I was curious as to what the original dormitories may have contained within them. One source said that the "[t]he Faculty at their meeting, October 1, 1842, prescribed the following articles of furniture for each dormitory: One table, Two chairs, One looking glass, One water-pitcher, One wash-stand, One pair of andirons, One pair of shovel and tongs, One bed and suitable bedding, One wash-bowl, One candle-stick, One pair of snuffers, One towel." To me, it seemed like the dorms were sufficiently furnished. The university even included items that I do not get in the present day, like a towel, a water pitcher, and bedding. I did receive, for my dorm in Dillard, more cabinets than those first students at UVA did. There are also items within that original list that are obsolete now, like a candle-stick. Overall it does seem like the items provided by the university to students has remained consistent.

https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Dorm_Life_an_excerpt_fromHistory_of_the_University_of_Virginia_1819-1919by_Philip_Alexander_Bruce_1920-1922

Spencer Roane was a Jeffersonian Republican who sat on the Virginia Court of Appeals from 1795 until his death in 1822. Roane's beliefs as a Jeffersonian Republican placed him at odds with Chief Justice John Marshall. Marshall mocked Roane by calling him "the champion of dismemberment" to mock the states' rights position Roane held. Roane worried about the Federalists increasing the power of the federal government. His views were similar to that of Thomas Jefferson, who considered him a leader of the Republican Party.

https://mahockney.org/spencer-roane/

The tenth academic group was designated to include "Belle Lettres," and I have not heard of this phrase. Dictionary.com defines it as "literature regarded as a fine art, especially as having a purely aesthetic function". This style of writing focuses on the art of writing and not on proving an argument. In its English translation, it reads as "beautiful letters," which connects to the fine art emphasis of the definition of Belle Lettres. Also, like the other categories of Ethics and Rhetoric within group X, Belle Lettres focuses on an expression and investment in self.

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/belles-lettres

It is startling that the commissioners had to define for themselves when a university education begins. Considering starting with the alphabet was mentioned, it seems at least one of the commissioners had put that idea forward. It is clear there was uncertainty with what academic standard students would be at because there was no educational system that put everyone at that standard. Our society has come far enough to have a standardized education system that implies everyone in the United States has learned the equivalent when they have graduated high school. I never think of how that process began, but this passage gives a glimpse of what it was like establishing the first educational institutions of our country. It is also important to note that consideration was given by the commissioners to students of different economic backgrounds. Discrimination, it seems, was only intended for others of a different color than white and of a different gender than male.

For the founders of our university, they intended for the university to be white and male. They even chose the site based on the male population in the surrounding area. It is interesting that a place of learning and thought was only meant for one kind of person. For me, there was a certain glamour associated with the foundation of UVA that I was caught up in, considering it was founded by Thomas Jefferson himself as a place of learning. This excerpt from the report shows that the founding of UVA was much more complex in morality and much less glamorous as it may seem. UVA has a mixed history, but we have at least moved on from the exclusion of others from our university that was intended here.