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Yale University

This article is about the institution of higher learning in the United States. For other uses, see Yale (disambiguation). Yale University is a private university in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest American institution of higher education, and one of the most prestigious and well-known in the world. The University has graduated numerous Nobel Prize laureates and U.S. Presidents, including George H.W. Bush (BA), Bill Clinton (JD), and George W. Bush (BA). Its $12.7 billion academic endowment is the second largest worldwide (behind only its larger rival, Harvard University). Yale is one of the eight members of the Ivy League. The rivalry between Yale and Harvard is long and storied, by far the oldest in the Ivy League; from academics to rowing to college football, their historic competition is similar to that of Oxford and Cambridge. Yale's emphasis on undergraduate teaching is unusual among its peer research universities, and its undergraduates live in a unique residential college system. Yale College has produced more Rhodes Scholars than any undergraduate institution save Harvard. Yale's graduate schools include strong drama and arts programs and the most selective law school in the United States. The University has over 3,000 faculty members, with Sterling Professors considered the highest rank.

History

Yale traces its beginnings to "An Act for Liberty to Erect a Collegiate School" passed by the General Court of the Colony of Connecticut and dated October 9, 1701, which was furthered by a meeting in Branford, Connecticut by a group of ten Congregationalist ministers, now known collectively as the Founders, who pooled their books to form the school's first library. The school first opened in the home of its first rector, Abraham Pierson in Killingworth, Connecticut. In 1716, the school moved to New Haven, Connecticut, where it remains to this day. The college was originally known as the Collegiate School; it adopted the name Yale after Cotton Mather, a friend of the Collegiate School because of his feuds with Harvard, contacted Elihu Yale for help (at the behest of either Rector Andrew or Governor Saltonstall). Yale bestowed a generous gift of nine bales of goods (which the school sold, netting over 560, a substantial sum of money at the time), 417 books, and a portrait of King George I. Yale expanded gradually, establishing the Yale Medical School (1810), Yale Divinity School (1822), Yale Law School (1843), Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (1847), Yale School of Fine Arts (1869), Yale School of Music (1894), and Yale School of Public Health (1915). In the early 20th century, Yale merged with the Sheffield Scientific School.

Intellectual "schools"

Because of its age and prestige, Yale has been responsible for many intellectual trends. Most famously, these have come out of Yale's English and literature departments, starting with New Criticism. Of the New Critics, Robert Penn Warren, W.K. Wimsatt, and Cleanth Brooks were all Yale faculty. Later, after the passing of the New Critical fad, the Yale literature department became a center of American deconstructionism, with a department centered around Paul de Man. This has become known as the "Yale School." Yale's history department has also originated important intellectual trends. Southern historian C. Vann Woodward is credited for begining in the 1960s an important stream of southern historians; likewise, David Montgomery, a labor historian, advised many of the current generation of labor historians in the country. Most noticeably, a tremendous number of currently active Latin American historians were trained at Yale in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s; younger Latin Americanists tend to be "intellectual cousins" in that their advisors were advised by the same people at Yale.

Schools

Yale College, which accepts fewer than 10 percent of its applicants, is one of the most selective colleges in the United States. Yale is also noted for its law school, medical school, graduate school, and school of music. The Yale Divinity School was founded in the early 19th century by Congregationalists who felt that the Harvard Divinity School had become too liberal. The Yale Law School is the most selective in the United States, and has graduated U.S. presidents and Supreme Court justices.

Libraries

Yale's library system is the second largest in North America with a total of almost 11 million volumes, after Harvard (15 million volumes). The main library, Sterling Memorial Library, contains about 4 million volumes. The Beinecke Rare Book Library is housed in a marble building designed by Gordon Bunshaft, of the firm of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill. Its courtyard sculptures are by Isamu Noguchi. Other resources include the Peabody Museum of Natural History and the Yale Center for British Art.

Sports

Yale supports 35 varsity athletic teams that compete in the Ivy League Conference and the Eastern College Athletic Conference, and Yale is an NCAA Division I member. American football was largely created at Yale by player and coach Walter Camp, who evolved the rules of the game away from rugby and soccer in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Yale has numerous athletic facilities, including the Payne Whitney Gymnasium, which is one of the largest and most elaborate indoor athletic complexes in the world. The school mascot is "Handsome Dan", the famous Yale bulldog.

