I recognize that when UVA was established slavery was normalized in the United States, and while I'm not okay with it, I can't change the past. It is, however, hard to ignore that the majority of workers in the dining halls, cleaning services, construction workers, etc. are people of minorities. While many of them seem happy to be here, it's unsettling to me that the predominantly white student body are being, for lack of a better word, served by these minorities. The workers are getting paid and have applied willingly for these positions, so I am in no way saying it's comparable to slavery, but I still feel as though there is some discrimination occurring at the University. Ultimately, I feel negatively privileged when most of the workers here, who I am much younger than, are taking orders from me and I wish things were different.

At first glance 153 acres seems like plenty of land to build a college on, however I figured that UVA had expanded its land since the original plot. Upon further research I learned that our university currently sits on 1,682 acres of land, meaning it's increased by over 100%. This makes me wonder if the University will continue to expand, or will stay around the same size. Obviously if they increase in the amount of students that attend, it will make the university easier to get into and lose some of its "prestige", but more students means more tuition money for the school. If it were up to me I would like to keep the university the size it is now, large but not too large, but I know in most cases it's all about the money.

It's interesting to me how they are looking back only 50 years and are applauding the country on the huge educational advancements that have been made. Now we get to look back 200 years and see how far we have come as a university and a country as a whole. This school began as one that white males would attend once they were around 15 years of age. Slaves were still common at the time as well. Today, this university is home to people from all over the world and from all cultural backgrounds. Not only do women attend, but people of all gender identities feel safe to express themselves in our community. Our university is home to people of all different religions, sexual orientations, and languages. We have made medical, psychological, mathematical, technological, etc. advancements and our curriculum covers just about everything you could desire studying. Coming to this university not only allows you to expand your educational knowledge, but also to become more culturally aware and realize our differences are to be celebrated, not put into a hierarchy. It is okay that this school was established as one for white males, because we have changed and bettered ourselves and this university throughout time. We wouldn't be where we are today without the men who founded this college, but their university wouldn't be where it is today without each and every one of us. There is still change to be made, and I'm excited to see what the future holds.

According to http://www.in2013dollars.com/1818-dollars-in-2017, $100 in 1818 is equivalent to about $1,851.21 today. While this is a huge inflation rate, even when converting the money to modern day, these building are incredibly cheap. This also means it was a lot more affordable for students to attend the university then than it is now. I personally think the cost of attending this university is higher than it needs to be, and they are very selective about who they give money to. It also surprises me how they spend their money, like renovating Runk dining hall for $70 million when that money could have been better spent on the food itself, which is subpar for the amount of money flowing into the university. I think the founding fathers were more focused on actually bettering the students who attended the university, rather than just bringing in a ton of money. I'm not saying the people in charge now don't care about our betterment, because they do, but I would say they're a lot more money driven today. This holds true throughout our society as a whole, not just on the small scale of our school.