It’s finally spring break! You’re a junior in high school, touring prospective colleges and one of them happens to be the great and wonderful University of Virginia situated in beautiful Charlottesville, Virginia… or so you thought.
After an afternoon tour with the famous University Guide Service, you no longer feel great about good ol’ UVA. You feel kind of… disgusted, ashamed, and sad about the place. Honestly, you really can’t see yourself ever wanting to come back to a place riddled with racism, hatred, and where evil is “still ingrained into the culture of this school to this day” (real quote used by a UGS tour-guide).”
This experience is not uncommon. The UGS is an ardently anti-UVA organization and does not wish to make incoming students or parents feel good or excited about attending. They choose to center their tours around the ugly, “long untalked about” history of UVA and how it is still present all throughout the school. One can understand why they may do this: to paint a full picture of what UVA and its culture is truly like. However, this is not what they do; rather, they only paint one side of the picture, a side that we have come very far from and does not define who we are as a school, student body, or faculty.
So, in protest to the UGS’s anti-UVA curriculum and weird obsession with turning great prospective students away from our school, here are some alternative sides of our history that aren’t mentioned in the tours and may change some minds:
1. Thomas Jefferson, our school’s founder, was the brilliant author of the Declaration of Independence, the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, and the Kentucky Resolutions, all of which fight for and protect the freedoms and liberties of all people in the US, setting the foundational principles our country was built on and are still working towards today. Yeah, even this wasn’t mentioned…
2. Jefferson didn’t even like slavery; in fact, he considered it ugly and a threat to the democracy and future of the United States.
3. Jefferson was the main architect and designer of the “Academical Village.” He garnered vast knowledge of architecture over his lifetime, and designed all the buildings based on varying Greek, Roman, and Italian influences – for example the Rotunda being designed according to the Greek “Corinthian order.” These influences are also seen in his designs of Monticello and the Virginia State Capitol building in Richmond.
4. Edgar Allan Poe was a great student, excelling in both Latin and French.
5. Many students from the earlier days of UVA were very successful and held many accomplishments: astronauts, Supreme Court Justices, Senators, Vice Presidents, Federal Bureaucrats, abolitionists, Manhattan Project engineers, epidemiologists, pioneering scientists, astronomers, famous and influential writers, Hall of Fame athletes, the list goes on.
6. Great numbers of UVA students and faculty have fought, and in some cases died, valiantly serving their country, from Unionists in the Civil War all the way to Iraq. The long list of names can be seen on plaques proudly presented on the outside of the Rotunda.
7. Currently, UVA is ranked a top 3 public university in the entire nation, with specific schools at UVA like Darden ranked 14th nationally, the Education school 17th, the Law school 8th, the Nursing school 13th, the Commerce school 7th, the Engineering School 24th, and departments like English being 11th, or History at 18th.
8. Today, the University actively addresses any occurrences racial inequity and greatly provides a culture of safety, seen in the work of the Racial Equity Task Force, the construction of the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers, the presence of safe-spaces like the Multicultural Student Center, the fact that students hold the freedom to create clubs to promote goals of equity, or, as seen recently, allowing students to write messages and post them in protest to hate crimes on the Homer Statue after someone had tied a noose around its neck.
These are just some of the facts not talked about or discussed by the University Guide Service. It is quite sad that they parade around Grounds claiming that they are providing the real truth of UVA, yet repeatedly continue to ignore these things. It is embarrassing to be frank.
So, to all future tour-goers: keep these facts in mind as you tour Grounds next time. And don’t let their twisted curriculum bring down or kill your desire and opportunity to attend the most amazing school you will come across.
The opinions expressed within this piece represent the views of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Jefferson Independent.
Jeff Epperson says
A very accurate depiction of our tour last year. Looking back, I’m surprised we didn’t run to the parking garage and leave town as fast as possible. However, as we discussed it on the drive home, it became obvious that what we experienced was a well rehearsed, one-sided, woke minded, bashing of the deplorable “ UVA” and the rich old white guys that anything to do with it’s founding and history.
