Yale University
- For other uses of the name "Yale," see Yale (disambiguation).
Yale is one of the eight members of the Ivy League. The rivalry between Yale and fellow Ivy League school Harvard is long and storied; from academics to rowing to college football, their historic rivalry is similar to that of Oxford and Cambridge in the UK (see Oxbridge rivalry). Yale is the second most prolific university in terms of Rhodes Scholar graduates in the country.
Yale traces its beginnings to "An Act for Liberty to Erect a Collegiate School" passed by the General Court of the Colony of Connecticut and dated October 9, 1701, which was furthered by a meeting in Branford, Connecticut by a group of ten Congregationalist ministers who pooled their books to form the school's first library. The school first opened in the home of its first rector, Abraham Pierson in Killingworth, Connecticut. In 1716, the school moved to New Haven, Connecticut, where it remains to this day.
The college was originally known as the Collegiate School; it adopted the name Yale after an early benefactor, Elihu Yale had bestowed a generous gift of nine bales of goods, 417 books, and a portrait of King George I. Yale expanded gradually, establishing the Medical School (1810), Divinity School (1822), Law School (1843), Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (1847), the School of Fine Arts (1869), and School of Music (1894). In the early 20th century, Yale merged with the Sheffield Scientific School.
Yale College is one of the most selective, if not the most selective undergraduate college in the United States. In addition, Yale is noted for its law school, business school, medical school, and school of music. The Divinity School was founded in the early 19th century by Congregationalists who felt that the Harvard University divinity school had become too liberal.
Yale's library system is among the largest in North America. The main library, Sterling Memorial Library, contains about 4 million volumes. The Beinecke Rare Book Library is housed in a marble building designed by Gordon Bunshaft, of the firm of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill. Its courtyard sculptures are by Isamu Noguchi.
Other resources include the Peabody Museum of Natural History and a museum of British art.
Yale's sports teams are called the Bulldogs. They participate in the NCAA's Division I (I-AA in football).
Yale has a system of twelve residential colleges, instituted in 1930. The system is loosely modelled after the system found in British universities. However, students are accepted by the university as a whole, and assigned to residential colleges at random. These colleges are social rather than academic units, unlike the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge:
Yale has had many financial supporters, but some stand out by the magnitude of their contributions. Among those who have made large donations commemorated at the university are:
Yale alumni are well represented in the ranks of U.S. presidents, including the last three -- George H. W. Bush, William Clinton, George W. Bush. The 2004 presidential election will also be a Yale vs. Yale battle between George W. Bush and John F. Kerry. In the 2004 Democratic primaries, Joe Lieberman and Howard Dean were also Yale graduates.
Professors who are also alumni of Yale are listed in italics.
Yale's high public profile led to three on-campus bombings. On May 1, 1970, an explosive device was detonated in the Ingalls Rink during events related to the trial of Black Panther Bobby Seale. On June 24, 1993, computer science professor David Gelernter was injured in his office on Hillhouse Avenue by a bomb sent by serial killer and Harvard graduate Ted Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber. On May 21, 2003, an explosive device went off at Yale University's Sterling Law School, damaging two classrooms.History
Schools and libraries
Heads of Collegiate School, Yale College, and Yale University
Rectors of Yale College (birth-death) (years as rector)
1 Rev. Abraham Pierson (1641-1707) (1701-1707) Collegiate School
2 Rev. Samuel Andrew ( - ) (1707-1719) (pro tempore)
3 Rev. Timothy Cutler ( - ) (1719-1726) 1718/9: renamed Yale College
4 Rev. Elisha William (1694-1755) (1726-1739)
5 Rev. Thomas Clap (1703-1767) (1740-1745)
Presidents of Yale College (birth-death) (years as president)
1 Rev. Thomas Clap (1703-1767) (1745-1766)
2 Rev. Naphtali Daggett (1727-1780) (1766-1777) (pro tempore)
3 Rev. Ezra Stiles (1727-1795) (1778-1795)
4 Timothy Dwight IV (1752-1817) (1795-1817)
5 Jeremiah Day (1773-1867) (1817-1846)
6 Theodore Dwight Woolsey (1801-1899) (1846-1871)
7 Noah Porter III (1811-1892) (1871-1886)
8 Timothy Dwight V (1828-1916) (1886-1899) 1887: renamed Yale University
9 Arthur Twining Hadley (1856-1930) (1899-1921)
10 James Rowland Angell (1869-1949) (1921-1937)
11 Charles Seymour (1885-1963) (1937-1951)
12 Alfred Whitney Griswold (1906-1963) (1951-1963)
13 Kingman Brewster, Jr (1919-1988) (1963-1977)
14 Hanna Holborn Gray (1930- ) (1977-1977) (acting)
15 A. Bartlett Giamatti (1938-1989) (1977-1986)
16 Benno C. Schmidt, Jr ( - ) (1986-1992)
17 Howard R. Lamar ( - ) (1992-1993)
18 Richard C. Levin ( - ) (1993- )
Residential colleges
Cross Campus
Other Campus Buildings
Benefactors
Famous Alumni
Nobel laureates
Technology & Innovation
Founders, Entrepreneurs, & CEO's
Academics
Law & Politics
History, Literature, Art & Music
Film
Television
Fictional
(* attended, but did not graduate from Yale)Famous Professors
Famous On-Campus Tragedies
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