Jefferson Literary and Debating Society

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The Jefferson Literary and Debating Society is the oldest continually existing collegiate debating society in North America. It was founded on July 14, 1825 by 16 disgruntled members of the now-defunct Patrick Henry Society in Room 7, West Lawn, at the University of Virginia. The Society meets at 7:29 every Friday evening that classes at the University of Virginia are in session. The Society's principal meeting place is Hotel C of the University's West Range, known colloquially as "Jefferson Hall."

The Greek letters of the Hall are Φ Π Θ, or Phi Pi Theta, which are the initials of the Society's Greek motto: φιλσι, παωρις, θεος (philoi, patris, theos, or "friends, fatherland, God"). The Hall's Latin motto, taken from Book 1, line 203 of Virgil's Aeneid, is Haec olim meminisse iuvabit meaning "Someday it will be pleasing to remember these things." The hallmark of the Society's public visage is its Speaker Series, which draws distinguished individuals from myriad disciplines to address the Society and its guests each Friday evening during the fall and spring academic sessions. Noteworthy speakers over the last few years include Bob Barr, Tom Clancy, Howard Dean, Avery Cardinal Dulles, Gary Hart, Christina Hoff Sommers, Asa Hutchinson, Alphonso Jackson, Kenny Mayne, Sharon Olds, César Pelli, Pat Robertson, Brent Scowcroft, Ruth Westheimer, and George Will. Well-known members of the Hall include Edgar Allan Poe, Woodrow Wilson, former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore, University of Virginia President John T. Casteen III, and 2005 Miss America Deidre Downs. Several former and current members of the University's Board of Visitors also are members. Honorary members include James Madison, James Monroe, the Marquis de Lafayette, Margaret Thatcher, and Lord Slynn of Hadley (who spends an evening with the Society during his semi-regular trips to speak at the law school). Thomas Jefferson turned down an invitation for honorary membership, citing in an August 12, 1825 letter his need to avoid altering his relationship with the University and its students:

[. . . ] I am very thankful, gentlemen, for the honor done me by the society of which you are a committee, in electing me one of its honorary members. I could decline no distinction conferred by the them, nor service I could render them, but on reasons of still higher importance to themselves, on maturely weighing the general relation in which the law of the University and the appointment by its visitors have placed me as to every member of the institution, I believe it my duty to make no change in those relations by entering into additional and different ties with different associations of its members. [. . . ]

The Society owns one of Thomas Sully's original portraits of Mr. Jefferson. It hangs in the Rotunda at the University. A second significant artifact is its genuine Edgar Allan Poe signature. Mr. Poe signed the minutes book one evening during which he served as secretary pro tem -- a signature that was later clipped out by a collector, saving it from perishing in the Great Rotunda Fire of 1895. Society alumni in the early 1980s raised the money to buy the signature from a collector, in honor of their friend and fellow alumnus, James F. Perz. The signature is kept in secure storage as part of the University library's special collections.

The Jefferson Society went through a tumultous time in the early 1990s. The Cavalier Daily student newspaper and The Washington Post printed accusations that members of the Society made unwanted sexual advances toward "probationary" members. Additionally, the Society was accused of violating the university's alcohol policy by allowing alcohol into Jefferson Hall. The Board of Visitors conducted an investigation and concluded that the accusation of systemic sexual impropriety was unfounded – rather, that one individual had acted inappropriately and that the organization's leadership acted quickly and appropiately to punish that member. However, the Society was found to be in violation of alcohol policy and, as such, lost control of Jefferson Hall for the Fall 1993 semester. Since then, alcohol has not been permitted inside Jefferson Hall during its meetings.

The Society maintains a competitive membership process. Additionally, the Society has one of the strongest support bases of any organization at the university among its current and alumni members, the faculty, and administration.^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]} All students at the University are invited to interview for membership, and/or attend the meetings.

Famous alumni

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