Yale College
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Yale College is the undergraduate college of
Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, when its schools were confederated and the institution was renamed Yale University. It is ranked as one of the top colleges in the United States. Originally established to train Congregationalist ministers, the college began teaching humanities and natural sciences by the late 18th century. At the same time, students began organizing extracurricular organizations: first
literary societies A literary society is a group of people interested in literature. In the modern sense, this refers to a society that wants to promote one genre of writing or a specific author. Modern literary societies typically promote research, publish newsle ...
, and later publications, sports teams, and singing groups. By the middle of the 19th century, it was the largest college in the United States. In 1847, it was joined by another undergraduate school at Yale, the
Sheffield Scientific School Sheffield Scientific School was founded in 1847 as a school of Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut, for instruction in science and engineering. Originally named the Yale Scientific School, it was renamed in 1861 in honor of Joseph E. Sheffiel ...
, which was absorbed into the college in 1956. These merged curricula became the basis of the modern-day
liberal arts Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term '' art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically th ...
curriculum, which requires students to take courses in a broad range of subjects, including foreign language, composition, sciences, and quantitative reasoning, in addition to electing a departmental major in their sophomore year. The most distinctive feature of undergraduate life is the school's system of residential colleges, established in 1932 and modeled after the constituent colleges of
English universities , there were 106 universities in England and 5 university colleges out of a total of around 130 in the United Kingdom. This includes private universities but does not include other Higher Education Institutions that have not been given the right ...
. Undergraduates live in these colleges after their freshman year, when most live on the school's
Old Campus The Old Campus is the oldest area of the Yale University campus in New Haven, Connecticut. It is the principal residence of Yale College freshmen and also contains offices for the academic departments of Classics, English, History, Comparative Li ...
.


