Yale University
Yale University | |
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Yale Coat of Arms | |
Data | |
Established | 1701 |
Location | New Haven, Conn., USA |
Enrollment | 5,350 Yale College 2,500 Graduate School 3,500 ten professional schools |
Campus | |
Type | private university |
President | Richard C. Levin |
Addresses | see Yale page |
Phone | (+1)-203-432-4771 |
Homepage | http://www.yale.edu |
Member of | Ivy League |
Motto | Lux et Veritas (Latin: "Light & Truth") |
- For other uses of the name "Yale," see Yale (disambiguation).
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third oldest American collegiate institution and is well accepted as one of the great universities of the world. With over US$11 billion in endowment, Yale has the second largest academic endowment of any university in the United States (after Harvard).
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). Yale College has the lowest admission rate of any undergraduate institution. (before Harvard).
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 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 addition, Yale is noted for its law school, medical 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 among the largest in North America. 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. These colleges are social rather than academic units, unlike the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge:
- Pierson - named for Yale's first rector, Abraham Pierson
- Davenport - named for Rev. John Davenport (usually called "DPort")
- Jonathan Edwards - named for theologian Jonathan Edwards (usually called "J.E.")
- Branford - named for Branford, Connecticut
- Saybrook - named for Old Saybrook, Connecticut
- Trumbull - named for Jonathan Trumbull, governor of Connecticut
- Berkeley - named for the Rt. Rev. George Berkeley (1685-1753)
- Calhoun - named for John C. Calhoun
- Silliman - named for Benjamin Silliman
- Timothy Dwight - named for the two Yale presidents of that name, Timothy Dwight IV and Timothy Dwight V (usually called "T.D.")
- Ezra Stiles - named for the Rev. Ezra Stiles
- Morse - named for Samuel Morse
Other Campus Buildings
- Sterling Memorial Library
- Harkness Tower
- Woolsey Hall
- Beinecke Rare Book Library
- British Art Center
- Payne Whitney Gymnasium
- Ingalls Rink
- Battell Chapel
- Harkness Hall
- Yale School of Architecture
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, George W. Bush. Both the Democratic and Republican candidates for the 2004 presidential election are Yale graduates. (George W. Bush and John F. Kerry. In the 2004 Democratic primaries, Joe Lieberman and Howard Dean were also Yale graduates.
Nobel laureates
- George Akerlof, (2001, Economics)
- Raymond Davis, (2002, Physics)
- John F. Enders, (1954, Physiology or Medicine)
- John Fenn, (2002, Chemistry)
- Murray Gell-Mann, (1969, Physics)
- Alfred G. Gilman, (1994, Physiology or Medicine)
- Ernest Lawrence (Ph.D.), (1939, Physics). Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory & Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are named after him.
- Joshua Lederberg (Ph.D.), (1958, Physiology or Medicine)
- David Lee (Ph.D. 1959), (1996, Physics)
- Sinclair Lewis, (1930, Literature)
- Lars Onsager (Ph.D.), (1968, Chemistry)
- Dickinson Richards, (1956, Physiology or Medicine)
- William Vickrey, (1996, Economics)
- George Whipple, (1934, Physiology or Medicine)
- Eric Wieschaus (Ph.D.), (1995 , Physiology or Medicine)
Technology & Innovation
- Walter Camp, the "Father of American Football"
- Francis S. Collins (Ph.D.), director, Human Genome Project
- Lee DeForest, inventor of the triode
- W. Edwards Deming (Ph.D.), "total quality management" (TQM) guru
- Irving Fisher (Ph.D.), economist, "father of monetarism"
- J. Willard Gibbs, mathematician, physical chemist, thermodynamicist, known for Gibb's Phenomenon
- Grace Hopper (Ph. D.), inventor of COBOL programming language
- Art Laffer, economist, best known for the "Laffer Curve"
- Paul D. MacCready, "Engineer of the Century", won the Kremer Prize for first human-powered flying machine, pioneer in solar-powered flight
- Saunders MacLane, mathematician, one of the founders of "category theory"
- Stanley Milgram, psychologist, Milgram experiment, coined the concept "six degrees of separation"
- Samuel Morse, telegraph pioneer, inventor of Morse code
- John Ousterhout, creator of the Tcl programming language
- Ronald Rivest, computer scientist, the "R" in the RSA cryptography, 2002 Turing Award receipient
- Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin
Founders, Entrepreneurs, & CEO's
- Robert M. Bass, (BA, 1971) President, Keystone, Inc.
