Yale Corporation at 300: town or gown?

BY KUSHAL DAVE AND UNA AU

COURTESY YALE OPA The Yale Corporation faces charges of elitism.

On the morning of Mon., Oct. 1, Lee submitted a petition signed by nearly 5,000 alumni in order to get his name on the upcoming Corporation election ballot. Although the Association of Yale Alumni (AYA) selects four candidates for each election, other alumni who graduated more than five years ago may run if they collect signatures from three percent of eligible alums—in this case, 3,252 people. Lee easily surpassed the requisite number of peer endorsements.

Despite demonstrable support, it is uncertain whether Lee can actually win a seat on the 19-member board, Yale's elite decision-making entity. The Corporation is charged with answering many of the University's macro questions, from the appointment of University presidents to the allocation of funds. "The more diverse the perspectives on the Corporation, the easier it can be to resolve problems on the Corporation as they come up," Lee claimed. "It's an idea whose time has come."

This isn't the first time the Corporation has experienced a shakeup. W.W. Phelps, Class of 1860, said in an 1870 speech reminiscent of Lee's complaints, "The younger alumni are not satisfied with the management of the college. They do not think that in anything, except scholarship, does it keep progress with the age. They find no fault with the men, they find much fault with the spirit of the management. It is too conservative and narrow." In response to Phelps' admonitions of a reactionary Administration, the Connecticut legislature one year later passed an act replacing the six trustees who were state senators with elected alumni.

However, the only alum ever to successfully use the AYA's petition option was William Horowitz, class of 1929, who in 1969 became the first Jewish member of the Corporation after a failed first attempt. His son, Dan Horowitz, TC '60, sent Lee a letter of support. "[My father] also felt that there should be someone on the Corporation who was from New Haven," he said. "I will sign your petition, as I did his."

Levin and Dean Richard Brodhead, BR '68, GRD '72, both declined to comment on Lee's candidacy. Levin, however, did remark on the general qualifications of trustees. "I think our alums would prefer to be represented by people of real prominence," he said. "We've been very well served by having such a prominent group of representatives. The fact that we have, by and large, energized people of real distinction to run for a position is a function of the fact that there are only 16 spots and 120,000 alumni."

But according to Lee and his supporters, there are different types of distinction and prominence. Lee challenges the Administration's implicit assumption that local leadership is less valuable than national renown. Lee has been involved in various social justice projects and frames his efforts as "standing up for those who have been oppressed or marginalized."

Lee certainly considers himself a worthy candidate for the position. He readily notes, "Yale should be glad they produced a graduate such as myself. The more I do in life and career, the more prestige I bring to Yale. They're going to benefit from my name. And the more I donate, the more right I have to be on the Corporation."

Support for Lee (outside of himself) runs strongest through the various cleavages of the New Haven community. Laura Smith, president of Local 34, thinks Lee would be a breath of fresh air for the Corporation. "Rev. Lee certainly has demon-strated clear leadership in his parish and in other aspects of the community," she said. "He has different leadership abilities as opposed to corporate leadership. Having proven community leadership can be enormously helpful and enlightening."

Smithe is just one of the many people from both Yale and New Haven who enthusiastically support Lee's candidacy. GESO Organizer Carlos Aramayo explained that many graduate students have rallied behind Lee. "My sense is that when and if Rev. Lee is on the Corporation, he'll provide a voice that is seldom heard in the Corporation meetings," Aramayo said. "The broader, and more diverse the Corporation, the better [its] decisions will be."

One policy issue endorsed by all of Lee's supporters is giving New Haven a powerful say in the management of Yale—the largest employer in what he terms a "company town." He finds it unacceptable that the schools in New Haven do so poorly in the shadow of one of the world's best educational institutions, that Yale virtually gates itself from New Haven, and that Yale's $10 billion has done nothing to alleviate the city's rampant poverty. "Yale has always been a part of this community," Lee said. "But it's time for this community to be a part of Yale."

Lee admits that there is no "magic wand" solution to what he sees as a problem with far-reaching roots. But he does feel that he is more intimately involved with the individual needs of the community than Levin, who also lives in New Haven. "When you're disconnected from those who are struggling in everyday life, what it means to hunger, what it means to raise a child without means to do that, these things make a difference in the decisions Yale should make."

Levin specifically challenges Lee's paradigm of trustees as representative of specific constituencies. "It's not a legislature. Everyone is supposed to represent the University's interests as a whole," Levin argues. "We have people from different sectors and backgrounds, certainly, but they're all encouraged to think broadly about the University. With only 16 people, we couldn't possibly represent every different interest and group encompassed by the University and its alums."

But Lee's supporters maintain that New Haven deserves special consideration. Aramayo would be happy "having Yale be more receptive and responsive to the city of New Haven." And even though he feels that "there are a lot of great people on the Corporation right now," there still is nobody who directly represents the community.

To be sure, Lee's candidacy raises important questions about the state of town-gown affairs as Yale enters its fourth century. Brodhead and Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. both feel that Yale may have reached an adequate level of interaction with the Elm City. As Brodhead puts it, "When you have a good working relationship, then you have a good enough relationship."

Despite DeStefano's comfort with current town-gown relations, he still cannot resist supporting Lee's candidacy. "I always wish the hometown candidates luck," he said. "I think that David's a good fellow, and he'll be a credit and a help to the city wherever he goes."

While the Administration has all but explicitly denounced Lee's candidacy, Lee himself remains confident. "I am very hopeful," he said with conviction. "We want to be a voice for the voiceless.

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