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Woolsey Hall is the primary auditorium at Yale University , located on the campus' Hewitt Quadrangle in New Haven, Connecticut . It was built as part of the Bicentennial Buildings complex that includes the Memorial Rotunda and the University Commons for the Yale bicentennial celebration in 1901, and was designed by the Beaux-Arts architectural firm Carrère and Hastings . With approximately 2,650 seats, it is the university's largest auditorium and hosts concerts, performances, and university ceremonies including the annual freshman convocation, senior baccalaureate, and presidential inaugurations. The building is named for Theodore Dwight Woolsey , President of Yale from 1846 through 1871.

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55-449: During the 19th century, Yale became one of the largest higher education institutions in the world, establishing seven graduate and professional schools in addition to the undergraduate college founded in 1701. Although Yale was nominally organized as a university in 1887, its constituent schools remained mostly independent of the university administration, and they lacked any shared facilities. In 1896, as one of several initiatives to unify

110-617: A cappella in the United States. The earliest choral group, the Beethoven Society, dates to 1812 and emerged in the mid-nineteenth century as the Yale Glee Club . Although glee clubs around the country had spawned small collegiate ensembles since that time, the all-senior, all-male Whiffenpoofs , formed in 1909, are often considered to be the oldest collegiate a cappella society in the United States. Formalizing

165-720: A cappella singing groups. Woolsey Hall's murals represent the ideal of a classical education and include images of the nine muses and the goddess Athena. They reflect the age when Yale was an all-male college. The Hall is entered via the Memorial Rotunda, a vestibule containing memorials to sons of Yale who lost their lives in all American wars from the Revolutionary War to the Vietnam War." "The hall's lack of draperies, carpeting and upholstered seats all contribute to its acoustics for organ performance, though

220-493: A dining hall, library, and student facilities ranging from printing presses to darkrooms. Each is led by a Head of College, a faculty member who serves as its chief administrator, and a Dean, who oversees student academic affairs. University faculty and distinguished affiliates are associated with the colleges as fellows. Unlike their English forerunners, the colleges do not administer academic degree programs or courses of study, but they do sponsor academic seminars that fall outside

275-597: A school of engineering. These programs made up the Yale Scientific School. In 1853 and 1854, science and engineering courses were listed in the Yale College course catalog as offered by the Yale Scientific School. Porter elicited help from his father-in-law, Joseph Earl Sheffield , and in 1858, Sheffield donated over US$ 100,000 to purchase the old Medical Department building for the scientific school. This gift included two newly-renovated wings within

330-824: A separate entity in 1956. After technological developments in the early nineteenth century, such as the electric telegraph , an interest was fostered in teaching applied science at universities. Harvard established the Lawrence Scientific School in 1846 and Dartmouth began the Chandler Scientific School in 1852. The stage was set at Yale for the transition in education beginning in 1846, when professorships of agricultural chemistry ( John Pitkin Norton ) and practical chemistry ( Benjamin Silliman Jr. ) were established. In 1847,

385-476: A student of Yale President Timothy Dwight in 1809, and black abolitionist James W. C. Pennington , who was allowed to audit theology courses in 1837. Moses Simons , a descendant of a slave-holding South Carolinian family, has been suggested to be the first Jew to graduate from Yale. Though his maternal ancestry is disputed, he may have also been the first person of African-American descent to graduate from any American college. In 1854, Yung Wing graduated from

440-479: A style pioneered by black barbershop groups in New Haven, their repertoire was amplified by the founding of similar groups across the country. Coeducation in 1969 made possible all-women's groups and mixed groups. In all, there are now at least eighteen undergraduate a cappella groups in Yale College, ranging from a Slavic chorus to Christian a cappella. Student publications at Yale date back as far as 1806, but

495-423: A week. Some of the oldest society buildings are enclosed and windowless; members refer to them as "tombs." Their activities have varied over time and across societies, but most societies meet for dinners, discussion, drinking, and long-form disclosure of members' life history. Despite a long history of social exclusion—of Jews and women in particular—many of these societies have prioritized membership diversity in

550-517: Is the undergraduate college of Yale University . Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, when its schools were confederated and the institution was renamed Yale University. It is ranked as one of the top colleges in the United States. Originally established to train Congregationalist ministers,

