If you walk into the Yale Political Union President’s Office at 305 Crown Street, you will realize that it is a living museum of American history. Letters signed by notable figures like John F. Kennedy, Neil Armstrong and Robin Williams adorn the walls, alongside six engraved plaques with the names of each YPU President — from John Kerry to Fareed Zakaria. Next door, in the Speaker’s Office, there is a bookshelf full of history and political theory books, with each Speaker adding one title to the collection. Both spaces are lovingly decorated with old debate posters dating back to the 1960s, advertising debates from progressive thinkers like Michael Parenti and Allen Ginsburg as well as established politicians, senators and congressmen. The YPU offices bear witness to the history of student debate and public discourse at Yale. Not only are the YPU offices a part of Yale’s history, they are also a part of American history at large.
Our offices at 305 Crown St. will be seized by the Yale administration this upcoming August. After significant backlash, the administration only extended the move-out deadline from May to August, and expressed no intent to let us keep the offices. Throughout the years, the Yale administration has eroded our physical presence on campus. The YPU once had a house where we hosted debates, social gatherings and housed a YPU library. Since Yale seized the Union House and our offices in Bingham Hall, the 305 Crown St. offices are the last vestiges of YPU’s physical connection to campus and its history. The notice from the administration is a direct threat to our institutional memory, historical presence and operational fluency.
To remove the YPU from its physical space and seize our records is to separate us from our history and identity as an institution. The YPU is the largest and oldest collegiate debate society in the United States. The YPU office facilitates our day-to-day operations and contains 88 years’ worth of institutional memory of free speech and collegiate debate on campus. This academic year alone, we hosted notable public figures like Nina Turner, Chelsea Manning, John Mearsheimer and Marianne Williamson. The YPU’s officers spend significant time in the office planning out each week’s programming for the Union, consulting past archives and meeting with other officers. Every president and speaker adds a personal touch to their office during their term. The YPU has spent some 30 years building up its office, only for the administration to take all of that history away.
If we were to vacate our spaces at 305 Crown St., we will face significant difficulties with the logistics and cost of storage and transport. From the large cabinet of 30 years worth of Union documents to the enormous bookshelf in the Speaker’s Office, the first priority of the next semester’s Union leaders might be beginning a capital campaign to rent an external office or getting the valuable posters and letters insured before leaving them to cool in a U-Haul storage unit over summer. It is unacceptable for Yale administration to place such significant costs and additional logistical burdens on student officers, who have spent their time only enriching the extracurricular life of Yale College.
We also do not want to hand over our historical materials to the University Archives. The charm of the Union offices lies in the display and easy access to these materials. Some of our letters, which bear the signatures of historical figures ranging from senators to presidents, are extremely valuable and typically acquired by curators as historical documents worth thousands of dollars. Every semester, the Union historian is responsible for documenting, digitizing and adding to the Union’s archives — these materials are ours, and we would like to archive everything on our own terms and methods.
Like many other student organizations, a physical connection to Yale is important to us. The Union draws many prefrosh to Yale as one of the central groups for political engagement on campus. Many students have already spoken out against this attempt to erase the history and presence of student organizations on campus in the form of open letters, multiple op-eds and petitions with over 1500 signatures. For over 88 years, the YPU has served as a forum for spirited and substantive debate on matters of public interest. To seize our offices in 305 Crown St. is to threaten the very backbone of free speech and political discourse at Yale.
Though the Union remains an eccentric and raucous part of the Yale community, we are undoubtedly one of the most accessible student organizations. The Union is the only non-selective debating group on campus. Anybody is welcome to come to our floor and listen to others; anybody is welcome to speak and have their voices heard in turn. Our offices in 305 Crown St. are a testament to this tradition of open, free discourse: they connect our present activities to our historical records. Every poster on the wall, every difficult late-night call and every successful debate on Tuesday reminds us that we are continuing the Union’s legacy and making it new. If the administration truly cares about equity, they will know that equity doesn’t mean taking our spaces away from us, but instead giving other student organizations spaces for their own history, memory, and community.
Dean Peck: please let us keep the YPU offices. Running the Union is a labor of love; the office is where we, and countless others before us, have toiled through late nights and long calls to put together 12 debates every semester that fill Sudler Hall with discourse and laughter. Like other student organizations in 305 Crown St. and Welch Hall, our spaces are full of magic and memories that we’ve made ourselves. And we will not let it go.
JEAN WANG edits the Opinion Desk. They are a junior in Jonathan Edwards College. They are the President of the Yale Political Union. Contact them at jean.wang@yale.edu.
ANNA MARTINELLI-PARKER is a junior in Jonathan Edwards College. She is the Speaker of the Yale Political Union. Contact her at anna.martinelli-parker@yale.edu.