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College Will End Binding Early Decision
December 2002
A year after voicing his doubts about the fairness of binding early-decision policies in college admissions, Yale President Richard Levin announced on November 6 that the College will end its own such policy beginning next year with the Class of 2008. Instead, Yale will offer a non-binding early action program and require participants to apply early only to Yale. Later that same day, Stanford University unveiled a similar policy; each school said it was acting independently.
Under early action—the system Yale used until 1996 and will return to next year—students submit their applications by November 1 and are informed by mid-December whether they have been admitted, rejected, or deferred to the regular-decision pool. If admitted, they have until May 1 to decide whether or not to attend. Binding early decision means that students who apply early must agree to attend the school if admitted.
When Levin first raised the issue in the New York Times in November 2001, he said that early decision “pushes the pressure of thinking about college back to the junior year of high school” and benefits only the college admissions offices, which lock in students earlier and increase their “yield” statistic. He emphasized at the time that while he thought all schools should abandon the policy, he did not think Yale could do it on its own, as it would put the college at a disadvantage.
Levin’s words sparked much discussion around the country. Newspapers editorialized in favor of his position, and many guidance counselors cheered, but Yale’s peer institutions were either silent or spoke in defense of early decision. (Three schools, Beloit College, the University of North Carolina, and Mary Washington College, have dropped early decision since Levin spoke out; Harvard never has had a binding program.)
Levin says he decided to act alone last April. “I didn’t think it likely that we could get unanimous agreement by the Ivy League,” he explains. After looking at the possible ramifications, Levin asked the admissions policy committee to study the issue. In September, they recommended dropping early decision.
“Even though there might be some small cost to Yale in terms of lower yield and less predictability, the benefits to high school students seemed compelling,” says Levin. “We’ve had a lot of public discussion over the last year and the message is overwhelming: ‘Lighten up, colleges.’”
Levin said that although he would prefer to eliminate all early admissions programs, “that would create not a small but a large disadvantage, and I don’t think we could get other schools to follow. I would prefer to see one round late in the senior year, with some capacity for students to indicate their first choice.”
Early decision started out as a way for students who were uncommonly sure of their first-choice school to complete the process more quickly. But as the programs have proliferated—and as students, parents, and counselors have perceived an advantage for students who apply early—the pressure to choose a college early has increased. Early decision has also come under fire for favoring well-to-do applicants who don’t need to compare financial aid packages from multiple schools.
But early decision has its defenders, and while dean of admissions and financial aid Richard Shaw says he hopes other institutions will follow Yale’s lead, at least one of his colleagues is skeptical. “Penn plans to continue with its successful early-decision plan,” says University of Pennsylvania dean of admissions Lee Stetson. “It’s worked well for us, and the quality of the students we’re getting is exceptional.” Princeton also has no plans to change its binding policy, a spokesperson there said.
One feature that Levin and Shaw emphasized about Yale’s plan is the requirement that early-action participants apply early to Yale only. The National Association for College Admissions Counseling (NACAC) recently adopted rules that allow students to apply to multiple non-binding early programs, a policy with which Yale will not be in compliance. Shaw says the University hopes to convince the NACAC to change its policy.
Coming Soon: Yale in the Movies
Parts of the campus stood in for Wellesley and—yes—Harvard on November 1 when a film crew descended on New Haven to shoot scenes for an upcoming Julia Roberts movie called Mona Lisa Smile. Crowds turned up around the Art Gallery, Sterling Memorial Library, and Silliman College hoping to catch a glimpse of Roberts and co-stars Julia Stiles, Kirsten Dunst, and Topher Grace.
The signs of moviemaking were conspicuous downtown and on campus. A pair of large tents were set up on the Green as a “base camp” for the crew, a row of vintage cars was lined up on Hillhouse Avenue to provide period detail, and workers were seen placing orange filters over the windows in the Art Gallery sculpture hall to provide a cinematic glow inside.
Director Mike Newell, best known for Four Weddings and a Funeral, explained at a Silliman College master’s tea that the movie features Roberts as a “proto-feminist” art history professor who arrives at Wellesley in the 1950s. “She’s extremely discouraged to find the place functions as a marriage market as much as it does an academic institution,” said Newell. He added that the story is being filmed at Yale, Wellesley, and other schools because “no one college wants a film crew running around for 14 or 15 weeks.”