605-801: The Colony of Connecticut . Originally situated in Abraham Pierson's home in Killingworth, Connecticut , the college moved to Old Saybrook, Connecticut in 1703, when Nathaniel Lynde, the first treasurer of Yale, donated land and a building. The college moved again to New Haven in 1718, and was renamed for Elihu Yale , an early benefactor, merchant, and philanthropist. Founded as a school to train ministers, original curriculum included only coursework in theology and sacred languages . Although early faculty, including Jonathan Edwards and Elisha Williams , maintained strict Congregational orthodoxy, by

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660-916: The Morrill Act starting in 1863 and an agricultural course was begun. Land grant status, however, was transferred to the Storrs Agricultural School in 1893 after arguments by the state grange that the school was not a proper "farm school". A series of lectures, later known as the Sheffield Lectures was instituted by the school in 1866. Professor Othniel Charles Marsh of the school led four Yale scientific expeditions in search of fossils in 1870-3. The Sheffield School innovated with an undergraduate course offering science and mathematics as well as economics, English, geography, history, modern languages, philology and political science. Sheffield also pioneered graduate education in

715-540: The Old Campus of Yale College and the Sheffield Scientific School , positioning the new university buildings as separate from the dominant College and partial to no school in particular. Succeeding Battell Chapel as the university's largest assembly space, the new hall was the university's first secular auditorium, coinciding with Hadley's appointment as the first non-ordained person to lead

770-549: The Yale Alumni Weekly ) who "took control out of President Hadley 's hands and forced a radical reorganization of Yale". In 1956, the Sheffield Scientific School was terminated as an active school. The Board of Trustees still exists to oversee the Sheffield Scientific School property and meet legal requirements. The school's faculty is defined as teachers of science to graduate students under

825-555: The Yale Scientific School , it was renamed in 1861 in honor of Joseph E. Sheffield , a railroad executive. The school was incorporated in 1871. The Sheffield Scientific School helped establish the model for the transition of U.S. higher education from a classical model to one which incorporated both the sciences and the liberal arts. Following World War I , however, its curriculum gradually became completely integrated with Yale College. " The Sheff " ceased to function as

880-427: The "secrecy" of these senior societies is dubious; their existence is widely known and membership rolls for most are published yearly. Ten present-day societies— Skull and Bones , Scroll and Key , Book and Snake , Wolf's Head , Elihu , Berzelius , St. Elmo , Manuscript , Shabtai , and Mace and Chain —have private buildings near campus; many other societies have a fixed on-campus meeting space where they meet twice

935-587: The Colony Club, 1848 (now Berzelius ), the Cloister, 1863 (now Book and Snake ), St. Anthony Hall , 1867 (now a 3-year society, also called Delta Psi), St. Elmo , 1889 (also a senior society), as well as Franklin Hall, 1865 ( Theta Xi ), York Hall, 1877 (Chi Phi), Sachem Hall, 1893 ( Phi Sigma Kappa ), and Vernon Hall, 1908 (now Myth and Sword ). The Yale Scientific Magazine was founded at Sheffield in 1894,

990-571: The Council of the Heads of College, composed of the Heads of College of the fourteen colleges. The most distinctive feature of Yale College undergraduate life is the residential college system. The system was established in 1933, through a gift by Yale graduate Edward S. Harkness , who admired the college systems at Oxford University and Cambridge University . Each college consists of dormitory buildings surrounding an enclosed courtyard, and features

1045-707: The School of Applied Chemistry became part of a newly created Department of Philosophy and the Arts (later, the Yale Graduate School ). Classes and labs were hosted in the Second President's House on Yale's Old Campus until funding and a suitable facility could be found. Norton died in 1852 and was replaced by John Addison Porter . Applied chemistry was followed in 1852 by a professorship of civil engineering ( William Augustus Norton ) establishing

1100-559: The Sheffield Scientific School resumed its original function of graduate level instruction in science. Undergraduate courses for the Bachelor of Science degree were transferred to Yale College, and undergraduate courses for a Bachelor of Science in industrial administration were transferred to the School of Engineering. This transition occurred gradually, through the influence of "aggressive, powerful alumni" (including Edwin Oviatt, editor of

1155-500: The United States, granting the first Ph.D. in the United States in 1861 as well as the first engineering Ph.D. to Josiah Willard Gibbs in 1863, and the first geology Ph.D. to William North Rice in 1867. Unlike Yale College students at the time, Sheffield students had "no dorms, no required chapel, no disciplinary marks and no proctors". The Academical Department of Yale ( Ac ) and Sheffield ( Sheff ) became rivals. Loomis Havemeyer , alumnus and registrar at Sheffield, stated: "During

