Yale University
Yale University, the third oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. (Only Harvard and William and Mary are older.) It is in New Haven, Connecticut. Yale University is nonsectarian and coeducational and is under private control. Yale College, the undergraduate school, until 1969 admitted only men.
Yale has more than 100 buildings, which are widely scattered, but most are near New Haven Green. On the Old Campus is Connecticut Hall (1752), Yale's oldest building. Memorial Quadrangle has a group of buildings in Gothic style, the most impressive being the 221-foot (67-m) Harkness Tower, which contains a large carillon. Other buildings include Sterling Memorial Library, Woolsey Hall, and Payne Whitney Gymnasium. Also notable are the Peabody Museum of Natural History, the Yale Center for British Art, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and the Art Gallery with its Trumbull Collection of historical paintings.
For athletics, the university has Yale Field, De Witt Cuyler Field, and Yale Bowl. The Yale University Press publishes books and periodicals. Other publications include the Yale Review, the Yale Literary Magazine, and the Yale Daily News.
OrganizationFirst-year students are required to live in dormitories on Old Campus. Sophomores, juniors, and seniors live in undergraduate houses called residential colleges. Each is under a master, and each has its own dining hall, library, and common rooms.
The president is the chief executive officer. The governing body is a corporation of 19 members.
Yale has 12 schools:
Yale College (1701), the original school, is the undergraduate college.
The School of Medicine (1813) is in the Yale-New Haven Medical Center.
The Divinity School (1822) is interdenominational. In 1971 the nearby Berkeley Divinity School was merged with it.
The Law School (1824).
The Graduate School (1847) offers the degrees of Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy.
The School of Art and The School of Architecture were established in 1869 as the School of Art and Architecture. They were made separate schools in 1972.
The School of Music (1894).
The School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (1900) is the oldest school of its kind in the United States.
The School of Nursing (1923).
The School of Drama (1955).
The Graduate School of Management (1976) is a business school.
HistoryIn 1701 the General Court of Connecticut issued a charter for a "Collegiate School." The first rector (head of the college) was Abraham Pierson, a Congregational clergyman, who began classes the next year at Killingworth (now Clinton). The college moved to Saybrook in 1707 and to New Haven in 1716. Elihu Yale, an English merchant and philanthropist, donated merchandise and books to the school, and in 1718 its first building was named Yale College. In 1745 the school was renamed "The President and Fellows of Yale College."
In 1792 the governor of Connecticut, the lieutenant governor, and six state senators were made members of the corporation, or governing body. In 1872 the six senators were replaced by six Yale graduates elected by the alumni. In 1887 the state General Assembly authorized the institution to use the name "Yale University."
Noted rectors and presidents of Yale have included the two Timothy Dwights, Theodore Dwight Woolsey, Noah Porter, and James Rowland Angell. Yale graduates include Nathan Hale, Eli Whitney, John C. Calhoun, Samuel F. B. Morse, William Howard Taft, Robert Taft, Sinclair Lewis, Stephen Vincent Bent, Robert M. Hutchins, George Bush, and William J. and Hillary Rodham Clinton.