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Yale to Undergrads: Please Go Away
by Mark Alden Branch ’86
July/August 2005
By now, bromides about the need for students to become more international in their outlook are de rigueur for all U.S. college administrators. In May, Yale president Rick Levin backed up the talk with money, and a commitment: by 2008, Levin announced to a group of visiting foreign journalists, Yale will offer all undergraduates—including those with limited financial means—the opportunity to work or study abroad during (or immediately after) their time at Yale. “We believe that being an educational leader in this century requires our students to experience other countries as well as study them,” Levin said.
The college has put greater emphasis in the past few years on sending students abroad, says Barbara Rowe, an assistant dean of Yale College and director of the office of International Education and Fellowship Programs. “When this job came open in 2001, I wasn’t sure how interested I was, because Yale wasn’t doing much in this area,” says Rowe. “But now we’re leapfrogging ahead.”
In 2003-2004, the university helped place 550 undergraduates in international internships, fellowships, and study-abroad programs. This year, the number is 725. By 2008, administrators want to see a quarter of the college’s 5,200 students going abroad each year. Although most Yale students opt to work or study abroad during the summer, the administration expects to double (from 150 to 300) the number that spend a semester or academic year in another country.
This year, 142 students are receiving grants from Yale, averaging $5,150, to support these summer activities under a pilot program called International Summer Awards. Students who receive need-based financial aid at Yale are eligible for the program, which pays for all or part of the cost of the student’s summer program itself, plus a grant to make up the student’s expected summer income contribution to his or her financial aid package.
Mary Dwyer, president of the Institute for the International Education of Students in Chicago, says that Yale is the only university she knows of that is offering this level of funding for international work and study. “Some Ivy League schools have paid lip service to the priority of study abroad,” says Dwyer, “but Yale is putting its commitment and funds into practice.”
The college is also trying to make it easier for students to find the right international opportunities. The career services office is working with Yale alumni abroad to create clusters of internships in key cities: London and Beijing are each hosting 30 Yale students this summer, and programs soon will be launched in more cities.
Yale students have long complained about difficulty in getting departments of the university to accept credit for study abroad. Administrators say the problem is more perceived than real, but to counter the obstacle, Rowe’s office is working with faculty in various departments to develop a list of specific study-abroad programs that students can take for credit in their majors. The anthropology department and the ecology and evolutionary biology departments have already identified and approved a list of summer programs.
Yale is even taking more of its own courses abroad. For years, the only Yale course offerings overseas were in the “Yale in London” program. Since 2002, the Yale Summer Session has been offering language and culture courses abroad. About 150 students this summer chose one of 16 courses in eight cities, including a Swahili course in Mombasa, a course on Austrian composers in Salzburg, and a film workshop in Prague.
Fifty Years of “Dangerous Thoughts”
by Melinda Tuhus
“I’m alive without my doctor’s permission. My bags are packed, and I’m waiting for my ticket. Or, since God is sneaky, maybe I have my ticket and I’m in Heaven,” William Sloane Coffin Jr. '49, '56Div, told a crowd of admirers over dinner in Commons on April 29. Coffin, who was chaplain at Yale from 1958 to 1975, had been told more than two years ago that he would die—within six months—of his heart problems. But any incapacity seemed to disappear as he delivered unvarnished opinions about such issues as global climate change and nuclear brinksmanship. His voice booming, he declared, “Only God is authorized to end life on the planet!”
Coffin’s speech was the finale of a two-day event organized by the Divinity School and titled “The Public Witness and Ministry of William Sloane Coffin Jr.” In panel discussions and personal reflections, participants spoke about Coffin’s impact on them, on Yale, and on the country. At one panel, “Faith and Activism: The Legacy of the '60s Generation,” Law School dean Harold Koh said that when he was a child growing up in New Haven, Coffin had been his hero—and still is. “People who have the privilege of studying at places like Yale often get there by being risk-averse,” Koh said, “and then they live risk-averse lives. Bill taught us that people in comfortable institutions should think dangerous thoughts. He taught us you have to make a stand and do the uncomfortable thing.”
