News' View: Time to rethink Yale College's vision
When a bubbling Peter Salovey entered Luce Hall three weeks ago, Richard Levin and Andrew Hamilton in tow, the secret was out: the widely admired dean was about to become the University’s number two.
There was, however, an elephant in that auditorium: Yale College would be losing its number one. And no one quite knew what that meant.
Three weeks later, the student body and faculty still don’t know. All the better, we say.
#2
By Noblesse Oblige?? (Unregistered User)
8:31pm on September 21, 2008
Service? Bush I and Bush II graduated from Yale. Ralph Waldo Emerson and hhenry David Thoreau from Harvard. Who has served mankind better, may I ask??
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Dear YDN,
You've articulated the question well. At issue is, among other uncertainties, whether students in Yale College can or ought to be said to have acquired a "Yale education" which has definite universal characteristics.
For some, Yale is a springboard into a desired career or professional school. To them, the "Yale education" is largely a means to that end, with knowledge, wisdom, insight, and skills in analysis and expression being incidental. On the other hand, there are students who view Yale as an intellectual playground for the exploration of untested possibilities. Still another subset of students expend the majority of their efforts in the social scene, later to glide effortlessly (sometimes back) into the sphere of high society. What are the common elements of these educations?
As we can see from their choices, not all Yale students share the same goals or values. What values can be claimed as common? The original mission of the College may appear antiquated but its worth as a statement of purpose should not be dismissed. Specifically, Yale has always imbued a service mentality in its students. Perhaps that is worth considering – indeed, teaching and learning -- as the central feature of the Yale education.