I think discussing the University's history requires us to not only think about the distant past but also the recent past. This line stood out to me because I thought about the fact that Richard Spencer, a known white supremacist, attended UVA. If this line of the Report is stating that the curriculum will improve "morals and faculties," then there are many examples to disprove it. Higher education does not necessarily correspond to a better moral compass.

I connected this clause of the Report to symbolic landscape, which basically describes the collective memory of history that we use to assign meaning to a particular site or landscape. In retrospect, many of the buildings that compose UVA were built by slaves, and it is interesting how people often admire our architecture without knowing the history and symbolism behind it. -Lina Modjarrad

This particular line stood out to me because it draws upon explicit racism and an equally worrying subtext of dehumanization. The preceding sentences discuss land and the physical attributes of the University, only to be followed by this line about slave labor. In formatting the document this way, the commissionners seem to be equating the value of slaves to the land upon which they work. It strikes me with the message that slaves fall into the same category as the land, thus stripping them of any sense of humanity or value.

-Lina Modjarrad

In relation to the Race, Racism, Colony and Nation class that I'm in, there has been a long history of underestimating the intelligence of people of color in America, especially in Virginia. One of our readings mentioned that two black students at William and Mary were condemned for laughing in the college library, and an officer confronted them and did not believe they were students. His first assumption was that they were "bused in for a program." The fact that this report explicitly tailors the institution to the white population shows a connection between past and present. This type of racism might not be as blunt as it is in this report, but it lies in the micro-aggressions and subtle forms of white supremacy that are unfortunately still prevalent in America.

-Lina Modjarrad

While I've been made increasingly aware of Charlottesville's--and specifically the University's--past, I'm still astounded by the bluntness of language in this text. Racism and white supremacy were so explicit and outright back then; now it lies in micro-aggressions and in less overt behaviors and words.