By STEVEN E. RHOADS, Weekly Standard
I began teaching at the University of Virginia at the height of the turmoil over the Vietnam War. Dissent was everywhere: There were marches on Washington and on campus. But there was always something different about the angry UVA students. For instance, upon returning from one march on Washington, the lead editorial in the student newspaper was full of indignation, but it was directed not at the war but at the terrible condition of the Jefferson Memorial!
I was also struck by how the university found guides to show visitors around. At Princeton, my undergraduate institution, students were paid by the university to be guides just as they were for work in the student cafeteria. At “Mr. Jefferson’s University” it is a great honor to be allowed to be a guide, and there is no compensation. Before becoming a part of the student-run University Guide Service, students must sit through three hours a week of semester-length instruction after which they are required to lead a monitored tour in which they demonstrate command of a lengthy historical fact sheet. Jefferson, who designed what he called his “academical village” and established the original areas of study, is always in mind throughout this process.
Recently retired, I have been startled to learn that a group of students and a number of professors are now protesting the university president’s tendency to quote the university’s founder, Jefferson! The complaint about Jefferson is a serious one: Jefferson owned slaves, slaves did the heavy lifting in building what Jefferson designed, and some of Jefferson’s writings express racist sentiments.
But there is good and bad in everyone, and it is worth remembering the good in Jefferson.
-He wrote the Declaration of Independence, proclaiming the equality of men and their equal rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These words have advanced free government as they have circled the globe. In 1989, they were quoted by the Chinese protesters in Tiananmen Square.
Full column at WeeklyStandard.com
Steven E. Rhoads is professor of politics emeritus at the University of Virginia.
