, because he is fittest to rule." In June 2021, that group requested that the University's Naming and Memorials Committee consider changing the name. The proposal would have renamed the library in honor of Edgar Shannon, the University's fourth President. After the library opened in the spring semester, an open letter supporting the proposed change was signed by over 1000 students, faculty, staff, and student organizations, including the Student Council. On February 29, 2024, the Buildings and Grounds Committee voted 10-1 in favor of the change, and the full Board of Visitors voted the next day to rename the library in honor of Shannon.

Works

Alderman is the author of An address, delivered Oct. 15th, 1892 (1893) Life of William Hooper, Signer of the Declaration of Independence (1894) Short History of North Carolina (1896) Library of Southern literature (1909) as editor