History

The Collegiate School was founded in 1701 by a charter drawn by ten Congregationalist ministers led by James Pierpont and approved by the General Court of the
Colony of Connecticut The ''Connecticut Colony'' or ''Colony of Connecticut'', originally known as the Connecticut River Colony or simply the River Colony, was an English colony in New England which later became Connecticut. It was organized on March 3, 1636 as a settl ...
. Originally situated in Abraham Pierson's home in
Killingworth, Connecticut Killingworth is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 6,174 at the 2020 United States Census. History Killingworth was established from the area called Hammonasset, taken from the local Native American tri ...
, the college moved to
Old Saybrook, Connecticut Old Saybrook is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 10,481 at the 2020 census. It contains the incorporated borough of Fenwick, as well as the census-designated places of Old Saybrook Center and Saybroo ...
in 1703 when Nathaniel Lynde, the first treasurer of Yale, donated land and a building. The college moved again to
New Haven New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...
in 1718 and was renamed for
Elihu Yale Elihu Yale (5 April 1649 – 8 July 1721) was a British-American colonial administrator and philanthropist. Although born in Boston, Massachusetts, he only lived in America as a child, spending the rest of his life in England, Wales and India ...
, an early benefactor, merchant, and philanthropist. Founded as a school to train ministers, original curriculum included only coursework in
theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
and
sacred languages A sacred language, holy language or liturgical language is any language that is cultivated and used primarily in church service or for other religious reasons by people who speak another, primary language in their daily lives. Concept A sacre ...
. Although early faculty, including Jonathan Edwards and
Elisha Williams Elisha Williams (August 26, 1694 – July 24, 1755) was a Congregational minister, legislator, militia soldier, jurist, and rector of Yale College from 1726 to 1739. Life The son of Rev. William Williams and his wife Elizabeth, née Cotton ...
, maintained strict Congregational orthodoxy, by the time of the
American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...
subsequent rectors, especially Ezra Stiles, relaxed the curriculum to include humanities and limited natural science education. Scientific courses introduced by chemist
Benjamin Silliman Benjamin Silliman (August 8, 1779 – November 24, 1864) was an early American chemist and science educator. He was one of the first American professors of science, at Yale College, the first person to use the process of fractional distillation ...
in 1801 made the college an early hub of scientific education, a curriculum which was grafted into Yale's
Sheffield Scientific School Sheffield Scientific School was founded in 1847 as a school of Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut, for instruction in science and engineering. Originally named the Yale Scientific School, it was renamed in 1861 in honor of Joseph E. Sheffiel ...
in 1847. As in many of Yale's sister institutions, debates about the expansiveness of the undergraduate curriculum were waged throughout the early 19th century, with statements like the
Yale Report of 1828 {{citations, date=February 2014 The Yale Report of 1828 is a document written by the faculty of Yale College in staunch defense of the classical curriculum. The report maintained that because of Yale's primary object of graduating well-educated and ...
re-asserting Yale's conservative theological heritage and faculty. Later in the century,
William Graham Sumner William Graham Sumner (October 30, 1840 – April 12, 1910) was an American clergyman, social scientist, and classical liberal. He taught social sciences at Yale University—where he held the nation's first professorship in sociology—and be ...
, the first professor of sociology in the United States, introduced studies in the social sciences. These expanding fields of study were integrated with graduate schools of the university and amalgamated into a course of liberal arts education, which presaged the advent of divisional majors in the twentieth century. The relaxation of curriculum came with expansion of the extracurriculum. Student literary societies emerged as early as 1750, singing groups and student publications in the early 1800s, fraternities and
secret societies A secret society is a club or an organization whose activities, events, inner functioning, or membership are concealed. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence a ...
in the mid-nineteenth century, and intercollegiate athletics by the century's end. Participation and leadership in these groups was an important social signifier and a route to induction into prestigious senior societies. Thus extracurricular participation became central to student life and social advancement, an ethos that became a template for collegiate life across the United States. By 1870, Yale was the largest undergraduate institution in the country. The growth of the student body prompted major growth in the college's physical campus, the greatest expansion of which occurred in 1933, when a gift of
Edward S. Harkness Edward Stephen Harkness (January 22, 1874 – January 29, 1940) was an American philanthropist. Given privately and through his family's Commonwealth Fund, Harkness' gifts to private hospitals, art museums, and educational institutions in the Nort ...
created and endowed eight
residential colleges A residential college is a division of a university that places academic activity in a community setting of students and faculty, usually at a residence and with shared meals, the college having a degree of autonomy and a federated relationship w ...
. Modeled after the college system of
Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
and Cambridge Universities, the colleges were intended to be the social and residential centers of undergraduate life while leaving academic programs under the oversight of university's departments. Two additional colleges were built by 1940, and two more in the 1960s.


Admission and exclusion

For most of its history, study at Yale was almost exclusively restricted to white
Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
men, often the children of alumni. Documented exceptions to this paradigm include Hawaiian native Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia, who became a student of Yale President Timothy Dwight in 1809, and black abolitionist James W. C. Pennington, who was allowed to audit theology courses in 1837. Moses Simons, a descendant of a slave-holding South Carolinian family, has been suggested to be the first Jew to graduate from Yale. Though his maternal ancestry is disputed, he may have also been the first person of African-American descent to graduate from any American college. In 1854,
Yung Wing Yung Wing (; November 17, 1828April 21, 1912) was a Chinese-American diplomat and businessman. In 1854, he became the first Chinese student to graduate from an American university, Yale College. He was involved in business transactions between Ch ...
graduated from the college and became the first student from China to graduate from an American university, and in 1857, Richard Henry Green became the first African-American man to receive a degree from the college. Until the rediscovery of Green's ethnic descent in 2014, physicist
Edward Bouchet Edward Alexander Bouchet (September 15, 1852 – October 28, 1918) was an American physicist and educator and was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from any American university, completing his dissertation in physics at Yale in 1876. O ...
, who stayed at Yale to become the first African-American PhD recipient, was believed to also be the first African-American graduate of Yale College. In the early 20th century, the student body was predominantly "old-stock, high-status Protestants, especially Episcopalians, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians"—a group later called
WASPs A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. ...
. By the 1970s, it was much more diverse. Enrollment at Yale only became competitive in the early 20th century, requiring the college to set up an admissions process. As late as the 1950s, tests and demographic questionnaires for admission to the college worked to exclude non-Christian men, especially Jews, as well as non-white men. By the mid-1960s, these processes were becoming more meritocratic, allowing for the recruitment of a racially, economically, and geographically diverse student body. This meritocratic transition encouraged the university to establish the first need-blind admissions policy in the United States. After several decades of debate about coeducation, Yale College admitted its first class of women in 1969. In recent years, the college has focused on international recruitment, quadrupling the fraction of international students admitted between 1993 and 2013.


