As part of its ceremony honoring Richard C. Levin with its 1999 Community Leadership Award, the New Haven Chamber of Commerce created a video about Yale's president featuring remarks by people from the University and New Haven communities.

The following are excerpts of the remarks by the individuals featured in the video:

John DeStefano, mayor of New Haven:

"The best thing Rick can do for New Haven and Greater New Haven is to make sure we have a world-class university at Yale always. The best we can do as a community is to make sure [Yale has] a world-class community in which to reside. ...

"I look for Rick and the University to provide continued leadership and continued initiatives in the quality of our public schools, in the program choices we'd be able to offer by virtue of having a world-class university in our community."

Linda Peterson, chair of the English department:

"He has been very active in encouraging the relationship of faculty members at Yale to faculty members in the New Haven public schools. ...

"Rick and Jane have lived here for most of their adult lives. They raised their children in New Haven; they've made good friends in the neighborhoods. As you know, they don't live in the President's House most of the time; they live on Everit Street in their neighborhood."

Jose Cabranes, federal judge and former Yale trustee:

"Rick is very much a part of the New Haven community and everyone knows that, and I think that's a very important aspect of his ability to lead. ...

"Rick is a model for University leadership precisely because he is so much a part of both the community and the University."

Bruce Alexander, vice president and director of New Haven and state affairs:

"This award appropriately honors Rick. But I know he would say that he shares it with his wife, Jane, who is, in her own right, a wonderful representative of Yale. ...

"For 20 years I worked to rebuild cities across America as head of all commercial development activity for the Rouse Corporation. I left retirement to come to Yale for two reasons. First, New Haven has a bright future, and second, because Rick Levin and Yale are both absolutely committed to the University's playing an important role in working with the community and city government to realize that vision."

Richard H. Brodhead, dean of Yale College:

"Rick himself is a person with a strong sense of citizenship. ...

"He has an eye for talent and he understands that the University itself needs to be well-led but every part of the University also needs high-quality leadership -- imaginative, enterprising, inspiring leadership -- and he really has set his sights very high in the people he's recruited for all of the offices, the deans of the professional schools. ...

John E. Pepper, chair of the board of Procter & Gamble and a Yale trustee:

"Rick has a marvelous capacity to take in the ideas of other people and be very open on them, at the same time understanding fully where he stands. ...

"He also brings a wonderful marriage and balance to knowing what is really tradition in Yale and must be maintained and, at the same time, reaching out to change things, improving the diversity of the faculty, reaching out to increase the globalization of the student body. ..."

Nancy Hadley, executive director of the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven:

"He really feels passionately about the role of the entire organization: students, the faculty, the alumni, the families. ..."

"The brilliant students in the School of Forestry are helping the residents in the neighborhoods of New Haven to know each other better, and they're using community gardens as the way to design and plan -- not just throw some tomatoes over here and throw some potatoes over there --but to do something that's going to have a long-term benefit for the neighborhood. And then you know what happens? There's community building going on."

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