Tales from Fincastle Hall: How a Community College Grew Up

Virginia has had a system of higher education in place since 1693. For the larger part of three centuries, only privileged white males were able to receive their higher education from a Virginia institution. Eventually, the traditionally rich, white, and male-dominated colleges allowed a token few non-white and non-male students to enroll. However, many of the non-rich remained unable to gain an education past high school, if at all. By the early twentieth century, opinions on equal access to education began to change. The State Superintendent of Public Instruction, J. D. Eggleston Jr., mused that the responsibility of the public school system was “to put all the people, young and old, to studying how to improve themselves, and their occupations, and how to improve community conditions.” He went on to say that “the school must reach out and strengthen the social and economic life of the community in which it is situated. To do this properly, it must touch...every social and economic interest that concerns the community.”1 This idea took root in the fertile soil of Virginia but proved to be a slow-growing tree. It would take numerous committees, commissions, councils, studies, speakers, and a cast of thousands to bring it to bloom...