4 Matching Annotations
  1. Dec 2017
    1. should be a lecturing room with from two to four apartments for the accommodation of a professor and his family: that these pavilions should be united

      That must have worked well. Putting families with possibly young children right next to students. In all sincerity, though, this arrangement seems like being a professor was a trade. Blacksmiths or tavern keepers lived in their place of business, and so are these professors. It shows just how evolved of a society we are that our professors are more than tradesmen, that they not only teach but are also participants in research institutions.

    2. each of these was unexceptionable as to healthiness & fertility. It was the degree of centrality to the white population of the state which alone then constituted the important point of comparison between these places: and the board,

      It is necessary to understand that cars and the like did not exist at this point in time. As such, keeping the university central to the state's educable population must have been the primary concern for the founders. Also, because I expect an intense amount of responses keying in to the "white" mention, I've said it a hundred times, but black people were not people in the eyes of whites at this point. It was not a good system, but that's a given from our perspective. To them, slavery was perceived as traditional and necessary. So when people say that this was unfair to black people, keep in mind that unfair is a standard in this world, and that slaves were struggling to keep their families intact and survive from day to day, not get a higher education.

  2. Oct 2017
    1. that of proposing a plan for its buildings; and they are of opinion that it should consist of distinct houses or pavilions, arranged at proper distances on each side of a lawn of a proper breadth, & of indefinite extent in one direction at least, in each of which should be a lecturing room with from two to four apartments for the accommodation of a professor and his family: that these pavilions should be united by a range of Dormitories, sufficient each for the accommodation of two students only, this provision being deemed advantageous to morals, to order, & to uninterrupted study; and that a passage of some kind under cover from the weather should give a communication along the whole range.

      Considering the size of the University today, which is far larger than a lawn surrounded by buildings, it shows the evolution that many of America's constructs have undergone. Now the University is so large it takes me about 20 minutes to get to the lawn from my living area, and I live with 6 people, not just one roommate. Also, the conditions the report describes are very similar to the lawn rooms that upperclassmen students can obtain, which is a funky little tie to the past. All in all, the changes of UVA over the past 200 years is just an example of the vast and rapid development of America.

  3. Sep 2017
    1. have harnessed them to the yoke of his labours, and effected the great blessings of moderating his own, of accomplishing what was beyond his feeble force, & of extending the comforts of life to a much enlarg[ed] circle, to those who had before known it’s necessaries only.

      Mankind was living under relatively the same conditions in 1500 CE as they were in 1500 BC. Newton changed that. (Referenced from the book 100 Most Influential People) The writers of this document are honoring specific advancements in knowledge by teaching them at the university. In truth, the Board is expressing their hope that through the establishment of this institution they may be able to snowball this effect, further increasing the pace with which humanity can understand their world.