Jewish chaplain Rabbi James Ponet '68 described sitting spellbound through Coffin’s sermons at Battell Chapel. “The first time I understood what a biblical prophet was, was you,” Ponet said, adding that he and other students who, because of their draft deferments, were in college instead of the rice paddies of Vietnam “were challenged by you to put our lives on the line—to burn our draft cards.”
But from the audience, Timothy Jenkins '64JD delivered a mild rebuke for the event’s self-congratulation. “I’m always annoyed when I come to sessions like this and see a longing for the good old days,” said Jenkins, “as if there was a majoritarian effort at that time for social change.” In harking back to the civil rights era, Jenkins also noted that Coffin’s courageous defense of civil rights, as a Freedom Rider in the early 1960s, was as important as his anti-war stand. He concluded, “Bill made these principles universal and worldwide, and until and unless we do the same, we will not be loyal to that legacy.
A Scholar for SOM
by Kate Moran '02
Joel M. Podolny, who took over as dean of the School of Management in July, has a résumé very different from his predecessor's. Where Jeffrey Garten, who recently stepped down after ten years as dean, had made his name as an investment banker, Podolny is an academic who has never taken a sabbatical in his fast-track career.
Podolny, 39, comes to SOM from Harvard, where he had a joint appointment at the business school and the sociology department. After earning his undergraduate and doctoral degrees at Harvard, he departed for the Stanford Graduate School of Business and earned a tenured position by age 30. He returned to Harvard in 2002, where he continued his research on how the concept of status applies to firms and markets. His book on the subject, Status Signals: A Sociological Study of Market Competition, is due out this fall.
Podolny says his training as a academic has prepared him to work with the faculty on implementing the first of his goals for the business school: shoring up the curriculum. While he would not elaborate on the changes he hopes to make, Podolny does say he wants to see more cross-pollination with other university departments.
Last year, the management school dropped from 14th to 22nd in Business Week’s rankings, largely because students complained about the quality of the recruiters who visit campus. Podolny says part of the problem is the school’s small size—roughly 200 students per class—which means recruiters get less mileage out of a trip to Yale than they would from a larger school. But he also says the school needs to do a better job conveying what makes it special.
“The school has a very special mission, grounded in the idea that a business school should be judged as any professional school should be: by what its students contribute to society,” Podolny says. “What do recruiters get out of that? These students tend not only to be truly motivated themselves, but they tend to inspire others. In the long run, they have positively reinforced the culture of their firms.”
Podolny will also dedicate himself to raising money to replace the aging infrastructure of the business school. Despite his ivory-tower background, he says he looks forward to being the public face of the school and working with alumni to accomplish the rebuilding. In fact, he initially declined Yale’s offer—and it was the alumni involved in the search process who changed his mind.
“Interacting with the alumni of the School of Management who were involved in the search really led me to believe that this school is trying to foster a context in which people reconcile their career ambitions with their personal values,” Podolny says. “That seems to me like a bold and important aspiration, and I felt like I want to be a part of making it happen.”
The Dogged Pursuit of Excellence
by Christopher Arnott
Call it America’s Next Top Mongrel. Or American Fido. The selection process for Handsome Dan XVI, latest in a line of Yale bulldog mascots extending back to 1889, was as competitive as it’s been in a dog’s age.
Several early Dans were simply donated to Yale by professors, administrators, or sports staff. For the last 21 years, the wagging embodiment of Handsome Dan has been chosen by Chris Getman '64, who housed and handled Dans XIII to XV. This time, though, Yale eschewed the Old Dog Network and opened up the process to all comers. Ten finalists—selected by the athletics department from about 40 applicants—competed on April 26 for the right to succeed Dan XV, also known as Louis, who passed away in January after eight years of service.
