The Yale of today and the Yale of the future were explored in two talks offered by Yale faculty members as part of the Tercentennial Weekend.
Their lectures were part of the series "Yale, America and the World," sponsored by International Security Studies. The series began with three earlier lectures examining Yale's influence on the world and vice versa at the start of each of the University's three centuries of existence: 1701, 1801 and 1901.
On Oct. 5, Gaddis Smith, the Larned Professor Emeritus of History, offered a view of Yale in the current year, while the following day, Robin Winks, the Randolph W. Townsend Jr. Professor of History, had the Nostradamus-like task of envisioning what Yale will be like 100 years from now, in 2101.
Their talks, like most of those on campus over the weekend, shared the unifying theme of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.
"Our throats are tight with grief and uncertainty, and we are reminded with terrifying force how much the University is affected by external events and conditions," said Smith at the start of his lecture. "There are no ivory towers and there never have been."
In "Yale and the World: 2001," Smith examined several issues he believes are of current import at Yale. Among others, these include the ability of the University to maintain its intellectual independence at a time when it relies on significant external support (federal, foundation, corporate and private) for its various initiatives; the University's ideal of freedom of expression; and the role of the University in the problems of its home city and the world at large.
Smith noted that until the 1960s, Yale administrators were, for the most part, wary of both dependence on external support and of allowing world events of the day to compete with students' focus on the pursuit of knowledge "for its own sake and without corruption from the outside world," the Yale historian said.
Under Yale President Kingman Brewster, however, "the windows [to the world] were unsealed" as both students and Yale officials concerned themselves with political issues of the day, including the Vietnam War and the activism of the Black Panthers, the historian said. Likewise, in the same era, the School of Forestry became the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies in response to a growing sense of urgency on the part of University members to tackle increased concerns about the global environment.
Over the years, Smith noted, radical shifts also took place in Yale's admissions policies: first by admitting women in 1969, then opening its doors to increasing numbers of minority students and, in the present day, giving international students of limited financial means the opportunity to attend the University by extending financial aid to them.
Smith concluded his talk by posing the question of whether Yale will be able to continue its increasingly global outlook in light of the terrorist attacks on the United States.
He answered with the statement, "If universities do not work toward the goal of a more peaceful world and the respect of individual freedoms, who will do so?"
Yale in 2101
In his talk on "Yale and the World: 2101," Winks admitted that it is the task of the historian to look at the past and noted, "No historian can project the future from the present." He added that envisioning the future becomes even more complicated in the aftermath of terrorism in the United States.
"We must see the past as a golden time now," said Winks of the tragedy's effect.
He also said that it would be impossible to arrive at a consensus of what Yale, New Haven and the world will be like in the next century, commenting, "Consensus has free passage only when things don't change." On account of the terrorist attacks, he bemoaned, "Everything is different now," and told his large Woolsey Hall audience that he was even forced to alter the thrust of his lecture in light of the national tragedy.
Noting that media commentators have posed the question of whether Americans have the patience for a long-term war against terrorism, Winks said that the real question is "Do Americans have the capacity to think ahead 100 years?"
At the end of the century, he said, "I believe there will be country called the United States and a people called Americans, but what these words will mean, I can't say."
The historian reminded his audience that no nation's hegemony has lasted for much more than an entire century, noting that "the 17th century belonged to the Dutch, the 18th to France, the 19th to the British and the 20th to America."
"Whose century will be the 21st be?" he asked. "One can only hope it will be century of liberal democracy."
Winks said that Yale can have a role in that outcome through its long-held commitment to liberal education, cultivating scholars and citizens who are informed, able to look at the world through a variety of perspectives and who will contend with the challenging issues of the century. He cited these as the world's growing population, the disposal of hazardous waste, global warming, environmental degradation, refugee populations, AIDS, the problems of cities, agricultural production, global disparities in wealth, and a growing sense of a loss of community in a global world, among others.
There is reason to be confident that the Yale of the future will continue its mission of educating the policy makers and leaders of tomorrow who will confront these challenges, Winks told his audience, noting the University's commitment to such programs as its new Center for the Study of Globalization, agrarian studies and initiatives it has recently undertaken in the most heavily populated nation in the world, China.
"The chief trouble among nations today is fear -- fear of death and, more importantly, fear of life," Winks said at the conclusion of his talk. "We must have a strong commitment to the value of life. The goal of this University must include giving students, faculty, staff and the wider world a constructive life, one worth living for and one worth dying for."
The theme of global challenges was also explored in concurrent talks given during Tercentennial Weekend by other faculty members. These were "The 'Moneys' of Nations" by James Tobin and William C. Brainard; "Third World Growth, Poverty and Human Development" by Gustav Ranis and T.N. Srinivasan; "The Global Environment: Challenges and Response" by James Gustave Speth and Daniel C. Esty; "Sovereignty and National Security in a Borderless World" by Paul Kennedy and Mary Habeck; "After Sept. 11: Short- and Long-Term Challenges to Business in the Global Economy" by Jeffrey E. Garten and Florencio Lopez-de-Salinas; and "Culture, Language and Community: Local/Global Interactions" by Michael Holquist and Deborah Davis.
-- By Susan Gonzalez
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