Organization

Yale College is a constituent school of Yale University and contains a dependent system of
residential college A residential college is a division of a university that places academic activity in a community setting of students and faculty, usually at a residence and with shared meals, the college having a degree of autonomy and a federated relationship wi ...
s. Its executive officer is the Dean of Yale College, who is appointed to a five-year term by the
Yale Corporation The Yale Corporation, officially The President and Fellows of Yale College, is the governing body of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Assembly of corporation The Corporation comprises 19 members: * Three ex officio An ''ex officio'' m ...
. The dean oversees undergraduate academic curriculum, extracurricular activities, and student discipline, but does not have direct control over the residential colleges. The position is currently held by
Marvin Chun Marvin may refer to: __NOTOC__ Geography ;In the United States * Marvyn, Alabama, also spelled Marvin, an unincorporated community * Marvin, Missouri, an unincorporated community * Marvin, North Carolina, a village * Marvin, South Dakota, a town * R ...
, professor of
neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, developme ...
. All of the college's faculty are members of the Yale Faculty of Arts and Sciences and are thereby jointly affiliated with the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Tenured members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences constitute the Board of Permanent Officers, who govern the school's curriculum and programs. Most undergraduate courses and majors are offered under the purview of
academic departments An academic department is a division of a university or school faculty devoted to a particular academic discipline. This article covers United States usage at the university level. In the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries, universit ...
, divisions of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences which offer undergraduate and graduate curricula. In addition, the faculties of three Yale
professional schools Professional development is learning to earn or maintain professional credentials such as academic degrees to formal coursework, attending conferences, and informal learning opportunities situated in practice. It has been described as intensive ...
, the
School of Art An art school is an educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, including fine art – especially illustration, painting, photography, sculpture, and graphic design. Art schools can offer elementary, secondary, post-second ...
,
School of Architecture This is a list of architecture schools at colleges and universities around the world. An architecture school (also known as a school of architecture or college of architecture), is an institution specializing in architectural education. Africa ...
and School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, also offer undergraduate programs. Residential colleges, which are funded and controlled by the university, have separate administration and limited self-governance. The Heads of College (before 2016 called Masters), usually tenured faculty members, are appointed to renewable, five-year terms by the Yale Corporation to oversee the affairs of each college. Residential college deans, who are supervised by the Dean of Yale College, are in charge of undergraduate academic oversight. Each residential college is governed by its Head of College, Dean, and Fellows, and has a college council of students with limited jurisdiction over student affairs. Issues affecting multiple colleges are governed by the Council of the Heads of College, composed of the Heads of College of the fourteen colleges.


