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After decades of preparation and debate, Yale’s two newest residential colleges, Pauli Murray and Benjamin Franklin, have opened their doors to students.
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Naming sparked heated debate
Colleges begin to embrace namesakes
As Pauli Murray and Benjamin Franklin colleges welcome their inaugural classes, the respective residential communities are taking steps to learn about their college namesakes.
The approaches the two colleges are taking are as different as the historical figures whose names are carved over the college entryways. The students in Pauli Murray are engaging with a more contemporary figure, one whose popularity in both popular culture and academic scholarship is increasing. Though his papers are housed in Sterling, Franklin is a less accessible historical figure. Still, that has not stopped the college’s administration from encouraging students to study the Founding Father’s life from a variety of angles.
Students take relaxed approach to new traditions
From mascots to college cheers to nicknames, the first generation of students in Pauli Murray and Benjamin Franklin colleges are uniquely situated to shape the culture of their colleges for years to come. But much like the process of building the colleges, these students are willing to take their time and wait for the proper moment.
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Certain traditions already beginning to take hold: New students in Pauli Murray have taken to calling themselves the “PauliMurs” and a recent residential college event served as a lively chance for first years to brainstorm college chants and dances. But as enticing as the race to create new mascots, celebrations and quirky events has beenin the spirit of other popular customs — from the Berkeley Thunderbrunch to the Saybrook Strip — one theme has persevered: Now is the time for experimentation, not commitment.
Colleges make final preparations push
Before students finalize their fall schedules, they may have eaten ramen in the new residential college dining halls, or connected with classmates now living on Science Hill. While the integration of the new colleges into the rest of campus may have felt seamless for some, the University has spent decades diligently preparing for this moment.
Professors, residential college leaders and dining hall executives interviewed all agreed that months of hard work and preparation, which culminated this summer, have equipped Yale well as it undergoes this historical expansion.
Finding a path to the new colleges
Decades ago, preparations were already underway to expand Yale’s undergraduate community through the creation of two new residential colleges. In the years since, different plans have come and gone, but the vision, as first formed by former University President Richard Levin, has remained the same: expand the footprint of Yale College, thereby giving more students the opportunity to receive a Yale education.
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With the opening of Pauli Murray and Benjamin Franklin colleges this fall, that goal has finally come to fruition. In August, the University welcomed its largest class of new undergraduates in Yale’s history. But the long and winding road to move-in day was strewn with unexpected setbacks, both on the local and global levels, and at several points, the success of the project was put in jeopardy.
Similar expansions, different priorities
When Benjamin Franklin and Pauli Murray colleges began welcoming hundreds of new student residents last month, the occasion marked the second additional major expansion of the residential college system in the University’s recent history.
Not only is this expansion larger than the growth caused by the addition of Ezra Stiles and Morse colleges, but its aims are also different. Prior to the Ezra Stiles-Morse construction, campus overcrowding was a major concern, while the most recent additions to the college system were built with the intention of creating opportunity for more students to study at Yale. And while the announcement of Yale College’s most recent expansion has been a source of excitement and anxiety for a University community anticipating an 800-strong increase in its student body over the next four years, the construction of Ezra Stiles and Morse colleges in the 1960s was greeted with a rather different emotion: relief.
New colleges to impact retail space, real estate prices
Now that more than 700 students occupy the new residential colleges, it is only a matter of time before more retail shops pop up and development progresses in the area.
When Benjamin Franklin and Pauli Murray colleges opened this fall, the University further established its presence in the Dixwell neighborhood, where the Yale Health Center and the Yale Police Department are also located.
Colleges offer unique transfer opportunities
As the school year gets underway, upperclass students in Benjamin Franklin and Pauli Murray colleges are settling into their new communities after a smooth transfer process.
And while the new colleges were intended to reduce crowding in the other 12 colleges, Benjamin Franklin and Pauli Murray have ended up being more populous than initially anticipated. The number of students who decided to transfer last year surprised administrators, exceeding expectations “by a fairly large amount,” according to Head of Pauli Murray College Tina Lu.
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New colleges blend past and present
Yale’s two new residential colleges are all about juxtapositions — of near and far, of science and humanities, of new and old, and of traditional and modern.
Several Yale presidents are said to have quipped that the prophecy carved into the lintel of Grover Cemetery — “The dead shall be raised” — would eventually come to pass, if and when Yale needed the land. Yale dashed hopes for those awaiting the messianic glory of that moment by selecting to build Benjamin Franklin and Pauli Murray colleges just beyond the weathered headstones.
SALOVEY: A more accessible Yale College
“Welcome to Yale!” I enjoy saying these words many times at the start of a new academic year. This year, my greeting has even greater significance. With the opening of two new residential colleges this fall, we are able to welcome many more students to Yale, offering the opportunity of a Yale College education to an additional 200 students in each cohort.
As we celebrate Pauli Murray and Benjamin Franklin colleges, we should also reflect on what this historic moment means for Yale, New Haven and the world. Above all, these colleges will increase access to a Yale education.
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LU: Pauli Murray in the now
Sometimes I imagine what Pauli Murray the person would have made of Pauli Murray College. When I imagine her, it’s usually not the distinguished legal giant and civil rights activist, but a scared teenager, a first-gen, a black girl from Durham, North Carolina, trying to talk her way first into Columbia University and then into Hunter College.
I want to make our college a place where that girl would have thrived, would have been happy, would have felt at once a part of the community and wholly, entirely herself. The challenge for all of us PauliMurs in these first years is how to make this immaculate, monumental, beautiful college — which my children rightly compare all the time to a palace — not only provide room for the real-life Pauli Murrays, but come alive with something like Pauli Murray’s verve and energy and sparkle.
BAILYN: Franklinia
One of the strange habits of professors is that whenever we embark on a new venture, the first thing we do is assemble a reading list. So since I was appointed the inaugural head of Benjamin Franklin College, I have been reading up on the life and activities of the college’s namesake.
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BOWMAN: A time for vigilance
The completion of Benjamin Franklin and Pauli Murray colleges and the arrival of their newest residents are the talk of our school year. Having seen these stunning facilities rise from an empty pit, I am just as excited as the next Yalie to explore their basements, test their dining halls and discover their architectural nuances.
I am also happy that a greater number of students can now enjoy the Yale experience, although the community around me doesn’t seem 200-plus larger. From my vantage point, just as many lanyard-wearing first years are walking these streets as there were when I arrived in 2014. Numbers for a cappella rush are even down this fall.
FRIEDLAND: My friend Pauli Murray
It took Yale a long time to honor Pauli Murray by naming a building after her, and it’s about time Yale acknowledged what a great lady she was.
NEWS’ VIEW: Following through
Administrators often say that we are living in a historic moment, that the opening of the new colleges marks a new chapter in Yale’s history. We at the News not only agree, but also feel as though the stewards of our University have not gotten the credit they deserve for seeing this ambitious project through. For the first time in decades, more students will have access to a Yale education. With or without ramen bars, that alone is cause for celebration.