I find this phrase to be very striking. Here, I believe the authors were trying to highlight their desire that UVA students be active citizens who communicate with the outside world. Traditionally, Britains and Americans have been regarded as individualistic and self-centered. Whereas, the French have been viewed as more community-minded. I wonder if Jefferson's time as ambassador to France influenced his desire to establish a university that valued the importance of community and helping others?

Trevor Doiron

I find the discussion surrounding the location of the University to be fascinating. When I first applied to the University I wondered why it was located in Charlottesville. Why not Richmond, the capital city of the Commonwealth? Or somewhere in Northern Virginia, close to our nation's capital? However after learning about how passionate Jefferson was about agriculture, it is no surprise why the top three locations for the University are all strong farming communities. He wanted the University to be closely associated with the land and mountains, therefore it was built outside the city in an agricultural community.

While I believe the University of Virginia has lived up to a majority of it’s ideals, I feel the ideal that University should harmonize and promote the interests of agriculture has been abandoned. As the free market economy and division of labor took off in 20th century America, the agrarian economy suffered immensely from the advancement of technology. Today, major institutions such as the University of Virginia have shifted their focus away from agricultural education and towards modern day electronic technology and engineering. I am not aware of anyone who has graduated from UVA in the last few decades and pursued a career in agriculture or working on a farm.

I found it particularly interesting how the document consistently references the legislature. By doing this in 1818, it appears the founders wished to keep the university public and out of the hands of a few private citizens. While UVA remains a public university today, only 5.2% of it's revenues come from the Commonwealth of Virginia. Additionally, in exchange for decreased state aid, the legislature granted UVA more autonomy than is seen at other state universities. My question is would Thomas Jefferson and the other founders be happy with the university's increased reliance on the private sector when they so direly wished to keep the university public and open to all?