This is the University of Virginia; an institution 2 centuries old that is continuously changing.
But what if we froze time?
Stopped the clock at this very moment?
What would we find?
Well first we’d find a 1,149-acre campus, known to us as Grounds, in a small town called
Charlottesville that covers 10 square miles, has 15,000 bagels and is home to a university
like no other.
We’d find 24,360 students, taking 10,438 different classes.
3,725 of them just got here.
We call them first-years.
They represent 47 states and 72 countries.
67 percent of them are from Virginia.
100 percent of them belong here.
They walk the 53.5 miles of sidewalk to 12 different schools, where they learn from 2,607
faculty members.
Some of whom were Wahoos as well.
This is Professor Elzinga.
He’s taught over 45,000 students over the last 49 years.
This is Professor Gilliard.
These are his first students at UVA.
And when we dive deeper, we find 7 miles of underground steam tunnels, 96 words to the
Good Old Song, and 664 layers of paint on Beta Bridge.
We’ve earned 25 NCAA team championship trophies, and this is where we keep them.
And then there’s The Lawn; a space of green that covers 24,141 square yards.
This is where we come together as a community.
It’s a neighborhood for 500 children on Halloween, a lightshow for 13,000 people during
the holidays.
And in May, it’s where we celebrate our proudest moment.
And while we can count and calculate so many things on our Grounds, we realize that some
things can’t simply be put into numbers, like the memories and the stories that eternally
echo between the bricks of this place.
Those are forever immeasurable.
[MUSIC PLAYING]