I feel like my engagement is a class that Thomas Jefferson might have envisioned when creating this category of study. Currently, I am in "How to be an Engaged/Ethical Citizen." I think it would be interesting to see how an ethics class would differ between the time the University was founded and today. It proves quite ironic that Jefferson envisioned an ethics class as the construction of the University of Virginia was in fact unethical. Moreover, one could argue that the University of Virginia still makes unethical decisions--specifically when it comes to the investment of tuition dollars. In my engagement, we read an article "The Darker Side of University Endowments" in which state universities in particular are exposed for unethically investing tuition dollars rather than say increase distributed financial aid packages.

This part of the Rockfish Gap Report seems a little vague. What are the duties to my peers? Who defines what these duties are? This reminds me of a discussion had in my engagement about the ideologies of Gandhi. Gandhi would argue that students at the university must sacrifice their individuality to have this shared community that Jefferson envisions. This is their duty. However, how much are students willing to sacrifice? Ultimately, few are willing to make the sacrifice as they are afraid others will not do the same.

At first I was surprised about how in-depth Jefferson made this report. These classes are uncommon subjects, but Jefferson still found them important to the University. He could have just easily said general subject fields, but he listed every little detail he could think of. However, I shouldn't be necessarily surprised either because Jefferson did take pages to answer a fairly simple question in Query XIV: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/JEFFERSON/ch14.html

Here again he went into every little detail. -Alexa Bartels

While the University of Virginia was established on the foundation of freedom and equality, Thomas Jefferson used slave labor to build and maintain grounds. It is clear that Thomas Jefferson valued freedom for all, not just at UVA, as he drafted the Virginia Statue of Religious Freedom. He writes "all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion." I question Jefferson's justification for promoting religious freedom while also supporting the discrimination based on the color of someone's skin. -Alexa Bartels