To the Editor:

As a senior in Trumbull, I am writing to defend my college. In your article “Trumbull lacks renovation funds” (3/2), Gaddis Smith is suggested to have said that Trumbull is, in effect, a second-class college “because it is located on a noisy street corner, relatively small and in the shadow of Sterling Memorial Library.” Let me address each of these charges in turn.

First, we are indeed on a busy corner, the same one onto which Saybrook looks. Being at the corner of York and Elm, Trumbull is ideally located for all the activities of undergraduate life: the gym, the main libraries, Durfee’s, Gourmet Heaven, the post office, most academic buildings, etc. are literally five minutes away from our gates. We may suffer the occasional loud club-goers from Toads, but being equidistant from CCL and A1 is more than worth it.

Second, I concur with Smith, Trumbull is a small college. We know most of our fellow Trumbullians by face if not by name, and all four classes mingle easily in our buttery, our popular dining hall and at student openings in the TC art gallery. In addition, we have an active undergraduate and graduate affiliate community which participates in the myriad college organizations we have created, such as our newsletter “The Trumbulletin,” the Trumbull history society “Thesis” and our literary magazine, “The Bull’s Pen.”

Finally, lying in the shadow of SML is no mean thing. Trumbull’s three courtyards are famously attractive, and the neo-gothic massif which rises up next to them only adds to their elegance. I count myself lucky to share a wall with one of the world’s foremost research libraries.

Though I am sure the writers did not mean any offense, we in Trumbull have become unhappily accustomed to hearing our college ridiculed as “the poor college” or “the old financial aid college.” These attitudes are nothing more than a financial elitism built on false premises and smug assumptions. We in Trumbull love our college, its location, its size and its next-door neighbor. To us, it is clearly and without a doubt the best and most welcoming college at Yale.

Cate Frieman ’05

March 2, 2005