Finals and graduation ceremonies end, and students depart for other activities and locales. The campus, one might imagine, would look rather deserted in the summer sun and the shadows it casts. But that image is far from the reality.
Within days after Commencement, hundreds of people arrive on campus to begin summer classes, attend Yale College reunions and alumni seminars or participate in professional meetings, among other activities. In fact, this summer will be one of the busiest in recent years, according to Susan Adler, director of Conference Services, whose office helps book and plan campus engagements throughout the year, with summer being the busiest time of all.
In June, for example, some 200 people will take part in a program at the School of Drama for literary managers and dramaturgs, and more than 250 individuals will come to campus from around the globe to study at Yale's English Language Institute. Hundreds more will make their way to campus sites where events are being held during the City of New Haven's International Festival of Arts & Ideas, which expects to attract some 50,000 people from around the world. Still more will flock to Yale to listen to performances and attend lectures being offered as part of the 13th Aston Magna Academy, a 12-day educational program exploring baroque, classical and early Romantic music and the cultures in which these musical styles were born. Highlighting this event -- being held at the University for the first time this year -- will be performances by members of the internationally known and highly acclaimed Aston Magna ensemble.
"This event has many Yale affiliations with the Yale Center for British Art, the Whitney Humanities Center and the department of music, among others," says Ms. Adler. "Participants will include many Yale alumni and former faculty members. It is just one example of how Yale continues to be a thriving educational institution in the summer." For more info on Aston Magna, see "Summertime at Yale" in this issue.
Other events taking place on campus during June, July and August include a gathering of the Lepidopterists Society, during which some 150 participants will discuss their studies of butterflies and moths at the Peabody Museum of Natural History; the popular Women's Campaign School, where women learn how to run effective campaigns for political office; and the Junior Statesmen Summer School, a program that draws over 200 high school students for classes in American government, law and public speaking, being held on campus for the 15th straight year. In addition, scholars from East Asia will travel to campus to take part in the 1997 Summer Institute in American Studies sponsored by the Yale-China Association, high school students from Hong Kong and Taiwan will be introduced to the American education system in a three-week program called "Yale- China's American College Experience" and more than 1,000 high school students from Europe and South America will live, study and eat on campus as part of an intercultural exchange called the Educational Foundation Orientation Program.
"Some of these summer programs provide scholars and students from abroad with their first, and sometimes their only, opportunity to visit Yale or to see an American university," says Ms. Adler, noting that the University also serves as the site for a number of functions for local community members, including training for counselors in the LEAP summer program for economically disadvantaged, inner-city children and an outreach program for New Haven area residents sponsored by Women in Community Service, WICS, a national organization that seeks to empower young women living in poverty.
For both Yale-hosted events and those planned by outside organizations, Ms. Adler and her staff in the University's Conference Services office sometimes begin preparations more than a year in advance.
"We have to plan for summer campus housing and the use of facilities early to accommodate all of the various activities," she says, adding that the many campus renovations taking place during the summer months make early planning particularly important.
This year, Saybrook and Branford colleges will house the nearly 400 students who will live on campus while taking courses as part of Yale Summer Programs and the English Language Institute. Some 1,000 students -- including about 400 Yale College students -- are enrolled in these two programs this year . According to Mark J. Schenker, director of Yale Summer and Special Programs and assistant dean of Yale College, these students will have a summer packed with activities, both educational and recreational.
"We recognize that summer students come to Yale for educational reasons, but we try to recreate for them the same experience of residential college life that we provide to undergraduates during the academic year," says Dean Schenker. "So there will be a wide variety of typical college activities -- study breaks, videos and games -- as well as a lot of special activities. We are sensitive to the fact that our summer population is more international than our regular student body, and that we also have high school students in residence. And, it's summer, a time when everybody expects to have fun. So we have planned day trips to New York City to see the city, baseball games and Broadway shows, trips to Boston and Mystic, and even to the Stamford and Danbury malls, where students from abroad who are interested can see what a big American mall is like. Trips closer to home will be taken to Hammonassett Beach, Sleeping Giant State Park and to Farmington for inner-tube rafting. We also take advantage of the exciting local offerings during the International Festival of Arts and Ideas and other city events."
And just like Yale's full-time undergraduates, the summer students will also have a college master -- John Loge, dean of Timothy Dwight College will fill this summer role -- and will be able to count on the help of college counselors. Two dozen Yale undergraduates well familiar with campus life will serve as counselors to summer students. "I think a lot of our regular students have no idea that so much goes on here after they have left for summer vacation," says Dean Schenker. "But it's an extremely active place in the summer. It's far -- very far -- from being sleepy."
-- By Susan Gonzalez