Yale awaits its grade from reaccreditation process

JOHN YI/YH Woodbridge Hall is awaiting the evaluation of the visiting committee on Yale's reaccreditation.

Yale is not resting on its laurels as a prestigious institution. This past week, the University went through an extensive reaccreditation process in which many aspects of the school were subjected to intense and close examination.

Though the group evaluating Yale visited this week, the reaccreditation process has been going on for the past year. A team led by Stanford President Gerhard Casper, LAW '62, and comprised of administrators and professors from universities including Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Princeton, Brown, Cornell, Duke, the University of Chicago, and Smith College was selected by the Commission of Institutions of Higher Education to make an on-campus evaluating visit. Whether Yale would receive accreditation was not a source of worry; a greater concern was how the team would evaluate the quality of the many facets of the University. As University President Richard Levin, GRD '74, explained, "Accreditation is an important form of accountability to the public. It is a means by which institutions in the world of higher education hold one another accountable."

As a member of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC), Yale must be accredited every 10 years. NEASC examines the University along 11 standards. Levin said as this week's accreditation process was beginning, "I believe that the University is entirely in compliance with each of the eleven standards. I doubt that they will find us deficient in meeting the standards." Yale will have to wait several months for the visiting team's official report.

The governance of Yale, an issue debated at length in the accreditation, raised some debate among graduate students, especially those involved in the Graduate Employees and Students Organization (GESO)—which advocates the unionization of graduate students—and the Graduate Student Assembly (GSA). Both organizations were created after Yale's last evaluation in 1989 and have since become prominent presences on campus. GESO was founded in 1992, while GSA was created in 1996. According to the 1999 report Yale submitted to the accreditation committee, "no changes or amendments have been required in the last decade to satisfy any aspect of [organization and governance]. The Administration [does] not believe that the University or the graduate students would be well-served by the unionization of graduate student[s]. The University will continue to oppose the efforts of GESO." The University does officially recognize GSA.

Anthony Dugdale, GRD '00, a member of GESO and GSA's steering committee as well as a former chair of GSA, offered a different perspective. "It's really interesting that the Administration tells graduate students that creating the GSA has led to a radical change in governance," he said. "GSA doesn't have any real governance role at Yale and doesn't give sufficient voice to the students. In the accreditation, our beliefs have been vindicated because they say there has been no change even with the creation of GSA. English and American Studies Professor Michael Denning added, "The Administration's continued refusal to recognize GESO is a major violation of academic freedom and the rights of employees."

However, University Secretary Linda Lorimer, LAW '77, explained that the report's statement reflects that "Yale has been fully in compliance with that stan-dard" and added that "improvements made in the last decade were listed in the report as well."

Yale College Council (YCC) representatives were also more receptive to the evaluation of the report. Several members were among the students who met with the visiting committee and reflected on various aspects of academics, residential life, and student services. The students were able to address issues such as the lack of teaching assistants in the math and science departments and seemed to be satisfied with the process overall. Representative Rachel Thomas, SM '02, said, "It was a really worthwhile experience. The committee was very receptive." YCC President James Ponsoldt, MC '01, said the YCC "absolutely" plans on reading the parts of the committee's report that pertain to the organization. "It holds a lot of interest to us," he said.

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