Yale Colleges Nod to Graduate Student Membership
Posted by R. J. O’Hara for the Collegiate Way
4 October 2005 (collegiateway.org) — One of the most significant failings of residential college systems in the United States is their omission of graduate students. In his article “Corporation talks long-term strategies†in today’s Yale Daily News, student writer Josh Duboff reports that the subject has come up again at Yale University, but no action has yet been taken:
Yale Corporation fellows traveled to Cambridge University in the United Kingdom this weekend for their first meeting of the academic year to discuss ways Yale can learn from its institutional peer across the ocean.
During the visit abroad, the Corporation, the University’s highest decision-making body, discussed some more short-term Yale issues, such as Yale’s upcoming capital campaign and the possibility of increased funding for the Yale School of Medicine. Corporation fellows also examined the daily workings of Cambridge University to find ways Yale might learn from Cambridge’s approach to scientific research and residential life for students….
In addition to the discussions concerning finance, Levin said the Corporation also reviewed the differences between the two universities’ residential colleges–at Cambridge, both undergraduate and graduate students apply directly to one of the 31 residential colleges for admission, while at Yale students are placed randomly into one of 12 colleges. The Corporation is not currently considering any changes to Yale’s residential college system, but it may examine the possibility of assigning a limited number of graduate students to residential colleges in the future, Levin said.