Other organizations

The Yale Daily News, the oldest daily college newspaper in the United States, has been a forum for opinion and controversy since 1878, and counts among its former chairmen Joseph Lieberman, William F. Buckley, Jr., and Strobe Talbott. The Yale Political Union is the oldest student political organization in the United States, and is advised by alumni political leaders such as John Kerry, Gerald Ford, and George Pataki. Dwight Hall, an independent, non-profit community service organization, oversees more than 2,000 Yale undergraduates working on more than 60 community service initiatives in New Haven. The Whiffenpoofs began the tradition of college a capella singing groups in 1909, and often perform on television and at the White House. The Spizzwinks(?) continue the a cappella tradition, adding a unique brand of humor to their musical performance. The Yale Dramatic Association, or "Dramat," is the second oldest college theater company in the country and has been putting up theatrical productions since its founding in 1900; the Dramat has featured the work of such noted artists as Cole Porter, Thornton Wilder, and Sam Waterston.

Heads of Collegiate School, Yale College, and Yale University

  Rectors of Yale College   (birth-death)  (years as rector)  1  Rev. Abraham Pierson    (1641-1707)   (1701-1707) Collegiate School  2  Rev. Samuel Andrew      (1656-1738)   (1707-1719) (pro tempore)  3  Rev. Timothy Cutler     (1684-1765)   (1719-1726) 1718/9: renamed Yale College  4  Rev. Elisha William(s)  (1694-1755)   (1726-1739)  5  Rev. Thomas Clap        (1703-1767)   (1740-1745)    Presidents of Yale College (birth-death) (years as president)  1  Rev. Thomas Clap        (1703-1767)   (1745-1766)  2  Rev. Naphtali Daggett   (1727-1780)   (1766-1777) (pro tempore)  3  Rev. Ezra Stiles        (1727-1795)   (1778-1795)  4  Timothy Dwight IV       (1752-1817)   (1795-1817)  5  Jeremiah Day            (1773-1867)   (1817-1846)  6  Theodore Dwight Woolsey (1801-1899)   (1846-1871)  7  Noah Porter III         (1811-1892)   (1871-1886)  8  Timothy Dwight V        (1828-1916)   (1886-1899) 1887: renamed Yale University  9  Arthur Twining Hadley   (1856-1930)   (1899-1921)  10 James Rowland Angell    (1869-1949)   (1921-1937)  11 Charles Seymour         (1885-1963)   (1937-1951)  12 Alfred Whitney Griswold (1906-1963)   (1951-1963)  13 Kingman Brewster, Jr.   (1919-1988)   (1963-1977)  14 Hanna Holborn Gray      (1930-    )   (1977-1977) (acting)  15 A. Bartlett Giamatti    (1938-1989)   (1977-1986)  16 Benno C. Schmidt, Jr.   (1942-    )   (1986-1992)  17 Howard R. Lamar         (1923-    )   (1992-1993) (acting)  18 Richard C. Levin        (1947-    )   (1993-    )

Yale architecture

Although most of the Yale buildings have a Gothic architecture similar to that of Cambridge or Oxford universities and appear ancient, in fact they were built in the 1930s, a fact which becomes apparent when the gargoyles on the roofs of the buildings are more closely examined; they portray such distinctly contemporary college denizens as a writer, an athlete, a tea-drinking socialite, and a student. Similarly, the decorative friezes on the buildings depict such distinctly contemporary scenes as policemen chasing a robber and arresting a prostitute, or a student relaxing with a mug of beer and a cigarette. The architect, James Gamble Rogers, added to the appearance of great age of these buildings by splashing the walls with acid, deliberately breaking their leaded glass windows and repairing them in the style of the Middle Ages, and creating niches for decorative statuary but leaving them empty to simulate loss or theft over the ages. In fact, the buildings do not merely simulate Middle Ages architecture, but are actually constructed of solid stone blocks in the authentic manner. Harkness Tower, at 216 feet, was, when built, the tallest free-standing stone structure in the world; it has since been reinforced, however, as a precaution. The truly old buildings on campus, paradoxically, are built in the Georgian style and appear much more modern. These include the oldest building on campus, Connecticut Hall (built in 1750), as well as Timothy Dwight College, Pierson College, and the interior of Davenport College. The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, is the largest building in the world reserved exclusively for the preservation of rare books and manuscripts. It is located near the center of the University in Hewitt Quadrangle, which is now more commonly referred to as "Beinecke Plaza". A six-story above-ground tower of book stacks is surrounded by a windowless rectangular building with walls made of translucent Vermont marble, which transmit subdued lighting to the interior and provide protection from direct light, while glowing from within after dark. The sculptures in the sunken courtyard by Isamu Noguchi are said to represent time (the pyramid); sun - (the circle); and chance - (the cube).

