Author Archives: Antonia Woodford

Despite administrators’ efforts, the University is still trailing the goals for faculty diversity it outlined six years ago. Yale launched a faculty diversity initiative in 2006 that set targets for hiring more women and minorities to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences by June 2013. The initiative called for the University to hire at least »

Total applications to Yale’s master’s programs jumped 19 percent this year, with the largest increases in programs that professors say lead to promising job prospects during a time of economic uncertainty. Master’s programs in computer science, engineering and applied science, and statistics have steadily attracted more applicants over the past five years, and continued to »

Faculty protested the ongoing University-wide push to centralize administrative services — an effort they say harms departments and their staff — at last Thursday’s Yale College faculty meeting. Over the past few years, Yale has implemented a business model called “Shared Services” to reduce costs and share resources across departments, University President Richard Levin said. »

The faculty’s approval of ethnicity, race and migration as a standalone major last Thursday has left South Asian studies as the only major at Yale that must be taken with a second area of study. Since the mid-1980’s, Yale has offered five majors that could only be pursued as second majors, four of which have »

Students who wish to major in ethnicity, race and migration will no longer have to pursue it along with a second major. Faculty voted at a Thursday Yale College faculty meeting to make ER&M a stand-alone major, as well as to split the biology major and modify the degree options in environmental engineering. Molecular, cellular »

In an effort to increase transparency in how Yale handles disciplinary matters, the Yale College Executive Committee documented a single semester’s cases in its inaugural semiannual report released this week. The committee adjudicated 52 cases — including alcohol violations, defiance of authority and trespassing — involving 59 students during the fall of 2011, according to »

Though two new residential colleges are tentatively scheduled to open in 2015, it is not yet clear how the University will adjust its academic resources to accommodate the influx of students. The new colleges, which will house more than 800 additional undergraduates in total, will require Yale to find more classroom space, offer more courses, »

Future students in the two new residential colleges will never experience the pains or pleasures of living with a roommate — all bedrooms in the colleges will be singles. The new colleges, which are scheduled to be completed in 2015, will house students for all four years in suites consisting of singles and a common »

The new sexual misconduct prevention workshops for freshmen launched this week are drawing on recent research about sexual relationships to encourage students to listen to their instincts in social situations. Rather than reiterating the definition of consent — the traditional approach to sexual misconduct prevention — the 75-minute workshops examine common communication patterns in social »

Students who applied to the Yale College seminar “Philanthropy in Action” were in for a surprise when they saw the course’s syllabus: members of the class would have the opportunity to distribute $100,000 to charities of their choosing. The course is the recipient of a grant from the Once Upon a Time Foundation, which gave »

As part of renewed efforts to engage students in creating a safe campus environment, the Yale College Dean’s Office has enlisted high-level administrators to speak to student leaders at this week’s leadership training sessions. Attendance at one of the three 75-minute sessions, which began Monday night with a crowd of over 300 students, is mandatory »

Next year, the spring semester will not be the only term when Friday seminars officially meet for the first time during the second week of shopping period. Under the revised academic calendar that takes effect next year, the Labor Day holiday each fall will require that Monday classes meet on the first Friday of shopping »