As part of this weekend’s Yale Corporation meeting, the University’s highest governing body will spend today discussing the yearlong academic review of Yale College’s curriculum, University President Richard Levin said.
Yale Corporation members will convene on campus this weekend for their fifth meeting of the year. Meeting agendas are generally shrouded in secrecy, but in a departure from tradition Levin spoke about some specific plans for this weekend, saying that the curriculum review would be a major topic of discussion.
The body is convening during an unorthodox Corporation election year and amid some criticism of the Corporation’s secrecy. Petition candidate the Rev. W. David Lee DIV ’93, who has launched the most aggressive Corporation campaign in University history, has said he wants to make the Corporation more accessible to students and New Haven residents.
Lee is facing off against Maya Lin ’81 ARC ’86, who was nominated by the Alumni Fellow Nominating Committee of the Association of Yale Alumni.
Today’s Corporation activities will begin with an introduction from Levin and Yale College Dean RIchard Brodhead. Afterward, each subcommittee of the Committee on Yale College Education will meet with Corporation members to discuss the progress of the curriculum review.
Committee member Chirag Badlani ’03 said he welcomed communication between the Corporation and the committee.
“It is kind of a check on us to make sure we are working hard and are on the right track,” Badlani said.
Also to be discussed this weekend is the budget for the next fiscal year. Julie Grant, the budget director, said in late February that she was preparing the budget so that she could submit it for Corporation approval at the April meeting.
The Corporation convenes six times a year. When it met in February, trustees voted to make sailing a varsity sport and approved a 3.9 percent increase to the Yale College term bill.
The first two meetings of the year led to major announcements from the University. Yale introduced the academic review on the Tercentennial’s final weekend last October, and the Corporation approved a new $7.5 million financial aid package at its September meeting.
There are 16 members of the Corporation, and Levin also serves on the board. Ten successor trustees are selected by the group, and the alumni vote on the candidates for the remaining six seats. The governor and lieutenant of Connecticut are ex officio members.
Kurt Schmoke ’71, the former mayor of Baltimore, serves as senior fellow. But after serving on the Corporation for 13 years, Schmoke will end his term as trustee in June.
Ballots for this year’s Corporation election — the winner of which will replace David Gergen ’63, not Schmoke — are due by Commencement. Levin will announce the winner of the election on the following weekend.