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Yale University

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Yale University

Yale Coat of Arms
Lux et veritas
(Light and truth)

Established 1701
School type Private
President Richard C. Levin
Location New Haven, Connecticut, USA
Campus Suburban, 800+ acres (3.2 km²)
Enrollment 5,350 Yale College, 2,500 graduate, 3,500 professional
Sports teams Bulldogs
Mascot Handsome Dan
This article is about a university. For other uses of "Yale", see Yale (disambiguation).

Yale University is a private university in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third oldest American collegiate institution and one of the most prestigious and well-known in the world. The University has graduated numerous Nobel prize winners and U.S. Presidents. Its $11 billion academic endowment is the second largest of any university in the world, after Harvard University.

Yale is one of the eight members of the Ivy League. The rivalry between Yale and fellow Ivy League school Harvard is long and storied; from academics to rowing to college football, their historic rivalry is similar to that of Oxford and Cambridge in the UK (see Oxbridge rivalry). Yale is the second most prolific university in terms of Rhodes Scholar graduates in the country (after Harvard).

History

File:Harkness.jpg
Harkness Tower

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 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 an early benefactor, Elihu Yale had bestowed a generous gift of nine bales of goods, 417 books, and a portrait of King George I. Yale expanded gradually, establishing the Medical School (1810), Divinity School (1822), Law School (1843), Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (1847), the School of Fine Arts (1869), and School of Music (1894). In the early 20th century, Yale merged with the Sheffield Scientific School.

Schools and libraries

Yale College is among the most selective in the United States. In 2004, its 9.9% acceptance rate made it the choosiest college in the United States. In addition, Yale is noted for its law school, medical school, graduate school, and school of music. The Divinity School was founded in the early 19th century by Congregationalists who felt that the Harvard University divinity school had become too liberal.

Yale's library system is the second largest in North America with a total of almost 11 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 a museum of British art.

Yale's sports teams are called the Bulldogs. They participate in the NCAA's Division I (I-AA in football).

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      (   -    )    (1707-1719) (pro tempore)
3  Rev. Timothy Cutler     (   -    )    (1719-1726) 1718/9: renamed Yale College
4  Rev. Elisha William     (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.   (    -    )   (1986-1992)
17 Howard R. Lamar         (    -    )   (1992-1993)
18 Richard C. Levin        (1947-    )   (1993-    )

Residential colleges

Yale has a system of twelve residential colleges, instituted in 1930. The system is loosely modelled after the system found in British universities. However, students are accepted by the university as a whole, and assigned to residential colleges at random. Though the colleges at Yale, like their counterparts at Oxford and Cambridge act as social units, the Yale colleges do not act much also as academic units to the degree at Oxbridge. Tutoring does occur in the Yale colleges much like the Oxbridge colleges.

Residential Colleges of Yale University (official list):

  1. Pierson College - named for Yale's first rector, Abraham Pierson
  2. Davenport College - named for Rev. John Davenport (usually called "DPort")
  3. Jonathan Edwards College - named for theologian Jonathan Edwards (usually called "J.E.")
  4. Branford College - named for Branford, Connecticut
  5. Saybrook College - named for Old Saybrook, Connecticut
  6. Trumbull College - named for Jonathan Trumbull, governor of Connecticut
  7. Berkeley College - named for the Rt. Rev. George Berkeley (1685-1753)
  8. Calhoun College - named for John C. Calhoun
  9. Silliman College - named for Benjamin Silliman
  10. Timothy Dwight College - named for the two Yale presidents of that name, Timothy Dwight IV and Timothy Dwight V (usually called "T.D.")
  11. Ezra Stiles College - named for the Rev. Ezra Stiles and generally called simply "Stiles," despite an early-1990s crusade by then-master Traugott Lawler to preserve the use of the full name in everyday speech.
  12. Morse College - named for Samuel Morse

Other campus buildings

Cross Campus
Cross Campus

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 the last three: George H. W. Bush, William Clinton, and George W. Bush. Both the Democratic and Republican candidates for the 2004 presidential election are 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

Film

Television

Fictional

(* attended, but did not graduate from Yale)

Famous Professors

Professors who are also alumni of Yale are listed in italics.

Famous on-campus tragedies

Yale's high public profile 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 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.

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