It's Yale party, and everyone is invited

By Julia Paolitto

Yale might be 300 years old, but judging from the opening weekend of its tercentennial year, it is still an eager-to-please adolescent. On Sat., Oct. 21, Yale will officially inaugurate a year of celebrations with "Opening Yale 300," a day of activities, performances, and enough birthday cake to feed the entire city. Yet there has been remarkably little pomp and circumstance thus far over the anniversary of an institution older than the United States itself.

Construction jackhammers have mostly overwhelmed any evidence of celebratory preparations, and the enormous blue banners bearing the Yale insignia were raised just three days before the start of Tercentennial Weekend. As quietly as the campus has managed to prepare, come Saturday it will be virtually impossible to ignore the occasion. Indeed, Yale has invited quite literally the entire University community, alumni, and city residents to a series of dispersed events all over the campus.

Demystifying the Ivory Tower

The most important symbol of Yale's suspension of business-as-usual is the unprecedented gesture of opening virtually the entire campus to the public. All of Yale's residential colleges will be open for tours and activities, while once-remote campus features will be made accessible, including a nuclear particle accelerator, the President's house, and the historic Newberry Organ. As Martha Highsmith, co-chair of the Tercentennial Steering Committee, explained, "There was a conscious decision to have a celebration that included a wide variety of communities important in and to the University. We wanted to focus on interactions within and inclusions beyond the campus itself, so that this was not simply an in-house event."

Indeed, the weekend is as far from an "in-house event" as could be imagined. It is designed in large part to show appreciation for New Haven and underscore the continuing relationship between city and University. "We wanted to use the occasion to say `Thank you for hosting Yale for three centuries,'" University Secretary and Vice President Linda Lorimer, LAW '77, who is also secretary of the Tercentennial Steering Committee, said.

Saturday morning's events will begin on Beinecke Plaza with a joint opening cere-mony hosted by President Richard Levin, GRD '74, and Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. Many of the features touted in the "Opening Yale 300" program are in fact designed to acknowledge the prominence of the city's own historical fixtures and diversity alongside Yale's presence. Turning Wall Street into an "all-you-can-eat" enclave as part of a "Taste of New Haven," opening Mory's to public tours and cutting into a 300-pound birthday cake to be shared by students and city residents alike are variations on an important theme for Levin. "We wanted the opening event to be something that made clear to the community, students, faculty, and staff that the events are open to all, and to make people comfortable with coming, especially people in the community outside Yale," he said. "Opening this celebration to the city is symbolic of a general direction we've tried to pursue."

Existential angst at 300?

That the Tercentennial is meant to be a point of departure rather than a culminating moment is evident in the events planned for this weekend. Yale seems determined to use its 300th anniversary as a character test, to promote what Lorimer called "an increased sense of self-awareness." The process of determining and planning commemorative events has resulted in Yale's willingness to bare its soul on an unprecedented scale. Perhaps its biggest coup is a lecture to be given at the School of Management: Chief University Investment Officer David Swenson, JE '53, will speak publicly for the first time ever about managing Yale's endowment. Even for a celebration committed to openness, such a willingness to demystify the Holy Grail that is Yale's financial endowment—one that has ballooned from $2.4 to $10 billion in the last seven years—is a rare gesture.

COURTESY YALE UNIVERSITY The Bicentennial featured a 'gathering of public men,' shown here in Yale's invitation to its 200th birthday.

Many events, including the 300-pound birthday cake and a contest to design Tercentennial t-shirts for each residential college, were included upon the suggestions of students. Highsmith said that one of the goals of the Steering Committee was to assure student representation by "soliciting student input in both formal and informal ways."