The minimal inconvenience caused by the one day’s work was a reason the University was willing to grant permission, says associate University secretary Donald Filer. “Our approach was ‘as long as we can accommodate the filmmakers' interest without disruption to our academic life, let’s do it,’” says Filer, who cited the boost to the city’s economy as a benefit.
Filer also said the University asked that students be employed as extras and production assistants for the day, and that the producer and director appear at a master’s tea, terms to which the filmmakers agreed. “We definitely wanted some student involvement and an educational component,” says Filer.
Two Deans Sign On for New Terms
The deans of Yale College and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences have both been appointed to new five-year terms beginning next July. College dean Richard Brodhead will begin his third term, Graduate School dean Susan Hockfield her second.
Brodhead, a 1968 graduate of the College who also earned his PhD at Yale in 1972, is the A. Bartlett Giamatti Professor of English. Known on campus as an eloquent and engaging speaker, Brodhead was called “brilliant” and “legendary” in letters from faculty cited by Levin. Brodhead is now chairing a major review of academics in the College (see page 46).
Hockfield, the William Edward Gilbert Professor of Neurobiology, has been on the faculty since 1995. Appointed dean in 1998, she has spearheaded an effort to create an identity for the Graduate School and its students—who historically have identified more with their academic departments than with the School—through such efforts as the establishment of a student center and a fall matriculation ceremony. During her term, benefits and stipends for graduate students have been improved. The School has also faced a union organizing effort by graduate-student teaching assistants, which is still ongoing.
Arrests at Hospital Over Union Flyers
As a seeming stalemate between the University and union locals 34 and 35 continued during the fall, a labor dispute at Yale–New Haven Hospital heated up after eight union supporters were arrested by hospital police while passing out flyers. The Federation of Hospital and University Employees responded in October by filing a protest with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
The Federation is a coalition of Locals 34 and 35, the Graduate Employees and Students Organization, and hospital workers who are seeking to organize a union there. On September 4, 6, and 10, groups that included hospital employees, University employees, and graduate students handed out flyers at the entrances to hospital-owned buildings. While the hospital employees were not arrested, eight graduate students and Yale employees were charged with criminal trespass after they refused to leave hospital property.
Hospital spokesperson Katie Krauss told reporters that the arrestees were blocking the entrances. Union officials say the non-hospital employees were targeted because Yale–New Haven has pledged not to interfere with its employees' organizing efforts.
In addition to the NLRB complaint, the unions criticized the University for declining to intervene, arguing that Yale officials on the hospital’s board should condemn the arrests. “What does it say about Yale’s commitment to free speech when these key leaders tolerate this behavior?” said Local 34 president Laura Smith.
Yale spokesperson Tom Conroy says the University and the hospital are separate institutions and that Yale had nothing to do with the arrests.
Retired Faculty Get a Place of Their Own
The historic building that once housed the Yale faculty club will soon be home to a new kind of club: a center for the University’s retired faculty. The Henry Koerner Center at Pierpont House will open next month with office space, a seminar room, and a lounge available to Yale’s emeritus professors, who number around 300.
“It is hoped the Center will provide a physical location where [emeriti] may stop in, gather, or simply use the administrative advice or support that may be available,” wrote President Levin in a letter to faculty.
Bernard Lytton, the Donald Guthrie Professor Emeritus of Surgery, is the director of the new Center. Lytton says that based on surveys of emeritus faculty that preceded the planning for the Center, he expects the program to include social events, seminars, lectures, and technical support for emeriti.
“Sixty percent of the people who answered our survey said what they really need is help with their computers,” says Lytton. Emeriti who continue to teach may use the seminar room for their classes, which Lytton says will help bring current students into the Center. Twelve emeriti will have offices in the Center, as will Lytton and executive director Patricia Dallai.
The Center will be housed in the Pierpont House at 149 Elm Street on the Green, which at 235 years old is the oldest house in New Haven. Since being given to the University in 1922, it has served as the faculty club (until 1977), the undergraduate admissions office, and, most recently, the visitor center, which will continue to occupy the first floor. A complete exterior restoration and interior renovation of the house is nearly complete.
