Where Is Yale?

Posted At : July 7, 2009 6:44 PM
Related Categories: culture

A few days spent at an academic conference at Yale, along with several late-night ethnographic field trips among the undergrad social world on campus left me with an unnerving question: where is the spark that produces president after president?

Yale is a factory of world leaders, Nobel Prize winners and industrialists. Yet more than any other impression I gained last week, what really stuck out to me was the ordinariness of Yale’s student body.

I watched them eat ice cream and drink beer; I listened to their coeducational lamentations and joking. And I could have been at any college. These kids were surely intelligent and promising—that’s why they got into Yale—but only slightly more so than at UCLA, or Macalester, or Arizona. In fact, with three times the student body of Yale, UC Berkeley only has to produce geniuses at a third of Yale’s rate to rule the world.

So where is the magic? I remember a philosophy 101 class I took as a freshman. Discussing the mind-body problem, the professor asked us, where is the university?

Knowing full well that it was the wrong answer, we gave him what he wanted: it’s at such-and-such an address. But, he challenged, that’s only the campus. What if there are no people? Where then is the university? But it would equally be wrong to say that the university is its people: it is also its facilities.

Back to Yale: where is its Yaliness? The buildings are nice, but I’ve seen nicer. The students are sharp, but where is the magic?

The answer, I had to believe, is in the connections and the expectations, which is to say, the culture of the university. That is an intangible I can’t catch in a few days on campus.

So where is Yale? It’s in New Haven, CT—certainly. But it’s also in alumni associations, and attitudes. But what else is missing for a full picture? I’d love your opinions.

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this is an interesting question...one that hits close to home for me (i am a yale student). it's true that there is a kind of magic about yale, even as a student there. i think you're right that it's in the "culture of the university" and the intangible of being there everyday. but i think it's also in some of the things you dismissed- the buildings and classes and most importantly, the people. we go to class in beautiful historic buildings with professors who are at the top of their fields and are often nationally recognized. there are traditions that have been around for hundreds of years and make you feel connected to all the classes that have gone before you. and i never get tired of the gothic architectrure- i am constantly in awe as i walk around campus looking up at harkness tower. i feel so blessed to be at such a beautiful and historic place. and the people- yes yalies are quite ordinary in a lot of ways. they procrastinate on tests, get drunk on the weekends, etc. just like any other college students. but they also are very passionate and accomplished. i am constantly amazed by the random things i find out that my classmates have done or achieved. and the kind of discussions i get into in the middle of the night with people feel very different from the kinds of discussions i have with my high school friends who are at other schools. when people ask me what my favorite thing is about yale, i always say the people. i guess also that people have different experiences. some people think traditions are cheesy; some people are more overwhelmed by than appreciative of the diversity of the student body. but for me, it's really everything-- the students, the classes, the campus, the professors, the traditions, the history, the residential colleges-- that make yale the special place that it is.

# Posted By kd | 7/9/09 12:43 PM

thanks, kd. That's really helpful. For my part, I would hate to give the sense that I dismiss the importance of architecture towards conveying magic. I truly believe in architecture's power in that regard. But buildings don't have to be beautiful to carry the weight of history. When I said I'd seen nicer than at Yale, I could add that there are nicer buildings elsewhere on Yale's broader campus: the Forestry building up Prospect, for instance. But your point is important.

At Wisconsin, an institution long overrepresented by the radical left, where an anti-war bombing in 1970 destroyed a building, they rebuilt it with the scars intact, as if to acknowledge the bombing's place in Wisconsin's story.

So I get, and acknowledge what you're saying. It doesn't change the question, though: Yale has a magic that exceeds the sum of buildings+achievements of people. I remain fascinated.

# Posted By Paul Grant | 7/9/09 11:33 PM

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Where Is Yale?

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