The Jefferson Literary & Debating Society

Club Description

"The Jefferson Literary & Debating Society was founded on July 14th, 1825 by 16 disgruntled members of the now-defunct Patrick Henry Society in Room 7, West Lawn."The Jefferson Literary & Debating Society is the oldest student organization at the University of Virginia, a forum where speech, literature, and the matters of the day are all discussed among good company. This is an organization dedicated to open discussion and respectful debate, flowery prose and rigorous science, self-improvement and good fun.The Jefferson Society is inviting all students at the University of Virginia to interview for membership at the beginning of the Fall and Spring semesters. Members of the Jefferson Society come from all parts of the University, including undergraduate programs, the Law School, Darden, Batten, and PhD programs. In the past, the Jefferson Society has served as an intellectual home at the University for a future U.S. President, Senators, a Nobel Laureate, and world-famous poets. As a literary and debating society, the members of the Jefferson Society meet weekly on Friday nights to deliver speeches on topics that impassioned them, to debate over pressing matters facing the University or the country, to discuss the literature of today or of antiquity, and to converse with friends, old and new. If this seems like a place for you, please fill out an interview card and come interview at the beginning of the semester for a chance to join our storied membership.If you have any questions regarding our interview week, our membership process, or the Jefferson Society in general, please contact our historian Ms. Zoe Jenkins at historian@jeffersonsociety.org.