University of Virginia Library

plan announced
for returning lawn
to Jefferson's model

by fred heblich
cavalier daily staff writer

For years both faculty members and students
have complained that there is too little contact
between the two groups, and that the physical
make-up of the University is much to blame for
the situation.

Last week, Lester A. Beaurline, an English
professor, unveiled new proposed changes which
have both the faculty and students excited over
the prospects of making the Lawn and surrounding
area truly the center of undergraduate life.

Released in a nine-page paper, Mr. Beaurline's
proposals include such ideas as undergraduates
living on the Lawn and Ranges, teaching
undergraduate classes in the Pavilions on the Lawn
now occupied by offices and senior professors,
restoring the Rotunda to its original design and
making it a center of student and faculty activity,
and in other ways make more human and
educational use of the buildings, "relating teaching
and learning to the Jeffersonian model."

Mr. Beaurline's paper quotes the "Jefferson"
definition of the Lawn:

The central heart and spiritual home of the
University is the Lawn, which acts as a unifying
force for all the varying discordants in its life.

In contrast he says, "On a typical school day
you will meet few students walking along the
colonnades; the Lawn is deserted: and the Rotunda
echoes with the voices of tourists, armed with
guidebooks and cameras."

Mr. Beaurline's basic plan is to correct the
deficiency of the intellectual life of undergraduates.
"If the College is not anti-intellectual, it is
at least listless and dull," he said.

He further adds that the reason for the lack of
an intellectual atmosphere is not in the quality of
the students attending the University, but
"something happens to them in the first and
second years to take the vitality out of them. Far
too many of them lose their curiosity and few

Mr. Beaurline said that his ideas are just
"suggestions," and that a building as the one he
suggests would take years of preparation and
money.

However, he added, "A bold step could be
taken within one year to transform the College
and to set the tone for the intellectual life at the
University for the next 50 years."

The first step Mr. Beauline proposes is to
restore the old buildings to their original function
as Mr. Jefferson intended them to be.

"Combine as he planned, architectural beauty,
study, teaching, and daily living at the center of
the University," stated Mr. Beaurline. He suggests
making the original buildings a residential college,
perhaps calling it Jefferson College.

The plan includes using the two front rooms on
the lower floors of each Pavilion, as
were, and also using the Hotels on the Ranges as
classrooms. This would entail moving the purchasing
department out of Washington Hall on
East Range, two offices out of buildings on the
East Range, and changing the location of the
"Virginia Quarterly," now housed in 1 West
Range.

Mr. Beaurline points out that the pavilions on
the Lawn are used only as meeting places for some
University organizations, such as the Jefferson
Society, offices, and as the residences for four or
five senior professors who teach mostly graduate
courses. He would like to see the atmosphere
changed to an emphasis on youth.

His plan calls for adapting the upper floors of
the pavilions into apartments, which would house
faculty members, none above the rank of assistant
professor.

Also, instead of fourth-yearmen living on the
Lawn, and graduate students living on the Ranges,
these rooms would be used by first and
second-year men, selected by lot.
seem to develop a constructive imagination that
the best students at other universities display,"
said Mr. Beaurline.

He pointed out that as the University grows in
size dormitories will be built further away from
the classrooms and teachers and the result will be
fragmented lives for the young students and
faculty.

"The obvious solution," said Mr.
to have residential colleges, as has been suggested
in recent years."

He discussed the possibility of having a
woman's college in the area of Sprigg Lane, near
Mary Mumford Hall, a college off Jefferson Park
Avenue, just opposite Cabell Hall, and a
quadrangle built in the field behind Madison Hall.
He emphasized that it would be a "mistake" for
the University to build colleges, which will be
needed in the future, on the outskirts of town.

To go along with the residential colleges, he
suggests building an undergraduate library near the
proposed Jefferson College. He said that "ideally"
the Rotunda should serve as a library as it was
designed to be, but it is too small. However, he
suggests it should be restored to three floors, and
used as a study and reading facility for
undergraduates, "not as a museum or a tourist
attraction."

Presently the Rotunda houses a number of
offices, such as those of the Provost, Comptroller,
and admissions. Mr. Beaurline states that plans call
for putting President Shannon's office and the
Board of Visitors' office on the first floor, thereby
cutting off entirely any student life that now goes
on in the Rotunda.

In describing his plan, Mr. Beaurline concluded,
"The Rotunda, the Pavilions and other buildings
near the Lawn were not designed for business
offices or a faculty club. They are exactly suited
to the intellectual and emotional life that should
be at the center of a college."