Harvard art history professor Joseph Koerner '80 and Lisbet Rausing gave $10 million to fund the Center’s construction and to establish its endowment. The Center is named for his father, Henry Koerner (1915–1991), a
well-known Austrian-American painter.
Tracking Tobacco Settlement Money
When 46 state attorneys general reached an historic $246-billion settlement with tobacco companies in 1998, it was expected to be a boon for public health. One of the stated goals of the settlement was to help pay for “tobacco-control programs,” state efforts to reduce smoking through advertising, school programs, and toll-free “quit lines” to help people stop smoking. But a recent study led by a Medical School researcher shows that states are using precious little of the windfall on tobacco control.
“The vast majority of states are not allocating the amount recommended by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for tobacco control,” says assistant professor of medicine Cary Gross. “And the states with the highest smoking rates are spending the least.”
The 1998 settlement was intended to compensate states for Medicaid expenditures related to health problems caused by tobacco use; in exchange, the tobacco companies received broad immunity from lawsuits. Gross says 40 percent of the money spent so far has gone into health care and less than 6 percent into tobacco control. Much of the rest has been absorbed into general operating budgets or spent on unrelated items, such as a particle accelerator in Illinois. Pennsylvania spent only ten cents per capita on tobacco control in 2001, a fraction of the CDC-recommended $5.46 per capita.
A few states have spent more than the CDC recommends. Among them is Hawaii, which puts its proceeds from the settlement into a trust fund and spends 25 percent of the revenue on tobacco control. In 2001, the state spent $10.82 per capita.
Union Blog Keeps Eye on Yale
Yale unions have launched another offensive in their public-relations battle with the University. The Web site yaleinsider.org, launched last year by the Federation of Hospital and University Employees, now has a weblog linking to and commenting on Yale-related items in the press. Many alumni learned of the “blog” through an e-mail sent by Lee Strieb '86 in October.
“Blogs,” which are diary-like Web sites, have moved increasingly into the public consciousness this year, especially political blogs maintained by individuals or magazines. YaleInsider’s blog links to news stories about Yale and offers a consistent skepticism about the University, its investments, and its labor policies. “We’ve tried very hard to give Yale credit where credit is due,” says contributor Antony Dugdale, pointing to a few recent positive items and a “political report” that tracked the success of Yale-affiliated candidates in the recent election.
As for Strieb’s e-mail promoting the site, which apparently have gone to thousands of alumni, University officials say they did not authorize the release of addresses and do not know how he got them, although many such addresses are published in the print and online alumni directories. Strieb did not respond to calls from the Yale Alumni Magazine.
Sporting Life
Hanging Ten, Yankee Style
It should be acknowledged up front that students are not often heard to say “I came to Yale for the surfing.” And it is true that the University still has not cracked anyone’s list of the top ten surfing colleges. But there is a Yale College Surf Club, a hardy group of undergraduates, graduate students, and others who grab their wetsuits, hop in the car, and make a two-hour drive on a moment’s notice when there is a rumor of waves—regardless of the season.
There has been a community of surfers in New England for many years, mostly centered on beaches in Rhode Island. Two years ago, a pair of Yale students who like to surf, Adam de Havenon '02 and Seth Burstein '03, founded the Surf Club. “We started the club just to get a list of people who surf,” says Burstein.
Now a registered undergraduate organization, the club has 15 to 20 active members, Burstein says, and a mailing list of about 80 who receive the club’s e-mail bulletins about surf conditions. Since good surfing weather is less common here than in California or Hawaii, serious Yale surfers monitor Web sites that include information gleaned from data buoys and other sources. If the conditions look right, it’s time to surf. “Surfers in California are pretty laid-back, but we’re a little more intense,” says Burstein. “We’ll get up at 5 a.m. if we need to.”
The group includes both novices and experienced surfers. Burstein says that club members have talked about organizing competitions with other East Coast schools—the University of Rhode Island, for one, has a club—so that they could become a club sport recognized by the athletics department. For now, though, the club is mainly a network of people who share boards, rides, and information. As for organized activity, the club is planning a trip over spring break, either to California or Costa Rica, to see some decidedly un-New England action.
Club member Dow Tang '05, a native of Los Angeles, says that surfing is “a nice way to get away from Yale and relax.” Burstein agrees. “Every time we go out,” he says, “we always say, ‘I never thought when I woke up this morning that I’d be doing this today.’”  |