Residential colleges

The most distinctive feature of Yale College undergraduate life is the residential college system. The system was established in 1933 through a gift by Yale graduate
Edward S. Harkness Edward Stephen Harkness (January 22, 1874 – January 29, 1940) was an American philanthropist. Given privately and through his family's Commonwealth Fund, Harkness' gifts to private hospitals, art museums, and educational institutions in the Nort ...
, who admired the college systems at
Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
and
Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
. Each college consists of dormitory buildings surrounding an enclosed courtyard, and features a dining hall, library, and student facilities ranging from
printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...
es to darkrooms. Each is led by a Head of College, a faculty member who serves as its chief administrator, and a Dean, who oversees student academic affairs. University faculty and distinguished affiliates are associated with the colleges as fellows. Unlike their English forerunners, the colleges do not administer academic degree programs or courses of study, but they do sponsor academic seminars that fall outside the normal departmental structure of the university, and the Heads of College host lectures and teas for the colleges that attract high-profile visitors. Harkness' gift built and endowed eight colleges, completed from 1932 to 1934. Additional colleges were opened in 1935 (
Timothy Dwight College Timothy Dwight College, commonly abbreviated and referred to as "TD", is a residential college at Yale University named after two presidents of Yale, Timothy Dwight IV and his grandson, Timothy Dwight V. The college was designed in 1935 by James ...
), 1940 (
Silliman College Silliman College is a residential college at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, named for scientist and Yale professor Benjamin Silliman. It opened in September 1940 as the last of the original ten residential colleges, and contains bu ...
), 1962 (
Morse College Morse College is one of the fourteen residential colleges at Yale University, built in 1961 and designed by Eero Saarinen. It is adjacent to Ezra Stiles College and the two colleges share many facilities. The current Head of College is Catherine ...
and
Ezra Stiles College Ezra Stiles College is one of the fourteen residential colleges at Yale University, built in 1961 and designed by Eero Saarinen. It is often simply called "Stiles," despite an early-1990s crusade by then-master Traugott Lawler to preserve the us ...
), and 2017 ( Pauli Murray College and
Benjamin Franklin College Benjamin Franklin College is a residential college for undergraduates of Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut. It opened to students for the 2017 academic year. History In 2008, Yale University President Rick Levin announced that the col ...
), bringing the present-day number to fourteen. The first ten colleges were designed in Collegiate Gothic and
Georgian Revival Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover— George I, George II, Ge ...
styles; the two colleges built in the 1960s are
Modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...
reinventions of the college plan. In 2007, Yale announced the construction of two additional Collegiate Gothic residential colleges near Science Hill, which opened in 2017.