In the midst of this year’s Spring Fling revelry on the Old Campus, while bands tuned up, hamburgers were grilled, and hundreds of undergrads lolled on the grass, anxious owners and their oblivious dogs clogged the entrance of Phelps Gate. Some of the partying Yale students had turned out expressly for the dog show and were brandishing signs touting their favorite candidates. A few pooches—those ignorant of the pre-registration process—scowled from the sidelines, including Gunny, who'd actually had experience as a Bulldogs mascot (for a high school team of that name in Stratford). A Portuguese water dog, regrettably slim and graceful, wore a sign reading “Protest Candidate.”
At most beauty pageants and talent shows, the contestants are not so consistently pug-ugly. And defecating on the runway, or chomping the lunch of an unsuspecting passer-by, might be cause for dismissal from other such events. But the judging here was literally a walk in the park, a pleasant stroll along the sidewalks of Old Campus. A five-person panel—football captain, cheerleader, drum major, sports publicist, and handler emeritus Getman—respectfully watched the candidates strut, shuffle, and act indifferent. (The dogs' owners were more emotional than their charges, transparently expressing dismay, embarrassment, and boola-boola ebullience.) Hangers-on craned their necks to see the small boxy animals indulge in a “dance-off” while the Yale Precision Marching Band blasted out riotous renditions of “Hound Dog,” “How Much is That Doggie in the Window?” and “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
The canine contenders were encouraged to show off, but most were unmoved by the proceedings—except when a stuffed Princeton tiger and a crimson flag were dangled before their furry faces. The ultimate winner, Mugsy, won the judges' favor by grabbing the flag and tugging it violently. He easily made the finals and was quickly decreed by Getman to be the winner. A crush of cameras from local and national news media descended, amid shouts of “Bulldog! Bulldog! Bow! Wow! Wow!” Mugsy performed gracefully—or was it just lethargically?—under pressure.
And it’s a good thing: as Handsome Dan XVI, he’ll now be required to root for the football team at its five home games, attend commencement, make appearances at selected other events, pose for publicity materials, and scratch himself. He’ll remain the house pet of Robert Sansone of Hamden.
When Yale Means Business
by Jennifer Kaylin
Ever since the attacks on the World Trade Center, says Roland Betts '68, he has been struck by the number of Yale graduates involved in the effort to rebuild lower Manhattan. “After such a violent assault, the logical thing was to run the other way,” said Betts, chair and CEO of Chelsea Piers Management. “But Yale people ran toward the flame. We know how to do this. This is our calling.”
Betts was speaking to School of Management graduates, back at Yale in April for a reunion that was more than a reunion. SOM and the Association of Yale Alumni staged the two-day event as a conference on business leadership and the public interest, a topic appropriate to a school known for its teaching of ethics. Betts, who spoke in a panel discussion subtitled “The Curious Usefulness of a Yale Education,” was one of two dozen speakers representing business-related careers of all kinds. David Gergen '63, Harvard professor and past adviser to presidents Nixon and Clinton, argued that capitalism cannot prosper without a free press. Paul E. Steiger '64, managing editor of the Wall Street Journal, commented that down cycles in the stock market are always marked by business scandals—“the tide runs out and reveals the rotten hulks lying on the beach.” William H. Donaldson '53, outgoing chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (and SOM’s founding dean), said Yale instilled in him a set of core values that he clings to as the business world is buffeted by change.
SOM graduates who attended the panel discussion agreed that Yale trains its students in a way that is untraditional yet effective. Apiigy Afenu ’00MBA, controller of United Airlines in Europe, says he draws every day on the lessons he learned at SOM about the human side of business interactions. “You don’t have to be competitive to succeed. No one person has all the answers,” he said. “I used to be very competitive and aggressive. Yale taught me about cooperation and teamwork. My classmates actually gave me job leads. It was unbelievable.”
But one exchange at the conference served as a reminder that some more traditional elements of education shouldn’t be ignored. Panelists at one discussion were asked how educators can best prepare students to succeed in today’s business climate. Yale president Rick Levin ’74PhD and Indra K. Nooyi '80MBA, president and CFO of PepsiCo, both leaned into the microphone positioned between them and said, simultaneously, “math and science.”  |
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