Nonresidential campus buildings

Residential colleges

Yale has a system of 12 residential colleges, instituted in the early 1930s through a grant by Yale graduate Edward S. Harkness, who admired the college system at Oxford and Cambridge. Undergraduate students are accepted by the university as a whole, and assigned to residential colleges at random. (A special dispensation, though, is made for "legacy" students or students with siblings currently enrolled in Yale College; they may request to be placed in the same college or to be placed in a different college.) Each college has a carefully constructed support structure for students, including a Dean, Master, affiliated faculty, and resident Fellows. Each college also features distinctive architecture, secluded courtyards, and rich facilities ranging from libraries to squash courts to darkrooms. While each college at Yale offers its own seminars, social events, and Master's Teas with luminaries from the outside world, Yale students also take part in academic and social programs across the university, and all of Yale's 2,000 courses are open to undergraduates from any college. Residential colleges are named for important figures or places in university history or notable alumni; they are deliberately not named for benefactors. Residential Colleges of Yale University (official list):
  1. Berkeley College http://www.yale.edu/berkeley/ - named for the Rt. Rev. George Berkeley (1685-1753), early funder of Yale. Pronounced BERK-lee.
  2. Branford College http://www.yale.edu/branford/ - named for Branford, Connecticut, where Yale was briefly located.
  3. Calhoun College http://www.yale.edu/calhoun/ - named for John C. Calhoun, vice-president of the United States.
  4. Davenport College http://www.yale.edu/davenport/ - named for Rev. John Davenport, the founder of New Haven. Occasionally called "D'port".
  5. Ezra Stiles College http://www.yale.edu/stiles/ - named for the Rev. Ezra Stiles, a president of Yale. Generally called "Stiles," despite an early-1990s crusade by then-master Traugott Lawler to preserve the use of the full name in everyday speech. Its buildings were designed by Eero Saarinen.
  6. Jonathan Edwards College http://www.yale.edu/je/ - named for theologian, Yale alumnus, and Princeton co-founder Jonathan Edwards. Generally called "J.E.".
  7. Morse College http://www.yale.edu/morse/ - named for Samuel Morse, inventor of Morse Code. Also designed by Eero Saarinen.
  8. Pierson College http://www.yale.edu/pierson/ - named for Yale's first rector, Abraham Pierson.
  9. Saybrook College http://www.yale.edu/saybrook/ - named for Old Saybrook, Connecticut, the town in which Yale was founded.
  10. Silliman College http://www.yale.edu/sm/ - named for noted scientist and Yale professor Benjamin Silliman. Approximately half of its structures were originally part of the Sheffield Scientific School,
  11. Timothy Dwight College http://www.yale.edu/td/ - named for the two Yale presidents of that name, Timothy Dwight IV and Timothy Dwight V. Usually called "T.D."
  12. Trumbull College http://www.yale.edu/trumbull/ - named for Jonathan Trumbull, governor of Connecticut.
After complaints arose during the renovation in the late 1980s of the early residential colleges, a swing dormitory was built in 1998 to facilitate housing students during the massive overhaul of buildings that had seen only intermediate improvements in plumbing, heating, electrical and network wiring, and general maintenance over their 30-to-60-year existence. The New Residence Hall is the unofficial 13th residential college; its future is only vaguely plotted out by the university.

Benefactors

Yale has had many financial supporters, but some stand out by the magnitude of their contributions. Among those who have made large donations commemorated at the university are:

Famous alumni

Yale alumni are well represented in the ranks of U.S. presidents, including four of the last six: Gerald Ford, George H. W. Bush, William Clinton, and George W. Bush. Beginning with Peace Corps founder and Democratic vice-presidential nominee Sargent Shriver in 1972, at least one Yale graduate has run on either the Democratic or Republican ticket in every presidential election for the past three decades, and both the Democratic and Republican candidates for the 2004 presidential election were Yale graduates: George W. Bush and John Kerry. In the 2004 Democratic primaries, Joe Lieberman and Howard Dean were also Yale graduates.

Nobel laureates

Technology & innovation

Founders, entrepreneurs, & CEO's

Academics

Presidents & Vice Presidents of the United States

Law & politics

History, literature, art & music

Athletics

Film

Television

Fictional

(* attended but did not graduate from Yale)

Famous professors

Professors who are also Yale alumni are listed in italics.

Nobel laureates

Others

Miscellany

Yale students engaged in a game called bladderball, until 1982. Yale students invented the Frisbee, by tossing empty pie tins from the Frisbie Pie Company around. Yale students tend to call the University Health Services "DUH" (formerly Department of University Health).

Bombings

Yale's high public profile has led to three on-campus bombings. On May 1, 1970, an explosive device was detonated in the Ingalls Rink during events related to the trial of Black Panther Bobby Seale. On June 24, 1993, computer science professor David Gelernter was seriously injured in his office on Hillhouse Avenue by a bomb sent by serial killer and Harvard graduate Ted Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber. On May 21, 2003, an explosive device went off at the Yale Law School, damaging two classrooms.

See also

External links

  Yale University

 

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