I’ve always been proud of The University of Virginia. I hope future attendees can have the vision to look beyond this one sided representation.
Annette Baker says
Absolutely. Our tour was appalling, including all of the above, and the person’s mental health issues. She told my kids that the first year is not fun, or exciting, but will lead to emotional and mental breakdowns. We were completely disappointed and came away thinking there was a horrible racial divide and hate crimes. There was no mention of anything positive that Jefferson accomplished, but it was noted that he was a slave owner end the entire school was built with slave labor. The person led us to believe that she was present for the Charlottesville altercations (for lack of a better word) and pointed out where every march and violent attack took place. When asked pointedly, she admitted that it was all before she even arrived at the school. The way she spoke, it seems like it happened yesterday.
Other schools that we visited were full of enthusiasm for the schools, mentioning their accomplishments and fun traditions to look forward to. The only tradition that was mentioned was trick or treating on the lawn for the community children. My daughter fell in love with the school by the course rigor, the neuroscience program and just the feel of the place, all despite the tour person. My son was so turned off by the tour, he only applied there because we made him (fantastic in state opportunity for us). Luckily, this was his best option, so he chose to give it a try and he loves it.
I thought our tour problems were related to the young lady (btw, she did let us know that she was in therapy, thankfully) who led our tour. Then I heard other horrible tour stories from friends. We tried to get our kids to try another tour guide, they absolutely refused to. Now I’m glad we didn’t.
Cindy Moschitta says
We took a tour in the summer of 2017. It was well done and informative. The guide was proud of the history of the university and was glad to be attending.
Peter Layne says
Acknowledging that UVa has a troubled history is not only important but also has 0 effect on perspective students and their outlook on the university. Also, what does it matter that Jefferson “didn’t even like slavery”, he owned slaves. You can have a separate discussion about Jefferson’s legacy, but the fact that he “didn’t even like slavery” means nothing in light of his actions. This piece is not only extremely misguided but also poorly written.
Paola Morales says
Great article !!! Thank you.
My daughter did decide to attend UVA – and is very happy. We had this exact same experience, a one sided woke tour guide.
Thankfully we continued to investigate – on line – talking to students, friends, and alumni.
The “ highlights” of the tour we got were:
1- The school was not built by Thomas Jefferson but by his slaves
2- Racism is prevalent all around grounds.
3-Food and sport teams “ SUCK”
4-The best organization in campus is the LGBTQ center.
5-There is not enough hot water in the dorms.
Hopefully this changes soon.
Linda Santiago Wilkins says
Wow. I’m an alumna (College ‘02) and former u-guide. I remember our tours were diplomatic, positive, and proud – while remaining accurate to the history of the University and it’s history. I love UVA and hope that it’s ambassadors today will share how special this place can truly be.
Joseph says
What a fascinating Glenn Youngkin group therapy session this post and comment section is!
I will simply say this: If you attend your child’s college tour and the word “woke” jumps immediately into your mind, you clearly are only taking away from the “college tour experience” the very same baggage that you brought to it. I wish all your children the best of luck if this is how you talk to them about colleges.
Professor Plum says
The UGS offers two types of tours–historical tours and admissions tours. Historical tours are intended to canvass the history of the University, its founding, and the academical village. Shockingly, because the original University was build with enslaved labor and professors and students actually kept slaves during their tenure, the history of enslavement is part and parcel of the University’s history. It is quite a stretch to say that Thomas Jefferson “didn’t even like slavery.” While he recognized the fundamental damage that slavery would do the South (retarding industrial growth and fueling dependence on certain cash crops), he managed to reconcile himself to this peculiar institution. Moreover, he repeatedly noted in his writings that he thought African Americans were morally, physically, and intellectually inferior to whites. But he did invent a dumbwaiter, so maybe we’re even?