List of residential colleges

Residential colleges are named for important figures or places in university history or notable alumni; they are deliberately not named for benefactors. #
Benjamin Franklin College Benjamin Franklin College is a residential college for undergraduates of Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut. It opened to students for the 2017 academic year. History In 2008, Yale University President Rick Levin announced that the col ...
– named for
Founding Father The following list of national founding figures is a record, by country, of people who were credited with establishing a state. National founders are typically those who played an influential role in setting up the systems of governance, (i.e. ...
Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...
. #
Berkeley College Berkeley College is a private for-profit college with campuses in New York, New Jersey, and online. It was founded in 1931 and offers undergraduate and graduate degrees and certificate programs. Berkeley College is accredited by the Middle ...
– named for George Berkeley (1685–1753), early benefactor of Yale. #
Branford College Branford College is one of the 14 residential colleges at Yale University. Founding Branford College was founded in 1933 by partitioning the Memorial Quadrangle (built in 1917-21) into two parts: Saybrook and Branford. According to Robert Frost ...
– named for
Branford, Connecticut Branford is a shoreline town located on Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut, about east of downtown New Haven. The population was 28,273 at the 2020 census. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a to ...
, the town in which Yale was founded. #
Davenport College Davenport College (colloquially referred to as D'port) is one of the fourteen residential colleges of Yale University. Its buildings were completed in 1933 mainly in the Georgian style but with a gothic façade along York Street. The college wa ...
– named for John Davenport, the founder of New Haven. Often called "D'port." #
Ezra Stiles College Ezra Stiles College is one of the fourteen residential colleges at Yale University, built in 1961 and designed by Eero Saarinen. It is often simply called "Stiles," despite an early-1990s crusade by then-master Traugott Lawler to preserve the us ...
– named for Ezra Stiles, a president of Yale. Designed by
Eero Saarinen Eero Saarinen (, ; August 20, 1910 – September 1, 1961) was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer noted for his wide-ranging array of designs for buildings and monuments. Saarinen is best known for designing the General Motors ...
. #
Jonathan Edwards College Jonathan Edwards College (informally JE) is a residential college at Yale University. It is named for theologian and minister Jonathan Edwards, a 1720 graduate of Yale College. JE's residential quadrangle was the first to be completed in Yale's ...
– named for theologian and
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
co-founder Jonathan Edwards. #
Grace Hopper College Grace Hopper College is a residential college of Yale University, opened in 1933 as one of the original eight undergraduate residential colleges endowed by Edward Harkness. It was originally named Calhoun College after US Vice President John C. ...
– named for Admiral
Grace Murray Hopper Grace Brewster Hopper (; December 9, 1906 – January 1, 1992) was an American computer scientist, mathematician, and United States Navy rear admiral. One of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer, she was a pioneer of com ...
, Yale Ph.D. and computer pioneer. Until 2017, this college was named for John C. Calhoun, Vice President of the United States. The smallest college. #
Morse College Morse College is one of the fourteen residential colleges at Yale University, built in 1961 and designed by Eero Saarinen. It is adjacent to Ezra Stiles College and the two colleges share many facilities. The current Head of College is Catherine ...
– named for
Samuel Morse Samuel Finley Breese Morse (April 27, 1791 – April 2, 1872) was an American inventor and painter. After having established his reputation as a portrait painter, in his middle age Morse contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph ...
, inventor of
Morse Code Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one of ...
. Also designed by
Eero Saarinen Eero Saarinen (, ; August 20, 1910 – September 1, 1961) was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer noted for his wide-ranging array of designs for buildings and monuments. Saarinen is best known for designing the General Motors ...
. # Pauli Murray College – named for civil rights activist, legal scholar and religious pioneer
Pauli Murray Anna Pauline "Pauli" Murray (November 20, 1910 – July 1, 1985) was an American civil rights activist who became a lawyer, gender equality advocate, Episcopal priest, and author. Drawn to the ministry, in 1977 she became one of the first women ...
. #
Pierson College Pierson College is a residential college at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Opened in 1933, it is named for Abraham Pierson, a founder and the first rector of the Collegiate School, the college later known as Yale. With just under 50 ...
– named for Yale's first rector,
Abraham Pierson Abraham Pierson (1646 – March 5, 1707) was an American Congregational minister who served as the first rector, from 1701 to 1707, and one of the founders of the Collegiate School — which later became Yale University. Biography He wa ...
. #
Saybrook College Saybrook College is one of the 14 residential colleges at Yale University. It was founded in 1933 by partitioning the Memorial Quadrangle into two parts: Saybrook and Branford. Unlike many of Yale's residential colleges that are centered on one ...
– named for
Old Saybrook, Connecticut Old Saybrook is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 10,481 at the 2020 census. It contains the incorporated borough of Fenwick, as well as the census-designated places of Old Saybrook Center and Saybroo ...
, where Yale was briefly located. #
Silliman College Silliman College is a residential college at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, named for scientist and Yale professor Benjamin Silliman. It opened in September 1940 as the last of the original ten residential colleges, and contains bu ...
– named for noted scientist and Yale professor
Benjamin Silliman Benjamin Silliman (August 8, 1779 – November 24, 1864) was an early American chemist and science educator. He was one of the first American professors of science, at Yale College, the first person to use the process of fractional distillation ...
. About half of its structures were originally part of the
Sheffield Scientific School Sheffield Scientific School was founded in 1847 as a school of Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut, for instruction in science and engineering. Originally named the Yale Scientific School, it was renamed in 1861 in honor of Joseph E. Sheffiel ...
. #
Timothy Dwight College Timothy Dwight College, commonly abbreviated and referred to as "TD", is a residential college at Yale University named after two presidents of Yale, Timothy Dwight IV and his grandson, Timothy Dwight V. The college was designed in 1935 by James ...
– named for the two Yale presidents of that name,
Timothy Dwight IV Timothy Dwight (May 14, 1752January 11, 1817) was an American academic and educator, a Congregationalist minister, theologian, and author. He was the eighth president of Yale College (1795–1817). Early life Timothy Dwight was born May 14, 17 ...
and
Timothy Dwight V Timothy Dwight V (November 16, 1828 – May 26, 1916) was an American academic, educator, Congregational minister, and President of Yale University (1886–1898). During his years as the school's president, Yale's schools first organized as a uni ...
. Usually called "T.D." #
Trumbull College Trumbull College is one of fourteen undergraduate residential colleges of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The college is named for Jonathan Trumbull, governor of Connecticut from 1769 to 1784 and advisor and friend to General George Wash ...
– named for Jonathan Trumbull, 18th-century governor of Connecticut.


