It is interesting to hear the original intentions for the lawn rooms. It is shocking to imagine how small our school was originally, small enough that every student lived on the lawn. It is easy to forget that the main purpose of the lawn rooms was to interact with the professors that live in the pavilions. I feel like now students are so focused on how prestigious getting a lawn room is, that the fact that they are living near deans and professors. It seems that if the focus was more on living with professors than having the prestige of a room on the lawn, maybe less people would want a lawn room.

After taking my empirical engagement class I am very skeptical that the authors of this document really made a "full enquiry and impartial and mature consideration". We have learned that no matter how you measure something there will usually be some sort of bias in the resulting data. So, even if the authors think they have done extensive research and considered everything maturely their own biases will still be reflected in their choice of location. To me this idea raises an important question because if research is always going to be biased is there even a point in trying to make it as unbiased as possible. My answer would be yes, and that simply being aware of the fact that bias is prevalent in research can make it less biased.

I find this one of the most interesting objectives. Being able to navigate complicated or difficult social situations is one of the most important skills anyone can learn at college. It is applicable in every career and is just as useful in settings that aren't professional or academic. This being said, I am interested in raising the questions of is the ability "to observe with intelligence and faithfulness all the social relations under which he shall be placed" something that can be taught in a classroom. While learning how to articulate your thoughts eloquently through small discussion classes can definitely help with this, I believe a large part of learning how to navigate social situations comes from practice and experience. Maybe by providing opportunities for students to interact with the world outside of the University (internships, travel, etc) UVA is teaching us how to operate well in social situations.

I wonder what qualifications were used to judge healthiness and fertility of location. I find it interesting that natural setting of the University was not considered more, or if it was this report does not go into detail about that specific element. Charlottesville is such a beautiful place, especially because of its proximity to the Blue Ridge Mountains. I believe that education can and should be an aesthetic experience. If an education is an aesthetic experience as well as an experience focused on acquiring knowledge it will be more enjoyable over all and students will be more excited about what they are learning and motivated to continue their learning on their own. It seems that Thomas Jefferson believed this as well considering how much time and effort he put into the architectural design of the University.