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1210-521: The Yale Corporation to oversee the affairs of each college. Residential college deans, who are supervised by the Dean of Yale College, are in charge of undergraduate academic oversight. Each residential college is governed by its Head of College, Dean, and Fellows, and has a college council of students with limited jurisdiction over student affairs. Issues affecting multiple colleges are governed by

1265-648: The acoustics work far more in favor of the organ than for other sounds. Woolsey Hall predates any major studies within the field of acoustics, so aside from its large size, rectangular shape, hard surfaces and high vaulted ceiling, it has no peculiar architectural properties that contribute positively to its sound. Choral singers are sometimes hampered by Woolsey's muddy resonance, which easily obscures text and delicate timbres, and can also make it difficult to hear oneself on stage." 41°18′40″N 72°55′33″W  /  41.31111°N 72.92583°W  / 41.31111; -72.92583 Yale College Yale College

1320-433: The building. The old Yale Medical School building on the northeast corner of Grove and Prospect Streets was renovated and renamed (South) Sheffield Hall. (It was demolished in 1931 and was on the current site of Sterling Tower, Sheffield Hall and Strathcona Hall (SSS).) Sheffield's building reinforced the division of Hillhouse Avenue into an upper, residential section, and a lower section devoted to education. In 1861,

1375-416: The century's end. Participation and leadership in these groups was an important social signifier and a route to induction into prestigious senior societies. Thus extracurricular participation became central to student life and social advancement, an ethos that became a template for collegiate life across the United States. By 1870, Yale was the largest undergraduate institution in the country. The growth of

1430-442: The college and became the first student from China to graduate from an American university, and in 1857, Richard Henry Green became the first African-American man to receive a degree from the college. Until the rediscovery of Green's ethnic descent in 2014, physicist Edward Bouchet , who stayed at Yale to become the first African-American PhD recipient, was believed to also be the first African-American graduate of Yale College. In

1485-434: The college began teaching humanities and natural sciences by the late 18th century. At the same time, students began organizing extracurricular organizations: first literary societies , and later publications, sports teams, and singing groups. By the middle of the 19th century, it was the largest college in the United States. In 1847, it was joined by another undergraduate school at Yale, the Sheffield Scientific School , which

1540-584: The college has focused on international recruitment, quadrupling the fraction of international students admitted between 1993 and 2013. Yale College is a constituent school of Yale University and contains a dependent system of residential colleges . Its executive officer is the Dean of Yale College, who is appointed to a five-year term by the Yale Corporation . The dean oversees undergraduate academic curriculum, extracurricular activities, and student discipline, but does not have direct control over

1595-521: The college worked to exclude non-Christian men, especially Jews, as well as non-white men. By the mid-1960s, these processes were becoming more meritocratic, allowing for the recruitment of a racially, economically, and geographically diverse student body. This meritocratic transition encouraged the university to establish the first need-blind admissions policy in the United States. After several decades of debate about coeducation , Yale College admitted its first class of women in 1969. In recent years,

1650-554: The earliest still in print, the Yale Literary Magazine , was founded in 1836 and is believed to be the oldest surviving literary review in the United States. Undergraduate publications like the Yale Banner , a yearbook, and The Yale Record , a humor magazine, followed suit, often around the same time similar publications were established at Harvard and Princeton. The Yale Daily News , established in 1878,

1705-434: The early 20th century, the student body was predominantly "old-stock, high-status Protestants, especially Episcopalians, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians"—a group later called WASPs . By the 1970s, it was much more diverse. Enrollment at Yale only became competitive in the early 20th century, requiring the college to set up an admissions process. As late as the 1950s, tests and demographic questionnaires for admission to

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1760-486: The expansiveness of the undergraduate curriculum were waged throughout the early 19th century, with statements like the Yale Report of 1828 re-asserting Yale's conservative theological heritage and faculty. Later in the century, William Graham Sumner , the first professor of sociology in the United States, introduced studies in the social sciences. These expanding fields of study were integrated with graduate schools of

1815-410: The first secret society at the university, Skull and Bones . Skull and Bones "tapped" select juniors for membership as seniors, a ritual later adopted by all undergraduate senior societies. Since then, senior societies have proliferated at Yale, with recent estimates of 41 existing societies and senior class membership ranging from ten to fifty percent of each class. Although once carefully guarded,