If you’d prefer to hear about the present experience of students, take an admissions tours, which will filled with information on schools, USNews stats, etc. But it might also mention some of this history–and even the more recent history where Nazis marched down the Lawn–because guess what? Minorities are prospective students, too, and their parents may want to know what the scene is like before they send their kids to a place where one of the country’s most infamous episodes of racial violence took place just a few years ago. Sorry if that makes you uncomfortable.
Seriously, the whole point of college is to wrestle with concepts and issues with which you are unfamiliar and that might make you uncomfortable. Confronting the good and the bad about Thomas Jefferson and UVA seems like a reasonable thing to do in an actual institution dedicated to higher learning and intellectual curiosity.
Also, Edgar Allan Poe was not a great student. He drank excessively and rarely attended class. I’m sorry if this hits close to home.
Sarah says
“Jefferson didn’t even like slavery.”
… he reportedly owned literally hundreds of slaves throughout his life, and we know for sure he raped a teenaged slave he owned who was several decades his junior. Attempting to suggest that he was anti slavery when he did in fact own numerous slaves and treated them as such is some cynical-ass whitewashing or an indictment of your ignorance. Possibly both.
Marshall Hurley says
It should be noted that the University Guide Service traditionally offers two distinct tours. One is considered a “historical” tour. This tour focuses on Jefferson’s Academical Village and the history of UVA, and is geared towards “history buffs”, i.e. older individuals.
The second tour is an “Admissions” tour that is geared towards prospective students and centers on UVA as it is now. Note, a historical does, or at least should include most, if not all of the facts you cite above. Admissions tours often omit these points because it is generally assumed that high school students are there to learn about the current iteration of UVA, and don’t care about the history so much.
Secondly, having been a member of UGS for 3 years, it was my experience that most guides entered the guide service to share with others their love for UVA. In general, guides wanted to sell UVA as much as anyone else, but do so honestly. Typically, when tours ventured into the less savory aspects of UVA or it’s history(problems that exist at many universities across America), the negative aspects were typically not brought up by the guide, but by a student or parent on the tour by way of a question. In those instances, the guides who had bad tours often fumbled those questions. Other, better prepared guides were often able to handle those same questions deftly, acknowledging that UVA is not perfect, but is also not stagnant as an institution and regularly strives to address such issues.
It sounds to me less like the UGS as a whole is worthy of indictment, and more that the author went on a single tour led by a poor tour guide. I would encourage the author to go on another tour led by another guide before denigrating the entire organization. After all, the central argument of this piece is that an entire institution should not be judged singularly on the actions of it’s worst representatives.
Lastly, if the author believes that the tours of UGS are truly detrimental to UVA, this is a poor forum for such a complaint. Contacting UGS directly to advertise the author’s concerns, or even contacting the Admissions Office would be a far more effective and immediate means for addressing the purported problems.
Kurt Elward, MD, MPH says
Being a non UVA (from a northern large university in Illinois) parent of two UVA students, the ridiculous script of the UVA Guides was incredibly disappointing.. It was item after item of the terrible legacy of Thomas Jefferson and nothing of the great accomplishments of the University. Instead of a balanced portrayal of Jefferson and the University he founded, the “guide” went on and on about the terrible things the University did and Jefferson as well – it made me wonder how they could stomach being such an institution – except perhaps that Daddy was paying for it and they really knew the value of a UVA education – which they we’re undermining with every statement. It was really horrible. I have numerous relatives who fought and died in the Civil War for the Union, so I don’t bring an “Old South” mentality to this but wondered why in the world a) the students as UGS would deprecate their institution in such a negative fashion and b) whether I should have sent my kids to another school.
THEN, to have the same UVA ask me for donations to support this supposedly degenerate institution was – to be generous – “fascinating”. As a Yankee I give my guests a much more balanced and educational tour of the Grounds including the rich history of UVA, and provide this instead of exposing my friends to the depressing and self-deprecating diatribes of the UGS.