Yale University

Campus Life

Residential colleges

Yale has a system of 12 residential colleges, instituted in 1933 through a grant by Yale graduate Edward S. Harkness, who admired the college systems at Oxford and Cambridge. 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 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 guests from the 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.

Related Topics:
Residential colleges - 1933 - Edward S. Harkness - Oxford - Cambridge

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Residential colleges are named for important figures or places in university history or notable alumni; they are deliberately not named for benefactors.

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Residential Colleges of Yale University (official list):

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• Berkeley College http://www.yale.edu/berkeley/ - named for the Rt. Rev. George Berkeley (1685-1753), early benefactor of Yale.
• Branford College http://www.yale.edu/branford/ - named for Branford, Connecticut, where Yale was briefly located.
• Calhoun College http://www.yale.edu/calhoun/ - named for John C. Calhoun, vice-president of the United States.
• Davenport College http://www.yale.edu/davenport/ - named for Rev. John Davenport, the founder of New Haven. Occasionally called "D'port".
• 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.
• Jonathan Edwards College http://www.yale.edu/je/ - named for theologian, Yale alumnus, and Princeton co-founder Jonathan Edwards. Generally called "J.E.". The oldest of the residential colleges, J.E. is the only college with an independent endowment, the Jonathan Edwards Trust.
• Morse College http://www.yale.edu/morse/ - named for Samuel Morse, inventor of Morse Code. Also designed by Eero Saarinen.
• Pierson College http://www.yale.edu/pierson/ - named for Yale's first rector, Abraham Pierson.
• Saybrook College http://www.yale.edu/saybrook/ - named for Old Saybrook, Connecticut, the town in which Yale was founded.
• 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,
• 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."
• Trumbull College http://www.yale.edu/trumbull/ - named for Jonathan Trumbull, governor of Connecticut. The smallest college.

In 1990, Yale launched a series of massive overhauls to the older residential buildings, whose decades of existence had seen only routine maintenance and incremental improvements to plumbing, heating, and electrical and network wiring. Calhoun College was the first to undergo complete renovation. Various unwieldy schemes were used to house displaced students during the yearlong projects, but complaints finally moved Yale to build a new residence hall between the gym and the power plant. It is commonly called "Swing Space" by the students; its official name, "Boyd Hall" (a name allegedly created by Berkeley students as a contraction of "Boy, did we get f---d"), is unused.

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In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Yale created plans to create a thirteenth college, whose concrete facade would have broken with the campus' more prevalent Gothic and Georgian architecture. The plans were scrapped, after the city of New Haven put up substantial financial barriers, and the proposed site was eventually filled with condominiums and shops (Whitney Grove Square, among others).

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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. Like other members of the Ivy League, Yale does not offer athletic scholarships and is no longer competitive with the top echelon of American college teams in the big-money sports of basketball and football. Nevertheless, 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, the largest and most elaborate indoor athletic complex in the world. The school mascot is "Handsome Dan", the famous Yale bulldog, and the Yale fight song (written by Cole Porter) contains the refrain, "Bulldog, bulldog, bow wow wow."

Related Topics:
Ivy League - Eastern College Athletic Conference - NCAA - Walter Camp - Payne Whitney Gymnasium - Handsome Dan - Bulldog - Fight song - Cole Porter - Refrain

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Yale athletics are ably and enthusiastically supported by the Yale Precision Marching Band. The band attends every home football game and many away, as well as most hockey and basketball games throughout the winter.

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Yale intramural sports are a vibrant aspect of student life. Students compete for their respective residential colleges, which fosters a friendly rivalry. The year is divided into Fall, Winter, and Spring seasons, each of which include approximately ten different sports each. About half the sports are coed. At the end of the year, the residential college with the most points (not all sports count equally) wins the Tyng Cup.

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Life in New Haven

The city of New Haven earned a reputation in the 1980's for urban decline, as crack wreaked havoc on a city that was already in trouble from the collapse of its industrial core. It once ranked seventh on a list of the most dangerous U.S. cities. But a decade of slow regrowth (500 new housing units in the last five years) has put a new face on this colonial city. In 2003, New Haven was selected as the All-American City, in recognition of its immigrant neighborhoods and blocks of old mansions, quaint stores and big chains, and one of the world's richest universities. Today, Yale's urban surroundings add to its students' education and entertainment. Yale students run for alderman, work in City Hall, and launch non-profit organizations. The downtown features an array of clubs, theaters, and restaurants. Yalies go to Toad's Place to hear bands such as Collective Soul and Lifehouse, enjoy cheap martinis at Hot Tomatoes, or buy home-brewed beer and brick-oven pizza at BAR. Visitors check out exhibits at the Peabody Museum before taking in a show at the Shubert Theater.

Related Topics:
New Haven - Crack - All-American City - Toad's Place - Collective Soul - Lifehouse - Peabody Museum

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