This is a statement that seeks to justify the money that is being made by the university for the education of the students that attend. More specifically, it briefly highlights all the categories that expenses can be classified into. Similar to today, I believe that these broad categories are being used to hide little hidden costs. Just like going to college today, these little hidden costs add up to make a significant contribution to the cost of attending college. The rest of the document continues to elaborate more on these categories, but I still feel that there is an element of hidden costs.

This proposed object starts off so optimistically, by saying that the university wishes to provide its students with the knowledge necessary to succeed as a citizen. However, the second half of the proposed object brings up the fact that the schools goal is to provide males with this knowledge. Considering the time period that these proposals were made, this statement is obviously referring to white males. Therefore, this particular object does not give every citizen the information that is needed for the transaction of their own business.

The University was centered around the Lawn, and in some ways, it still remains that. I do wonder at what the university's plans for expansion were, would it just be an expansion of the Lawn or building around the Lawn, as UVA actually did? Also, students and families were intended to live together in order to create a real academic community.

The University, while willing to take money for the noble goal of public education--despite those who were excluded from such an education--did not want to sell off the University or allow it to be indebted to the rich by allowing them to pick the cite of the university. There is some irony in this however, with the members of the University owning and using slaves bought, in some cases, from auctions.

The consideration of the branches of learning that will be taught at the university, as well as the number of professors that these courses will require ultimately sets the standard for the rest of the history of the university. The academic climate set a precedent for the intense courses and professors that the university has today. The power behind these first decisions leaves an impact on the university climate 200 years later.

The placement of the acknowledgement of slave presence is right in the heart of the descriptions of tracks of land that will be used in the building of the University. It shows how much the slaves were considered property, in comparison to being human beings. In addition to the placement of the sentence, the slaves are rarely mentioned in the lengthy document, which also shows how depreciated their presence was.