Author Archives: Antonia Woodford

After last summer’s Directed Studies program garnered enthusiastic reviews from alumni participants, Yale will also offer summer courses in Grand Strategy and Shakespeare for alumni, their spouses and parents of Yale students. All 18 spots in Grand Strategy have been filled since registration opened in December, and more than half of the 15 participants who »

Yale’s interdisciplinary major in environmental studies has doubled in size over the past few years, and the program is expanding and diversifying its course offerings to meet the increased interest. While 15 seniors graduated with degrees in environmental studies in 2010, this year’s graduating class will have 30, and there are another 31 majors in »

Programs in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences will be required to interview doctoral candidates this year before offering them admission, but not all departments are pleased with the new policy. Graduate School Dean Thomas Pollard said he asked departments to conduct interviews — whether in person, over the phone or via Skype — »

A new fellowship program in the sciences will allow the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences to admit more doctoral students this year. Because the endowment plunged in the 2008 recession, the Graduate School has sought to reduce the size of its incoming classes in recent years, but a gift from the philanthropic Gruber Foundation »

As part of efforts to improve Yale’s sexual climate, two new instructional programs on leadership strategies and sexual misconduct prevention will take place at the end of January. Freshmen will attend a new set of workshops that will “examine the signals people use to distinguish among agreement, refusal and ambiguity,” Yale College Dean Mary Miller »

Yale College Dean Mary Miller unveiled two instructional programs Tuesday on leadership strategies and sexual misconduct prevention — but a majority of students interviewed questioned whether these initiatives will improve Yale’s sexual climate. This January, freshmen will attend a new set of workshops that will “examine the signals people use to distinguish among agreement, refusal »

Beginning next semester, the History Department will set aside space for sophomores in seminars that previously gave priority only to juniors. Following efforts from the Yale College Council this fall, two spots in each history seminar will be reserved for sophomores, and the courses will be renamed “undergraduate seminars” instead of “junior seminars,” said Steven »

Though residential college seminar offerings will increase next semester, administrators say the program is still constrained by a staffing shortage and tight budget. Yale used to offer more than 20 residential college seminars each semester, but it scaled back the number to 12 when the program went under review in January. Even though the review »

The proposal for Sex Week 2012 to be submitted to University administrators today acknowledges that a few past events have “gone awry” and promises that this year’s events will all have educational value. After the Advisory Committee on Campus Climate recommended that Sex Week be banned from campus in a report released last month, University »

As it works to move all academic records and registration processes online over the next several years, the Registrar’s Office will pilot a new Web-based system next semester that allows students to track their progress toward meeting distributional requirements. Known as a “degree audit system,” the program is intended to facilitate conversations between students and »

Nearly a year after the Yale College Dean’s Office increased efforts to encourage more registration among student organizations, administrators are seeing more groups register. The number of registered organizations reached a peak of almost 450 earlier this fall, Associate Dean for Student Organizations and Physical Resources John Meeske said. That figure marks a significant increase »

A report on Yale College education released to faculty Monday found that Yale could improve science offerings and undergraduate teaching. The report concludes over a year of research into curricular changes from 2005, including new writing and quantitative reasoning requirements, that were made in response to a 2003 report by the Committee on Yale College »