The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences welcomed its 426 new students on Aug. 26 with a matriculation ceremony in Sprague Hall -- the first such ceremony in the 152 years of the School's existence. The festive event opened with a procession of faculty members in academic regalia, marching to the music of a brass quintet of students from the School of Music.
President Richard C. Levin welcomed the assembled students "to the ancient and venerable company of scholars," and reflected back on the day, 28 years ago, when he and his wife, Jane, entered Yale as Ph.D. candidates. He spoke of the "many pleasures of living in this community" and expressed the hope that its newest members would "soon come to think of Yale as your university and New Haven as your home."
Gaddis Smith, the Larned Professor of History, gave a talk titled "Transformations: the Yale Graduate School in the 20th Century," focusing on the history of women in the Graduate School and the pursuit of both research and teaching in academic life. Women were admitted into the Graduate School from its earliest days, with the understanding that they, like their male counterparts, were people of "serious purpose" who had attained a "somewhat advanced age," said Smith. Graduate students and undergradates were kept strictly separate in the 1800s, in part so that female graduate students would not interfere in college life, he noted.
Smith also spoke of major changes that took place in graduate education at Yale in the 1960s, when attitudes towards teaching began to change. In the 1950s and earlier, it was unusual for a graduate student to have an opportunity to teach at Yale. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences now considers teaching to be an essential element of the professional preparation of all graduate students, and the University provides doctoral students with opportunities to teach, usually in the third and fourth year of study. Teaching responsibilities may include grading exams, leading discussion sessions, overseeing laboratory exercises and presenting lectures.
Smith is writing a history of Yale in the 20th century that will be based on his DeVane Lectures this fall and will be published as part of the University's tercentennial celebration in 2001. (See related story, page 1.)
Dean Susan Hockfield, a neurobiology professor who began her first year as dean of the Graduate School on July 1, addressed the students, urging them to concentrate "not on the history that you inherit, but on the history that you, yourselves, will make. It is my hope that your experience as graduate students will deepen and strengthen your dedication to the future of teaching and learning, as it did for me and for your professors." She spoke of the four elements of the university, as articulated by Jaroslav Pelikan, Sterling Professor Emeritus of History -- "the advancement of knowledge through research, the transmission of knowledge through teaching, the preservation of knowledge in scholarly collections, and the diffusion of knowledge through publishing" -- and related them to graduate education.
"You will, at the conclusion of your studies, have made a unique contribution in your chosen field," said the Dean. "If today you cannot begin to imagine what that contribution will be, that is not only to be expected, it is to be desired. Over the next several years, you will explore new territory and from that exploration you will define the path that you will pioneer."
Following the Matriculation Ceremony, Levin hosted a reception for the graduate students in the Presidents Room of Woolsey Hall. A picnic lunch followed in the courtyard of the Hall of Graduate Studies, and through the afternoon, representatives of the McDougal Center, student groups and community organizations held an information fair.
Chosen from a pool of more than 4,000 applicants, the newest graduate students at Yale are alumni of distinguished colleges and universities across the country and around the world, including Yale, Harvard, Stanford, University of Chicago, Duke, Columbia, Amherst, Bennington, Wellesley, University of Tübingen (Germany), Oxford and Cambridge. Incoming students hail from 37 states and 36 countries, including Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, Finland, Greece, India, Israel, Mexico, Pakistan, Peoples Republic of China, Taiwan, Korea and Russia.
Of the new graduate students, 345 are enrolled in doctoral programs and will pursue Ph.D. degrees in their chosen fields of study. The work of the Graduate School is carried on in the divisions of the humanities, social sciences, and biological and physical sciences. The three divisions encompass 65 departments and programs, 49 of which offer courses leading to the Ph.D. degree.
To attract the finest graduate students to Yale and to support their studies, the University provides generous and stable financial aid. The University has budgeted $36 million for aid in the Graduate School for the 1998-99 academic year. Upon admission, the typical doctoral student receives a commitment from Yale of four years of financial aid that will pay the student's tuition of $21,760 and provide an annual stipend ranging from $10,500 to $16,720, depending on the student's field of study. Students in the humanities and social sciences are also eligible for a dissertation fellowship of $9,500 in the fifth or sixth year of study, while students in the sciences receive dissertation support through faculty research grants. The effect of the University's commitment to financial aid is that more than 90 percent of doctoral students pay no tuition to Yale and receive five years of fellowship support to help with living expenses.
-- By Gila Reinstein
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