The Yale Corporation will be on campus Thursday and Friday for what it expected to be an uneventful meeting. No major announcements are expected to come from the meeting, and trustees said they are more focused on participating in this weekend’s Tercentennial celebration.
The meeting, which is usually held on Friday and Saturday, has been moved up to Thursday and Friday so that trustees and University officers can participate fully in the weekend’s events. Each of the trustees will be serving as “hosts” at the event honoring Yale’s most active alumni titled “300 Years of Creativity and Discovery.”
The Corporation, the University’s highest governing body, will review current building projects, including the renovation of Timothy Dwight College, the Congress Avenue medical building and the construction of the Class of 1954 environmental science building on Science Hill. Trustees will also discuss the Fourth Century Initiative, the tercentennial fund-raising campaign launched several months ago to raise money to support the University’s long-term goals. The Corporation will also review the budget.
Officials said there will be no formal discussion of financial aid or distance learning at this month’s meeting.
The meeting will be a little shorter than usual to accommodate trustees who want to participate in the weekend’s activities. Trustees will meet in subcommittees today and will have a full board meeting Friday morning.
Several of the 16 trustees will be leading panel discussions over the weekend. Trustee Janet Yellen GRD ’71 will be speaking alongside Yale President Richard Levin and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin LAW ’64 on a panel titled “Creating Economic Prosperity” Friday afternoon. Corporation spokesperson and former Baltimore mayor Kurt Schmoke ’71 will speak on a panel about Yale’s involvement in the invention of the modern game of football. Journalist and trustee David Gergen ’63 will interview Palm Pilot inventor Donna Dubinsky ’77 on Saturday morning. Trustees Linda Mason ’80 and John Pepper ’60 will speak on a panel together about educating business leaders. Trustee Victoria Matthews DIV ’79 will lead religious services on Sunday morning.
Pepper said he is looking forward to hearing some of the weekend’s headliners.
“I’m excited to hear Jonathan Spence. I’m really interested in China,” Pepper said. “And [George H. W.] Bush is going to be there; it’s going to be quite a weekend.”
Bush will speak on Saturday afternoon about “Yale and Public Service.”
Yellen, the former chair of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors, said she is very excited to speak this weekend and that this will be the only the second time she has spoken formally at Yale.
While many of the 16 trustees will be actively participating in these weekend’s events, those who are not will be informally hosting all the attendees. Levin said the trustees, just like the University officers, will be scattered at different tables on the Saturday night gala dinner in the Lanman Center.
With nearly 2,000 alumni descending upon campus this weekend, officers and trustees said they are more focused on the celebration than the routine Corporation meeting.
“I have six different speeches to give,” Levin said. “I’m just trying to remember what to say when.”