- John Thomas Daniels, founder, Archer Daniels Midland
- Robert Glaser, (B.A. & M.A.) founder & CEO, RealNetworks
- Roberto Goizueta, former CEO, Coca-Cola (Emory's business school is named after him)
- Charles B. Johnson, chairman, Franklin Templeton Investments
- Mitch Kapor, investor (Kapor Enterprises), former founder & CEO, Lotus software
- Herbert Kohler, chairman & president, Kohler Company
- Clarence King, founder of the US Geological Survey (USGS).
- Edward Lampert, founder & chairman, ESL Investments
- John Franklyn Mars, CEO, Mars Inc. (as in Mars & M&M candy)
- Robert Moses, middle 20th century New York City construction czar.
- Gifford Pinchot, founder of the US Forest Service
- Robert Sargent Shriver III (Law), part-owner of the Baltimore Orioles
- Timothy Perry Shriver, CEO of the Special Olympics
- Frederick W. Smith, founder & CEO, FedEx
- Harold Stanley, founder, Morgan Stanley
- Richard Thalheimer, founder & CEO of The Sharper Image
- Juan Trippe, founder & CEO, Pan Am
- Frederick E. Weyerhaeuser, founder, Weyerhaeuser
Academics
- Richard H. Brodhead, president of Duke University
- Alan Dershowitz, law professor at Harvard
- Jonathan Dickinson, founder of Princeton University
- Daniel Coit Gilman, first president of Johns Hopkins University
- William Rainey Harper, first president of the University of Chicago
- Lawrence Lessig, law professor at Stanford
- Reinhold Niebuhr (divinity school)
- Benjamin Spock (medical school), baby expert
- Andrew Dickson White, first president of Cornell University
- Yung Wing first Chinese student to receive an American college degree
Presidents & Vice Presidents of the United States
- George H. W. Bush, President of the United States (1989-1993)
- George W. Bush, President of the United States (2001-present)
- Richard B. Cheney*, Vice President of the United States (2001-present)
- William J. Clinton (Law), President of the United States (1993-2001)
- Gerald Ford (Law), President of the United States (1974-1977)
- William Howard Taft, President of the United States (1909-1913), Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1921-1930)
Law & Politics
- Dean Acheson, former Secretary of State
- John Ashcroft, U.S. Attorney General (2001-present), U.S. Senator (1993-2001), Governor of Missouri (1985-1993)
- David Boies, famous lawyer (Microsoft antitrust, Bush v. Gore, Napster v. RIAA)
- William F. Buckley, political pundit
- McGeorge Bundy, former Cabinet official
- Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown, Jr. (Law), Mayor of Oakland, California (1999-present), Governor of California (1975-1983)
- Hillary Clinton (Law), U.S. Senator, New York (2001-present)
- Howard Dean, Governor of Vermont (1991-2003)
- William H. Donaldson, Chairman of the S.E.C. (2003-present), co-founder of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette
- David Gergen, political pundit
- Nathan Hale, patriot & martyr, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."
- James Jeffords, U.S. Senator, Vermont (1989-present)
- John Kerry, U.S. Senator, Massachusetts (1985-present)
- Tony Knowles, Governor of Alaska (1994-2002)
- Paul Krugman, respected economist, Princeton professor, NY Times columnist
- Joseph Lieberman, U.S. Senator, Connecticut (1989-present)
- Gary Locke, Governor of Washington (1997-present)
- George Pataki, Governor of New York (1995-present)
- Clark T. Randt, Jr., U.S. ambassador to China (2001- present)
- Sargent Shriver, main organizer and first director of the Peace Corps. Husband of Eunice Kennedy, and father of Maria Shriver (news journalist and wife of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger).
- Potter Stewart, Supreme Court Justice (1958-1991)
- Robert Taft, Governor of Ohio (1999-present)
- Clarence Thomas, Supreme Court Justice (1991-present)
- Byron White, Supreme Court Justice (1962-1993)
- Pete Wilson, Governor of California (1991-1999)
- Ernesto Zedillo, President of Mexico (1994-2000).
History, Literature, Art & Music
- Hiram Bingham, rediscovered Machu Picchu, Peru
- Harold Bloom, American literary critic
- James Fenimore Cooper, author of The Last of the Mohicans
- Charles Ives, composer, classical music.