"Two cheers for Democracy," E. M. Forster once declared: "one because it admits variety and two because it permits criticism." For the moment, "Opening Yale 300" has plenty of variety—and more than a little criticism as well. The focus on celebrating some of the unseen sides of Yale and encouraging public participation has led some to wonder who and what the events are celebrating. The multitude of informal events may encourage a more diverse attendance, but students looking for a festival atmosphere with a centered focus reminiscent of Spring Fling may be disappointed. Yale College Council President Libby Smiley, JE '02, is one of two student representatives on the Tercentennial Steering Committee. "Personally, I wish that this opening celebration had a broader focus to more actively include students," she said. "This weekend probably won't be the most exciting weekend of the Tercentennial year for students, but...it is a chance for both students and faculty to show off the wonderful things Yale has to offer."

We've come a long way

Of course, the Yale whose gates are being flung open tomorrow is a completely different place than it was at its Bicentennial celebration in 1901. "The Bicentennial was a much more formalistic effort and and was designed to celebrate the intellectual side of the University and its historic achievements," Lorimer said. Students and city residents were treated to a litany of speeches on "Yale's relation to almost everything," according to Brooks Mathers' Yale: A History, as well as a candlelit processional of over 5,000 students and graduates. There was even a somber masque reenacting seminal moments in Yale's history, from its founding to the execution of Nathan Hale in 1776. Indeed, Yale's celebration of its second century of existence, as compared to the present preparations, underscores just how Yale's perception of its own mission has changed.

ALY SUDOW/YH Yale has painted Beinecke Plaza blue for opening ceremonies, which President Richard Levin, GRD '74, and Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. will host tomorrow morning.

Attendees of the 1901 ceremonies would have been overwhelmed by the atmosphere of power and self-importance that permeated every aspect of the celebration. Most importantly, they would have been expected to appreciate the "gathering of public men" from the upper echelons of society, representing almost every college in the country. The awarding of public degrees to distinguished guests was a centerpiece of the Bicentennial, "meant to predict the future by giving degrees to people [Yale] thought would be important," Highsmith said. Seating charts of the honorees were even distributed to guests, in order to "pick out one by one the faces and let the thought rest on the man and his work," according to Alumni Weekly's 1901 commemorative bulletin.

Just as this weekend's celebration is devoted in large part to reintroducing the University to its neighbors, the bicentennial celebration focused on New Haven as well—but only upon what was then the high point in the University's relation to its host. Photographs show banners hanging which pronounce, "Guests of Yale are guests of New Haven," and the Bicentennial's official program declares, "New Haven makes a Holiday!" Lynn also noted that the University commissioned Louis Comfort Tiffany of stained-glass lamp fame to design decorations for every house in New Haven—which residents readily agreed to display. "It says a lot that they decorated the University and the houses along the streets," she said. "There was this notion that Yale University in its might could tell people how to decorate, and they would do it."

Such actions today would seem the height of condescension, but at the turn of the century, Yale's relationship with the city of New Haven was at its peak. Until the beginning of the 20th century, Lynn explained, "Yale was really seen as `America's University'—there was this idea that if you could get in, Yale could make you somebody." For New Haven, at least, this reputation has largely disappeared. Yale as a place of opportunity for local boys and a source of pride in the community has been replaced by its current role as the city's top employer and third-largest taxpayer.

The more things change...

The ground might be shifting again, however. Though the atmosphere of the Tercentennial will be vastly different from the Bicentennial, Yale's desire to congratulate its host city remains strong. "Yale is trying to make amends for its bad period, which is a very important thing to do," Lynn said. "It makes sense, and the Administration has made a sincere effort to use the occasion to do what is appropriate."

When Supreme Court Justice David J. Brewer, B.A. 1856, gave the commemorative address in 1901, he chose to speak on Yale's relation to public service. That commitment appears to be foremost in the minds of those contemplating Yale's identity as it begins its fourth century. As DeStefano said, "Yale and New Haven are less in a relationship than they are parts of a whole." It is a statement that may seem obligatory given the upcoming festivities, but it is one that would have been hard to conclude even 20 years ago. Lynn agreed, noting, "I think [Yale] has a pretty good idea now with the celebration, given this moment in its history with the city. What will be interesting to see is how the community reacts."

Photo illustration of Handsome Dan and Tercentennial logo courtesy of the Yale Tercentennial Office.

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