The Pauley Auditorium in the Gottwald Science Center

Though the building has only existed since the 1970s, with new additions and renovations in the early 2000s, the Gottwald Science Center represents the unification of the sciences on campus after moving from Puryear, Richmond, and Maryland Halls. Curricula have changed throughout the years, moving from lectures on eugenics to a more recent focus on diversity and inclusion in the sciences.

In 1935, the University of Richmond chapter of Mortar Board, a senior academic honor society, hosted a series of lectures on “Changing Aspects in a Changing World”. Dr. Emily Gardner gave a four-part series on eugenics, the practice of selective human breeding, often on racial lines. At the time, and until 1979, Virginia law included the ability to force sterilization upon those deemed unfit to procreate under the Eugenical Sterilization Act of 1924, a law upheld by the 1927 Buck v. Bell case. In 1937, two years after Dr. Gardner’s series, Dr. Robert F. Smart, early biology professor and later dean of Arts and Sciences, oversaw a meeting of the new Biology Club. The club discussed biogenetic law and The Descent of Man, Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory, which includes the biological differences between races.

Throughout the years, curricula have changed, and the university has hired more diverse faculty and staff and invited different speakers on campus. The Pauley Auditorium has hosted talks covering racism and inclusion, including Lauro F. Cavazos, U.S. Secretary of Education under President George Bush, and his call for a more diverse faculty and greater focus on black and latinx students. Though the science departments have not acknowledged past curricula including eugenics and the biological justification for the separation of races, changes have been made in the sciences. Currently, the university administers programs like the University of Richmond Integrated Science Experience (URISE), the Integrated and Inclusive Science (IIS) Program, and the Science Math and Research Training Course (SMART), which aim to include and support students from commonly underrepresented groups into the sciences. The Pauley Auditorium in the Gottwald Science Center represents a key turning point in the university’s racial history, as curricula have changed from their originally racist focus.