An occupied political science: Concluding reflections on downtown political thinking

Abstract

In at least two respects, Thomas Jefferson set the standard for the modern American university when he founded the University of Virginia (UVA). First, unlike existing universities such as Harvard or Yale, Jefferson sought to create a new, nonsectarian institution of higher learning that taught and trained leaders in science and public service and affairs rather than the law or religious doctrine. Second, Jefferson was largely responsible for UVA’s design, locating it in the "middle of nowhere." Purchased from then president James Monroe in 1817, the tract the university sits on what was originally farmland outside of Charlottesville, Virginia. The geographical, intellectual, and architectural form of the American "campus" thus took shape. On the one hand, the pastoral center of the university (what is known as the "quad" on many campuses), framed by its academic buildings with the library as its focal point, became a place for quiet, monastic reflection. On the other, the campus itself stood in geographical isolation from the broader society, far removed from its social, political, cultural, and economic ills. It was and continues to be a peculiar combination of forces at work: the American university as a place of inquiry and knowledge, freed from the "superstitions" of the pulpit in the rational and scientific service of the "public"-yet also a "City on a Hill" in miniature, set apart from the ugly distractions of the town by physical, intellectual, cultural, and geographical boundaries.