Conclusion

Before the social movements of the fifties and sixties forever ended the University of Virginia's reign as a white male institution, World War II and Korea provided the greatest challenge and impetus for change to the school. Jefferson's University was forced to adapt and re-evaluate itself because of war. War gave the school its political consciousness in the 1930s. R.O.T.C. added discipline previously unheard of to student life as well as putting the University directly in the business of war. Most of all, the Second World War and the post-War expansion stretched the meaning of the University's conventions. The most sacred of them, gentlemanly honor, survived with substantial adapting while others perished. The fifties provided a time for the remaining ideas to firmly establish themselves as traditions. These instituted practices created a climate in which political activism, liberal or conservative, was restrained. Colgate Darden speaking to an incoming class about tradition at the University, proved Ben Dulaney's sardonic observation of 1934 prophetic, saying,

Much of that which is finest about the University of Virginia is found in its traditions. Acquaint yourself with them. You will find them of great value. However, do not permit yourself to become a captive of the past. Tradition is of worth only so long as it tends to preserve that which is valuable and useful in the life of the community. When form outlasts substance the dead hand of the past rests uncomfortably upon the present. Beware of this.

Throughout the mid-century's wars, the University's adapting traditions continued to be evoked pragmatically to help the school construct its future with its feet still in it past.