Student organizations


Singing groups

Yale College has been called "the epicenter of college singing," both for its long history of singing groups and its centrality in establishing
collegiate a cappella Collegiate a cappella (or college a cappella) ensembles are college-affiliated singing groups, primarily in the United States, and, increasingly, the United Kingdom and Ireland, that perform entirely without musical instruments. The groups are typ ...
in the United States. The earliest choral group, the Beethoven Society, dates to 1812 and emerged in the mid-nineteenth century as the
Yale Glee Club The Yale Glee Club is a mixed chorus of men and women, consisting of students of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1861, it is the third oldest collegiate chorus in the United States after the Harvard Glee Club, founded in ...
. Although
glee clubs Glee means delight, a form of happiness. Glee may also refer to: * Glee (music), a type of English choral music * ''Glee'' (TV series), an American musical comedy-drama TV series, and related media created by Ryan Murphy * ''Glee'' (Bran Van 3 ...
around the country had spawned small collegiate ensembles since that time, the all-senior, all-male
Whiffenpoofs The Yale Whiffenpoofs is a collegiate a cappella singing group. Established at Yale University in 1909, it is the oldest such group in the United States. The line-up is completely replaced each year: the group is always composed of rising senio ...
, formed in 1909, are often considered to be the oldest collegiate a cappella society in the United States. Formalizing a style pioneered by black barbershop groups in New Haven, their repertoire was amplified by the founding of similar groups across the country. Coeducation in 1969 made possible all-women's groups and mixed groups. In all, there are now at least eighteen undergraduate a cappella groups in Yale College, ranging from a Slavic chorus to Christian a cappella.


Publications

Student publications at Yale date back as far as 1806, but the earliest still in print, the ''
Yale Literary Magazine The ''Yale Literary Magazine'', founded in 1836, is the oldest student literary magazine in the United States and publishes poetry, fiction, and visual art by Yale undergraduates twice per academic year. Notable alumni featured in the magazine whi ...
'', was founded in 1836 and is believed to be the oldest surviving literary review in the United States. Undergraduate publications like the ''Yale Banner'', a yearbook, and ''
The Yale Record ''The Yale Record'' is the campus humor magazine of Yale University. Founded in 1872, it became the oldest humor magazine in the world when ''Punch'' folded in 2002."History", The Yale Record, March 10, 2010. http://www.yalerecord.com/about/histo ...
'', a humor magazine, followed suit, often around the same time similar publications were established at Harvard and Princeton. The '' Yale Daily News'', established in 1878, was a relative latecomer but became the flagship campus daily, and continues to publish during every weekday of the undergraduate academic term. These publications have been joined by many 20th-century debuts, including ''
The Yale Herald ''The Yale Herald'' is a newspaper run by undergraduate students at Yale University since 1986. A weekly, the paper aims to provide in-depth, investigative reporting, and includes personal essays, interviews, opinion pieces, culture articles, revi ...
'' and ''
The New Journal ''The New Journal'' is a magazine at Yale University that publishes creative nonfiction about Yale and New Haven. Inspired by New Journalism writers like Tom Wolfe and Gay Talese, the student-run publication was established by Daniel Yergin and Pe ...
''.


