Given the tumultuous chaos that characterized the University's early history, this is another case where the commissioners' expectations and vision for the school were largely misguided. The arrangement of the student and faculty quarters, designed to accommodate 'morals', 'order', and 'uninterrupted study', was the setting for frequent acts of rebellious havoc in which the students harassed the faculty and administration, terrorizing the pavilions and dormitories around the Lawn.

It's interesting to see how even in the earliest days of the University's founding, determining a base-level of educational experience the students needed to have before entering the school was an task of high priority for the commissioners. Much of my planning for what classes I decided to take during my first semester and then again for what classes I planned to take next semester was based on the educational experience I had previously obtained before coming to college. It's intriguing to see the commissioners grappling with what is essentially the simplest original form (i.e. "the Alphabet") of the complex situation that thousands of students have to encounter when they begin school.

It is interesting to see the specific aspects of the University which the Commissioners settled themselves, as compared to the many which they left up to the Board of Visitors to decide upon. Namely, they conferred upon the Visitors the responsibility to "establish rules for the government & discipline of the students...", "the premiums to be given for distinguished merit", and "what qualifications shall be required to entitle entrance into the university." My point in addressing the wide range of important decisions the Commissioners left up to Visitors is this: our goal in engaging in this Democratic Writing Project was so that it might "help us engage our place, ourselves, and one another with a clearer sense of what brings us here as well as what forces shape our differences and commonalities", as stated on the Engaging Democracy at UVA website. It seems that, while the Rockfish Gap Report provides an adequate description of the vision the Commissioners had for the University, many of the vital founding principles of the University (what values are important for admission, what indicates merit as a student, the characteristics of the government of the school, etc.) are decisions not made within the document. The Rockfish Gap Report provides an effective outline for the founding of the University, but we must include other resources, such as the decisions of the Visitors, in order to get a complete look at the founding principles which continue to influence our University to this day.

It is interesting to see that the Commissioners noted their perception that around 15 years of age would be the ideal and appropriate time for the young men to attend the University. During the first several years of the University's existence, the school and its administration endured much hardship and struggle in trying to rein in the students' delinquency, frequently having to deal with rebellious actions including threats, violence, gambling, and even harassment of professors. It seems that "safety and contentment to that distance from their parents", simply meant that these young men were ready to excessively and riotously exercise their new freedom from familial restraints.