Thousands of members of the campus community and well-wishers gathered on Cross Campus on a brilliant autumn day for the Convocation to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the founding of Yale University.
Students and faculty in academic robes processed onto Cross Campus and assembled before a stage placed in front of Sterling Memorial Library. President Richard C. Levin then led a procession of current and past Yale Corporation members and officers of the University. Joining them for the Oct. 5
ceremony were visiting presidents and representatives from other colleges and universities and New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr.
Before the singing of the national anthem, the flags of the United States, Connecticut and New Haven were carried in, followed by students bearing the flags of all the nations that are home to Yale students and scholars, as well as the flags of the University, Yale College, the residential colleges, and the graduate and professional schools.
University Chaplain Frederick J. Streets gave the invocation, and remembered the Yale alumni and others lost in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Harvard President Lawrence Summers and Princeton President Shirley Tilghman congratulated Yale on reaching its milestone.
"Great universities connect us not just with our history and our values, but also with each other and our future," Summers said. "Harvard today is proud to join in celebrating the greatness that is Yale University."
Summers quipped about the ongoing Yale-Harvard rivalry, including the schools' mottoes.
"Harvard's is 'Veritas,'" he noted. "Yale chose 'Lux et Veritas.' The message was unmistakable: Harvard lacks 'Lux.' We were judged, in other words, to be in the dark."
Princeton was the first of 40 colleges and universities in the country to be founded or initially led by Yale faculty or graduates, and Tilghman told Yale, "Princeton is indeed your eldest daughter."
Each segment of the Yale community was represented by a speaker, with Yale College Dean Richard Brodhead speaking on behalf of the faculty; law student and Yale College alumna Tali Farhadian representing students; alumnus Michael Morand, associate vice president of New Haven and State Affairs, speaking for the staff; and Kurt Schmoke, senior fellow of the Yale Corporation, offering reflections on behalf of alumni.
In his keynote remarks, Levin said it was as difficult today to envision the Yale of 2101 as it was for the Yale community at the University's bicentennial to picture the current Yale. "Who, then, when less than 100 courses were offered, would have imagined that Yale College students would have 2,000 courses to choose among a century later?" he asked.
Nevertheless, Levin said, the Tercentennial was a fitting occasion to sum up Yale's current condition and direction, and he noted the major contributions Yale and other great universities make to society: educate leaders; be a model of freedom of expression and inquiry; serve as an engine of economic growth; foster the development of the local community; and promote greater understanding among the peoples and nations of the world.
The President also announced that he has asked Brodhead to lead a major study over the next two years of education in Yale College that will involve many faculty, students and recent graduates. Yale last undertook a comprehensive review of the College curriculum 30 years ago.
Other highlights of the Convocation were Professor John Hollander's reading of his Tercentennial poem and the singing of the college hymn, which was performed at the University's first Commencement in 1718 and included a new fourth verse composed for the Tercentennial by Robert Blocker, Yale's dean of music.
A special program of music was provided during the Convocation by the Tercentennial Orchestra, which included students of the Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale, the Yale Symphony and the Yale Concert Band. The orchestra was directed by Lawrence Leighton Smith, professor and conductor-in-residence, and Thomas C. Duffy, deputy dean of the School of Music.
YALE 300:
MARKINGAMILESTONE
Community Celebrates Yale's 300th Year
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T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S
Community Celebrates Yale's 300th Year
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Yale Parents' Weekend
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