Yale Daily News

so president levin has his way....even though half of the student body opposed this expansion

#1, more than half would oppose this plan if they realized that the new location will kill Yale's unique campus life, which is predicated on the fact that any student or faculty member can walk from one college to another within 2 minutes.

The location of the new colleges will result in a campus "human scale" that effectively transforms Yale from the strongest and most intimate academic community into just another large school like Stanford, Michigan or Cornell.

This is not about the new colleges, it is about the location of the new colleges! New colleges are a great idea, but they need to be built within the central campus precinct like all of the other ones. HGS and the site adjacent to the Yale Music School are the two obvious locations.

It's amazing how anyone would think that student opinion would be the decisive factor here. This plan is bigger than the 5300 students who happen to populate Yale right now.

nooooooooooooooooooooo

Yale is yale because of its intimacy and clost knitted community. More than academics, this feeling of community is what makes Yale SO UNIQUE!!
How will this be preserved with the two new colleges? It won't...

like if a "juice bar" on science hill will be substitute for the unique Yale experience given by the community that are the 12 existing residential colleges.
instead of expanding, Yale should enhance existing resources. make more grants and funds available for students for summer study, research, or work. Improve quality of some departments, improve existing programs.
you can't give a step forward if you have not already secured a firm step to start with.

um theres something already at hgs and the yale school of music. i think its called, um, what is it?, lemme think...oh ya: hgs and the yale school of music! people are already there. yale *college* is part of yale #university#. while whats being expanded is yale college, yale college exists alongside other parts of the university. theres no other way about it.

I am a 2007 alum of Yale College, not a graduate or professional school. But nonetheless how can all of these undergrads think that it is reasonable or appropriate just to uproot HGS or the School of Music or anywhere else so that undegraduates could avoid five minutes more of a walk? Graduate and professional students are established with their buildings and facilities, too.

Also, let's be serious--it just doesn't take "2 minutes" to walk from TD or Silliman over to Pierson or JE--maybe more like 10? So what if it takes 5 minutes longer to walk to your friend's house who lives the farthest away? People walk to places off campus all the time that take longer than 10 minutes to get to, to meet people living off campus or go out or whatever.

What makes Yale different from those other schools is, I think, not the amount of time it takes to go from dorm to dorm. It's the fact that the vast majority of students live in housing assigned to them starting their first year, so they don't self-select their dorm-mates and they do have friends to go see across the campus. That is not going to change.

They need to hire a better campus planner, not have more consultation with current students.

New colleges in this location will destroy what makes Yale Yale.

I might add that in addition to overlooking student concerns, they are also overlooking the concerns of many faculty members -- especially those who live on or near the campus, such as the college masters. Faculty don't want to walk a mile to see another college master any more than a student wants to walk a mile to visit their friend from section. And it's not about whether faculty or students CAN get there, it is about whether they actually will get there on a regular basis. Unplanned campus interaction is the essence of Yale, and what makes Yale the greatest university in the world.

Fire Levin. Who says students don't have a say? All I know is this, I applied to Yale for the small size and intimacy, the big schools turned me off. This will only decrease Yale's reputation. We need a president who cares. And why not a different location? There's one, no two, vacant spots on broadway! Hello!

I'm consistently amazed by the commenters who claim they can get to any friend's dorm within two minutes. Not if they were in Morse, Stiles, TD, Silliman or Swing Space!

It's amazing no one comments on the price per student these new dorms will cost. You could build homes for thousands, provide scholarships, pay for healthcare for Grad students...anything at all. But all the undergrad community is concerned about is the walking time? Never mind the fact none of us will be here when these are completed. Yale wants your check, to cater to people willing and able to pay tuition we're getting a palace to live in. Wonder why no one takes us seriously when we speak about social ills?

If one did away with that gawdoffal Divinity (HA!) school, one could move the School of Music to a preferable location (and HGS folks would LOVE a new dorm in the Science Hill area...especially Engineering students).

As for building homes, feeding the poor, and whatnot--you do what you want with YOUR money...

I find it amusing how many undergrads suggest turning graduate facilities into their own dormitories. I have news for you: we outnumber you at this school, and we find you even more irrelevant than you find us.

Hello Earth To Levin. WE DO NOT WANT THIS. Please don't ruin the University for future Yalies. Intimacy is Yale, and if that means rejecting qualified students (which won't change by expanding the university anyway) so be it. Do something completely necessary for the students who do get in like expand financial aid, and making abroad programs more affordable, or how about doing what ALL the IVYIES but Yale already have, by offering no to low income students assistance for travel and books!

#13...Think about who gets first use of rooms such as the Law School Auditorium, 8 Prospect Place, HGS, etc. for classes. Hint: It's not YLS. Grad students are guests here; you're not integrated into the colleges (like at Oxbridge) for a reason...

I guess I might resent being a sideshow, too.

they should turn yankee doodle into a college and call it yankee doodle college. that way yankee doodle will stay around and everyone will finally be happy!

This expansion should be seen in a broader context. There is no way that the far-off location of 2 colleges is going to end intimacy as we know it at Yale. Yale can't simply rest on its laurels. Other major global universities are expanding constantly, and if we want to keep pace, we have to do so too. The expansion will help fund a better student body--one not diluted by athletic recruits, for instance--and help support a larger and deeper professorate. Don't forget that our campus already stretches to Science Hill. Adding colleges out that way merely solidifies Yale's presence in an area that it already embraces. As Yale expands--this will probably not be the last time, everyone!--Yale will probably look increasingly dense in that seemingly far-off direction too.

And for all those who want to talk about the moral high ground? Do you actually think that it's fair that so few enjoy so much when in fact more might learn at Yale and benefit from her resources? Perhaps denouncing the colleges is akin to denouncing a somewhat more inclusive (yes, that means larger) university.