1870-588: The first student magazine devoted to the sciences. In 1872–73, Sheffield Scientific School's first new building, North Sheffield Hall was built, designed by Josiah Cleaveland Cady , on what had been the gardens of the Town-Sheffield mansion. This was followed by Winchester Hall (1892) and Sheffield Chemical (1894-5, J. Cleaveland Cady). Of these, only the latter, Sheffield Chemical, is still standing, renovated and renamed Arthur K. Watson Hall. Becton Laboratory (designed by Marcel Breuer , 1970) now stands on

1925-507: The last several decades. The semi-secrecy and influential membership of Yale's older senior societies has attracted wide interest and scrutiny, particularly when both 2004 U.S. presidential candidates were members of Skull and Bones. Sheffield Scientific School Sheffield Scientific School was founded in 1847 as a school of Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut , for instruction in science and engineering. Originally named

1980-787: The new building was considered by critics to be overreaching and gaudy. The ornately decorated hall is home to the Newberry Memorial Organ , one of the most renowned Symphonic organs in the world. This hall serves as the main performance venue for the New Haven Symphony Orchestra , the Yale Bands, the Yale Symphony Orchestra , the Yale Philharmonia, the Yale Glee Club , and many smaller, student-run ensembles such as

2035-409: The new university, Yale President Timothy Dwight V proposed the construction of a central dining hall and auditorium, for which the university would need to raise $ 1.5 to $ 2 million. The task of construction fell to the administration of Arthur Twining Hadley , who became president 1899, two years before the university bicentennial. The position of the buildings was selected as a central node between

2090-522: The normal departmental structure of the university, and the Heads of College host lectures and teas for the colleges that attract high-profile visitors. Harkness' gift built and endowed eight colleges, completed from 1932 to 1934. Additional colleges were opened in 1935 ( Timothy Dwight College ), 1940 ( Silliman College ), 1962 ( Morse College and Ezra Stiles College ), and 2017 ( Pauli Murray College and Benjamin Franklin College ), bringing

2145-461: The oversight of university's departments. Two additional colleges were built by 1940, two more ( Ezra Stiles College and Morse College ) opened in 1962, and two more ( Pauli Murray College and Benjamin Franklin College ) in 2017. For most of its history, study at Yale was almost exclusively restricted to white Protestant men, often the children of alumni. Documented exceptions to this paradigm include Hawaiian native Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia , who became

2200-734: The present-day number to fourteen. The first ten colleges were designed in Collegiate Gothic and Georgian Revival styles; the two colleges built in the 1960s are Modernist reinventions of the college plan. In 2007, Yale announced the construction of two additional Collegiate Gothic residential colleges near Science Hill , which opened in 2017. Residential colleges are named for important figures or places in university history or notable alumni; they are deliberately not named for benefactors. Yale College has been called "the epicenter of college singing," both for its long history of singing groups and its centrality in establishing collegiate

2255-711: The purview of academic departments , divisions of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences which offer undergraduate and graduate curricula. In addition, the faculties of three Yale professional schools , the School of Art , School of Architecture and School of Forestry & Environmental Studies , also offer undergraduate programs. Residential colleges, which are funded and controlled by the university, have separate administration and limited self-governance. The Heads of College (before 2016 called Masters ), usually tenured faculty members, are appointed to renewable, five-year terms by

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2310-670: The residential colleges. The position is currently held by Pericles Lewis , professor of comparative literature . All of the college's faculty are members of the Yale Faculty of Arts and Sciences and are thereby jointly affiliated with the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences . Tenured members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences constitute the Board of Permanent Officers, who govern the school's curriculum and programs. Most undergraduate courses and majors are offered under

2365-568: The school became the Sheffield Scientific School in recognition of his generosity devoted to "the promotion of the study of the natural, physical, and mathematical sciences." Sheffield was one of Yale's greatest benefactors and continued to support the school throughout his life, giving a total of about US$ 500,000. Yale also received US$ 591,000 from his will as well as his house, the Sheffield mansion, designed and originally owned by Ithiel Town (demolished in 1957). The school also benefited from

