Mr. Jefferson designed our University around a circle of sorts. The Rotunda, a half-scale model of the Roman Pantheon, stands as a series of oval rooms within a greater sphere. In the center of the spherical roof, an oculus allows beams of natural light to brighten a dome room. Jefferson hated corners — he would probably roll over in his grave if he knew the focus of Charlottesville is none other than “the Corner” itself.
Jefferson’s buildings mean so much more than whitewashed columns and brick facades. His dome room represents radical Enlightenment philosophy, and his Lawn shapes the University into an Academical Village. Considering the significance of architecture, then, what do circles mean beyond their shape?
This wasn’t Jefferson’s intention, but to me our University’s architecture and social interactions center on the same foundation: circles.
Sure, “social circles” have probably been a concept since the first cave men broke into factions based on coarseness and ubiquity of chest hair, but the intriguing — and worrying — aspect of our University’s circles is how just contrived they are. Of course, 14,000 undergraduates cannot all live within one realm of one University. Every type of community needs to be broken into smaller, more compatible parts. Yet I have to ask — does every community revolve around circles as emphatically as ours does?
Student self-governance can be truly beautiful. The hustle and bustle of the activities fair, elaborate chalking designs, palimpsests of posters covering every inch of every bulletin board — these things are a part of who we are. They manifest the spirit of involvement that defines this University, and I wouldn’t have it any other way — except for tabling. I unabashedly hate tabling.
But this otherwise beautiful collective mentality of ambition can at times act like a funnel, plunging the same sorts of people deeper and deeper into the inner circles. Although secret societies certainly pop into mind as the most inner of all “inner circles,” even more visible circles — from scholarships to professor connections to Lawn rooms — can be subject to the same cycles that make the student experience here so hit or miss.
It’s true, technically anyone can get involved in the likes of the Honor Commitee, Greek life or Student Council — just like anyone can apply to the Lawn or be nominated for the Good Guy Room. And it’s true that these organizations only represent a few of the well-known — and not necessarily most respected — circles, and do not even begin to encapsulate the student experience. It’s shallow to think of our school in terms of only these organizations, and we have indeed made progress in celebrating and espousing diversity.
What worries me, though, is we will likely continue to perpetuate this cycle because we rely so heavily on student self-governance. When selection committees rely solely on burned-out students who have to read piles of applications, we undoubtedly will fall back on existing circles. When scholarships seek individuals of a certain archetype, we only deepen the divide between those in the circle and those outside it.
Here, if you are in one circle, there’s always the pressure to push yourself deeper into an evermore exclusive in-group. What really lies inside, though, and where do you go from there? If we keep walking in this same spiral, moving along only in the hopes of moving in, we are bound to get dizzy.
E.P.’s column runs biweekly Tuesdays. She can be reached at e.stonehill@cavalierdaily.com.
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