In Thomas Jefferson's original plan the faculty, counseled by a Board of Visitors, governed the university. By the turn of the century, the school had grown larger and more complex, and the Visitors saw the need to appoint a president. When Woodrow Wilson, a University of Virginia law graduate yet to be president, declined the offer, they turned to Edwin Anderson Alderman, well known as an innovative educator in the South and a great orator across the nation. Alderman was inaugurated on Founder's Day, April 13, 1905. Within a year, Alderman had seen to the opening of a school of education at the university.
Prior to 1904, the administrative head of the University of Virginia was the chairman of the faculty. According to the 1900 publication of The University of Virginia: Glimpses of its past and present, "The University of Virginia is an ideal community. It has been described as a small republic, finding in itself all that is necessary in the way of government and the pursuit of happiness. It is democratic as far as its government goes, since the powers of control are distributed as far as possible. There is no president, but there is a chairman of the faculty who stands in somewhat the relation of other college presidents to the responsibilities of control and direction. He is not as nearly absolute as a college president. The faculty is his cabinet, and the faculty committees distribute the administration in a rather general way."
List of UVA leaders The following persons have led the University of Virginia from 1825 to 1903 as chairman of the faculty and since 1904 as president:
ImageLeaderTerm startTerm endChairman of the Faculty of the University of Virginia (1825–1904)1aGeorge Tucker182518262aRobley Dunglison182618273John Tayloe Lomax182718282bRobley Dunglison182818304Robert Maskell Patterson183018321bGeorge Tucker183218335Charles Bonnycastle183318356aJohn A. G. Davis183518377aGessner Harrison183718396bJohn A. G. Davis 1839November 14, 18407bGessner Harrison184018428Henry St. George Tucker Sr.184218449William B. Rogers 1844184510Edward H. Courtenay1845184611James L. Cabell184618477cGessner Harrison1847185412Socrates Maupin1854September 187013aCharles S. VenableSeptember 1870June 187314James F. HarrisonJune 1873May 188613bCharles S. VenableMay 1886188815William M. Thornton1888June 18, 189616Paul B. BarringerJune 18, 1896June 15, 190317James Morris PageJune 15, 1903September 12, 1904Presidents of the University of Virginia (1904-present)1Edwin Anderson AldermanSeptember 13, 1904April 29, 1931actingJohn Lloyd NewcombMay 23, 1931October 7, 19332October 7, 1933June 26, 19473Colgate W. Darden Jr. June 27, 1947August 22, 19594Edgar F. Shannon Jr.August 23, 1959August 31, 19745Frank L. Hereford Jr.September 1, 1974August 31, 19856Robert M. O'NeilSeptember 1, 1985July 31, 19907John T. Casteen IIIAugust 1, 1990July 31, 20108Teresa A. SullivanAugust 1, 2010July 31, 20189James E. RyanAugust 1, 2018July 11, 2025actingJennifer Wagner DavisJuly 12, 2025August 10, 2025interimPaul G. MahoneyAugust 11, 2025December 31, 202510Scott C. BeardsleyJanuary 1, 2026present
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