At a morning celebration attended by New Haven's top corporate and community figures, President Richard C. Levin received the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce's Community Leadership Award for 1999, becoming the first Yale president to achieve the organization's highest recognition.

First bestowed in 1966, the award honors individuals who benefit New Haven and the region through their leadership of their institutions or businesses and their personal commitment to the community.

"Rick has moved Yale University into the unambiguous position as the city's number-one corporate sponsor and booster," said Chamber President Matthew Nemerson at the Nov. 3 awards breakfast at New Haven's Omni Hotel at Yale.

Former University Secretary Sam Chauncey, who introduced Levin at the award ceremony, said the President had put the University "on a new course with its relationship with New Haven," while also accomplishing the rebuilding of Yale and addressing a host of other complex University concerns since assuming the presidency in 1993.

"His greatest contribution has been the quiet and effective way in which he has changed the attitude within the University toward New Haven," Chauncey said.

Before Levin spoke at the Chamber event at the Omni, there was a screening of a video tribute to the President, in which individuals from Yale and the community recognized his broad mobilization of the University in partnership with the region and cited programs he has launched to advance a common regional agenda. (See related story.)

Among the achievements noted were the Yale Homebuyer Program, through which the University has committed more than $7 million to assist Yale staff and faculty to purchase homes in New Haven. Also lauded was the Presidenti's Public Service Fellows Program, which annually gives several dozen graduate and undergraduate students financial support during the summer, allowing them to devote their time to significant community service projects in the New Haven region.

Levin himself appeared on the video, noting that the University's partnership goals with the larger community were a factor in Yale's recruitment efforts. "Every time I ask someone to do a job with major responsibility, I make it clear that I want their unit of the University to take a role in New Haven," he said.

In his remarks at the awards breakfast, Levin said that he had identified a greater community role for New Haven in his 1993 Inaugural Address.

"That evening, in the backyard of our home on Everit Street, about 200 neighbors gathered for a spontaneous celebration," Levin recalled. "They sensed, even more clearly than I could articulate, that town-gown relations were about to take a dramatic turn for the better."

Levin thanked University Vice President and Secretary Linda K. Lorimer, who he described as "tireless" and "brilliant," for returning to Yale to head the University's new Office of New Haven Affairs and turn "good intentions into reality."

Levin also thanked Yale Vice President and Director of New Haven and State Affairs Bruce Alexander, a long-time University volunteer who joined Yale as an officer in 1998 to bring his extensive national experience as a "true urban affairs professional" to Yale's economic, neighborhood revitalization and educational partnership with New Haven and the region.

"Supporting Linda and Bruce in their efforts are far more administrators, faculty members, and students than I could possibly name," Levin said. "I am grateful to them all, and especially grateful to the legions of students engaged in community service. They are Yale's best ambassadors. For the average citizen of New Haven, nothing more effectively communicates the sincerity of Yale's commitment than encounters with these energetic and altruistic leaders of tomorrow."

Levin praised New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr. for his efforts to improve Yale's host city and said he and the Mayor shared the view that New Haven had the potential to become the best college town in America as the cooperative effort between the city and Yale continued.

"There is so much more to be done to revitalize our downtown and our neighborhoods, to strengthen our schools, and to create jobs built upon the fruits of Yale's outstanding research in science and engineering," the President said. "I want to assure you that Yale is committed for the long run. I want to make urban citizenship a permanent thread in the fabric of Yale, and town-gown partnership a permanent thread in the fabric of New Haven."

Levin's final thank-you's were for his wife, Jane, who he said was "the person who taught me everything I know about partnership."

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