2420-471: The school's system of residential colleges , established in 1932, and modeled after the constituent colleges of English universities . Undergraduates live in these colleges after their freshman year, when most live on the school's Old Campus . The Collegiate School was founded in 1701 by a charter drawn by ten Congregationalist ministers led by James Pierpont and approved by the General Court of

2475-402: The second half of the nineteenth century Yale College and Sheffield Scientific School, separated by only a few streets, were two separate countries on the same planet." The Ac students studied liberal arts and would look down on the practical Sheff students. Sheffield had its own student secret societies (aka final clubs or senior societies, some also known by their Greek letters) including

2530-596: The site of North Sheffield and Winchester Halls (demolished in 1967). Further expansion brought Kirtland Hall (1902, Kirtland Cutter ), Hammond Laboratory (1904, W. Gedney Beatty), Leet Oliver Hall (1908, Charles C. Haight ), Mason Laboratory (1911, Charles C. Haight) and Dunham Laboratory (1912, Henry Morse; addition 1958, Douglas Orr), all still standing except Hammond which was razed in 2009 to make way for two new residential colleges. The Vanderbilt-Sheffield Dormitories and Towers were built by Charles C. Haight from 1903 to 1906, and Haight's chapter house St. Anthony Hall

2585-412: The student body prompted major growth in the college's physical campus, the greatest expansion of which occurred in 1933, when a gift of Edward S. Harkness created and endowed eight residential colleges . Modeled after the college system of Oxford and Cambridge Universities , the colleges were intended to be the social and residential centers of undergraduate life while leaving academic programs under

2640-560: The time of the American Revolution subsequent rectors, especially Ezra Stiles , relaxed the curriculum to include humanities and limited natural science education. Scientific courses introduced by chemist Benjamin Silliman in 1801, made the college an early hub of scientific education, a curriculum which was grafted into Yale's Sheffield Scientific School in 1847. As in many of Yale's sister institutions, debates about

2695-436: The university and amalgamated into a course of liberal arts education , which presaged the advent of divisional majors in the twentieth century. The relaxation of curriculum came with expansion of the extracurriculum. Student literary societies emerged as early as 1750, singing groups and student publications in the early 1800s, fraternities and secret societies in the mid-nineteenth century, and intercollegiate athletics by

2750-488: The university. In 1910, a seat on the first balcony was made extra large to accommodate Yale's ultimate "big man on campus," trustee and alumnus William Howard Taft . "The architects were Carrère and Hastings , who a decade later designed the New York Public Library . Built in a Beaux Arts style that contrasted with the university's more somber Victorian Gothic revival taste in the late 19th century,

2805-476: Was a relative latecomer but became the flagship campus daily, and continues to publish during every weekday of the undergraduate academic term. These publications have been joined by many 20th-century debuts, including The Yale Herald and The New Journal . In 1832, a rift over Phi Beta Kappa inductions between the college's two debating societies, Linonia and Brothers in Unity , caused seniors to establish

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2860-400: Was absorbed into the college in 1956. These merged curricula became the basis of the modern-day liberal arts curriculum, which requires students to take courses in a broad range of subjects, including foreign language, composition, sciences, and quantitative reasoning, in addition to electing a departmental major in their sophomore year. The most distinctive feature of undergraduate life is

2915-602: Was built in 1913. Byers Hall, designed by Hiss and Weekes and built in 1903, served as a center for social and religious life. These buildings are now incorporated into Silliman College , and St. Anthony Hall still owns its building, which completes the College and Wall Street corner of the Silliman College Quadrangle. In 2006-7, Silliman underwent a major renovation. Also, in 1913, land in East Lyme

2970-474: Was celebrated in 1947 with the Silliman lectures given by Ernest O. Lawrence , Linus Pauling , W. M. Stanley and George Wells Beadle . The first degree of Bachelor of Science was awarded in 1922 to the graduating class of the Sheffield Scientific School. In 1932, the School of Engineering was reestablished and Sheffield Scientific School engineering classes were transferred to the new school. In 1945,

3025-724: Was purchased for a field engineering camp (now the Yale Outdoor Education Center). During the 1918-1919 reorganization of the educational structure of Yale University, the three years "select" course at Sheffield Scientific School was eliminated and a four-year course of study for those studying "professional science" and "engineering" was approved, while graduate courses were transferred to the Graduate School, leaving only undergraduate courses taught at Sheffield Scientific School from 1919 to 1945, coexisting with Yale College's science programs. The centennial

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