Secret societies

In 1832, a rift over
Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...
inductions between the college's two debating societies,
Linonia Linonia is a literary and debating society founded in 1753 at Yale University. It is the university's second-oldest secret society. History Linonia was founded on September 12, 1753, as Yale College's second literary and debating society, af ...
and
Brothers in Unity Brothers in Unity (formally, the Society of Brothers in Unity) is an undergraduate society at Yale University. Founded in 1768 as a literary and debating society that encompassed nearly half the student body at its 19th-century peak, the group di ...
, caused seniors to establish the first secret society at the university,
Skull and Bones Skull and Bones, also known as The Order, Order 322 or The Brotherhood of Death, is an undergraduate senior secret student society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The oldest senior class society at the university, Skull and Bone ...
. Skull and Bones "tapped" select juniors for membership as seniors, a ritual later adopted by all undergraduate senior societies. Since then, senior societies have proliferated at Yale, with recent estimates of 41 existing societies and senior class membership ranging from ten to fifty percent of each class. Although once carefully guarded, the "secrecy" of these senior societies is dubious; their existence is widely known and membership rolls for most are published yearly. Ten present-day societies—
Skull and Bones Skull and Bones, also known as The Order, Order 322 or The Brotherhood of Death, is an undergraduate senior secret student society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The oldest senior class society at the university, Skull and Bone ...
,
Scroll and Key The Scroll and Key Society is a secret society, founded in 1842 at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut. It is one of the oldest Yale secret societies and reputedly the wealthiest. The society is one of the reputed "Big Three" societies ...
,
Book and Snake The Society of Book and Snake (incorporated as the Stone Trust Corporation) is the fourth oldest secret society at Yale University and was the first society to induct women into its delegation. Book and Snake was founded at the Sheffield Scientif ...
, Wolf's Head, Elihu, Berzelius, St. Elmo,
Manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or repr ...
, Shabtai, and
Mace and Chain Mace and Chain is an "Ancient Eight" society, or one of the eight landed secret societies, at Yale University. It was founded in 1956 with the mission of providing fifteen rising seniors with the traditional senior society experience in a freer, m ...
—have private buildings near campus; many other societies have a fixed on-campus meeting space where they meet twice a week. Some of the oldest society buildings are enclosed and windowless; members refer to them as "tombs." Their activities have varied over time and across societies, but most societies meet for dinners, discussion, drinking, and long-form disclosure of members' life history. Despite a long history of social exclusion—of Jews and women in particular—many of these societies have prioritized membership diversity in the last several decades. The semi-secrecy and influential membership of Yale's older senior societies has attracted wide interest and scrutiny, particularly when both 2004 U.S. presidential candidates were members of Skull and Bones.


In popular culture

*The anti-Tom novel ''
Aunt Phillis's Cabin ''Aunt Phillis's Cabin; or, Southern Life as It Is'' by Mary Henderson Eastman is a plantation fiction novel, and is perhaps the most read anti-Tom novel in American literature. It was published by Lippincott, Grambo & Co. of Philadelphia in 1 ...
'' by
Mary Henderson Eastman Mary Henderson Eastman (February 24, 1818February 24, 1887) was an American historian and novelist who is noted for her works about Native American life. She was also an advocate of slavery in the United States. In response to Harriet Beecher St ...
is partially set in Yale College in the 1850s.''Aunt Phillis's Cabin: or, Southern Life As It Is'' – M. H. Eastman (1852) *In the American TV series ''
Gilmore Girls ''Gilmore Girls'' is an American Comedy drama, comedy-drama television series created by Amy Sherman-Palladino and starring Lauren Graham (Lorelai Gilmore) and Alexis Bledel (Rory Gilmore). The show debuted on October 5, 2000, on The WB and beca ...
'',
Rory Gilmore Lorelai Leigh "Rory" Gilmore is a fictional character from the WB/ CW television series ''Gilmore Girls'' portrayed by Alexis Bledel. She first appeared in the pilot episode of the series on October 5, 2000 and appeared in every episode until the ...
attends Yale College, choosing it over
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
.


References


Further reading

* * * * * * * * *


External links

*
The Yung Wing Project
hosts the memoir of the first Chinese-American graduate of an American university (Yale 1854). {{Authority control
College A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...
Educational institutions established in 1701 1701 establishments in Connecticut