- John Knowles, author of A Separate Peace
- Maya Lin, architect, best known for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
- Henry R. Luce, co-founder of TIME magazine
- David McCullough, famous historian, winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, best known for his books on American Presidents Harry S. Truman and John Adams.
- Camille Paglia, cultural critic and feminist scholar
- Cole Porter, composer
- Garry Trudeau, Doonesbury cartoonist
- Noah Webster, author of the dictionary of the English language
- Thornton Wilder, playwright, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for the play Our Town
- Naomi Wolf, feminist writer
- Tom Wolfe (PhD), journalist, author of The Right Stuff and Bonfire of the Vanities
- Robert Woodward, journalist and co-author of the Pulitzer Prize winning book All the President's Men
Film
- Angela Bassett, actress
- Jennifer Beals, actress, best known for (Flashdance)
- Jordana Brewster, actress, plays Mia in "The Fast and the Furious"
- Michael Cimino, Academy Award winning director
- Jennifer Connelly*, Academy Award winning actress
- Claire Danes, actress, recently in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines , also in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet opposite Leonardo DiCaprio
- Jodie Foster, Academy Award winning actress and director. BA in Literature. Graduated magna cum laude.
- David Alan Grier, actor, comedian
- Kathryn Hahn, actress
- George Roy Hill, Academy Award winning director
- Holly Hunter, Academy Award winning actress
- Elia Kazan, Academy Award winning director
- Ron Livingston, actor, best known for Office Space, plays "Jack Berger" in Sex and the City
- Frances McDormand (MFA), actress
- Paul Newman, Academy Award winning actor
- Edward Norton, actor
- Vincent Price, actor
- Gene Siskel, movie critic
- Oliver Stone*, Academy Award winning director
- Meryl Streep (MFA), Academy Award winning actress
- John Turturro (MFA), actor
- Sam Waterston, actor
- Sigourney Weaver (MFA), actress
Television
- Dick Cavett, TV personality
- Anderson Cooper, CNN anchor of "Anderson Cooper 360"
- David Duchovny, (M.A. English Literature) actor in the X-files
- Sara Gilbert, actress, best known for her portrayal as the daughter Darlene Conner on the sit-com Roseanne
- Michael Gross (DRA 1973), actor, best known as the father "Steven Keaton" (the father of the Michael J. Fox character) on Family Ties
- Leo Laporte, host of "The Screen Savers" on TechTV
- Chris Noth (MFA), plays "Mr. Big" on Sex and the City
- Stone Phillips, television anchor for NBC
- Robert Picardo, the holographic doctor on the syndicated Star Trek: Voyager
- David Hyde Pierce, actor, best known for the character Dr. Niles Crane on Frasier
- Ben Stein (Law), economist, host of "Win Ben Stein's Money."
- Ming Tsai, chef on "East Meets West with Ming Tsai"
- Margaret Warner, Senior Correspondent (co-anchor) on The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, a nationally televised news program broadcast every weekday on PBS.
- Henry Winkler (MFA), actor, best known for the character Fonzie on Happy Days
Fictional
- Charles Montgomery Burns, Class of 1914, the owner of the Springfield Nuclear Powerplant in the hit cartoon television series The Simpsons
- Linus Larrabee, protagonist in the movie Sabrina, played by Humphrey Bogart in 1954 and Harrison Ford in 1995.
- Dink Stover, hero of Owen Johnson's 1911 Stover at Yale
- Rory Gilmore, main character of the Gilmore Girls
(* attended, but did not graduate from Yale)
Famous Professors
Professors who are also alumni of Yale are listed in italics.
- Harold Bloom (Ph.D. 1955), writer and critic, author of "Genius"
- Yung-Chi (Tommy) Cheng, pharmacology, inventor of AIDS drug 3TC, known as Epivir.
- John Gaddis, historian, Cold War expert
- David Gelernter (1976), computer scientist, co-creator of the Linda programming language
- Paul Hudak, computer scientist, known for his work on the Haskell programming language, author of "The Haskell School of Expression"
- Benoit Mandelbrot, mathematician known for fractal geometry
- William Prusoff, pharmacology, inventor of AIDS drug d4T, known as Zerit.
- Robert Shiller, economist, author of "Irrational Exuberance", well known for his work in investor psychology
- Jonathan Spence, historian, author of "The Search For Modern China"
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 Yale University's Sterling Law School, damaging two classrooms.