Yale vs. Small Liberal Arts Colleges: part 2 (Money Matters)

19 Apr

Posted by Sam Jackson as College, Student Life, Yale

Initiated by a post at EphBlog (a Williams College blog), I decided to start a series comparing some of the advantages and disadvantages of Yale compared to small liberal arts schools. Not specific schools, just smaller schools in general. This was always a big concern for me, and I hope others might benefit from my commentary. Please join the discussion in the comments.

For the first proper inaugural post of this series (part 2 considering the intro), I will start on a positive note and mention current events: Yale organized and over the last two days conducted the 2008 Governors’ Climate Change Conference. I liveblogged it here, if you are interested in a blow-by-blow word-by-word account. It was a gathering of governors, Canadian premiers, foreign ministers and other observers which saw 18 US states representing more than 1/2 of the US population (and more than 1/2 of its emissions) signed an agreement on the 100th anniversary of Theodore Roosevelt’s 1908 Conference of Governors which launched the modern conservation movement with Gifford Pinchot (Yale alum).

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Nobel Laureate Pachauri (chair of the IPCC!) spoke in the final presentation which, combined with the public signing of the declaration, filled up a huge venue on campus, Woolsey hall. Yale’s money and brand power enable it to host large conferences and attract big names which provide exciting opportunities for Yalies to participate and engage with political and thought leaders from around the world. Some would say that today was nothing but grandstanding at that the chance to see famous people talk is not as exciting as it might first appear. After all, it’s not as if students were getting one-on-one time with the Governator or anything like that, right?

Wrong. In addition to Arnold specifically meeting with a bunch of lucky California students, there were significant trickle down effects from this event. For example, the Czech deputy prime minister / environmental minister was present, as was the Czech ambassador. After the conference, I went to a small gathering (15 students) where we spoke with them and talked about issues for climate in the EU and in general. It was a really great opportunity to personally meet with and talk to someone important who has a lot to say about this issue.

The Czech environmental minister would not have shown up to a small college with fewer resources or less national and international clout, because this conference wouldn’t have taken place at all without the significant Yale resources. Dan Esty, lead negotiator in 1992 for the US, introduced things; he teaches at the Law School and Forestry & Environmental Studies school; we read many of his influential papers in my class. My current Environmental Studies professor is also at F&ES school and is on the international policy circuit: the other week, Tamara Stark, of Greenpeace China, came and we had a lecture from her about Chinese forestry issues (the class is on International Environmental Governance). Would she have shown up at a small college without a prestigious forestry school? No.

Just one example from TODAY of the many great opportunities which arise when you are at a school with resources like Yale’s! More on how this comes to play in Master’s Teas and other events in future posts.

Yesterday at the MacMillan center for international studies, there were too many events going on and not enough people to attend them all. I went to a talk by the UK permaent representative to the E.U., but at the same time an expert on policies of preemptive strikes was giving another talk, and immediately following that there was another session with a policy advisor to Obama talking about US-UN relations. That was just one evening at one part of Yale. There is a level of activity going on which really calls for the large scale resources of a university of this size, prestige, and wealth. I’m not saying that this is what is necessary to have an excellent education, I’m just saying that when a student is prepared to take advantage of these resources, they are much appreciated. I have written before about how many students do not.

6 Responses

abl

April 20th, 2008 at 2:39 am
1

You say “The Czech enrionmental minister would not have shown up to a small college with fewer resources or less national and international clout…”

Actually important people do show up at smaller colleges (at least they do at Williams). I’ve had dinner with Steve Case (founder of AOL), Jared Diamond (Pulitzer Prize winning author of Guns Germs and Steel), Salman Rushdie, Madeleine Albright, as well as several other somewhat less known (but equally prestigious in their respective fields) scholars and statesmen. None of these dinners had more than 20 students and most had around 10. Other than the Rushdie dinner, none of these were opportunities I pursued particularly actively; I would have been able to eat with Howard Dean and Thomas Friedman among others had I had the time, been interested, and sent out a couple of emails. Admittedly, this is over the course of three years at Williams, but like I said, it reflects the opportunities that fell into my lap much more so than the opportunities that I pursued.

I’m sure there are lots of wonderful things going on at Yale and lots of wonderful people. I am sure that overall, more things like this happen at Yale than at Williams (or other similar small prestigious colleges). However, your post implies that people such as the Czech environmental minister or Tamara Stark don’t go to schools like Williams, and this is simply not true. If I had to bet, I would say that roughly 50 people like Tamara Stark come to Williams every year and interact with students, and 90-100 come to Yale every year and interact with students. There are obviously more coming to Yale, but there are very significant numbers of very famous people coming to Williams every year as well. I think there are more notable scholars and statesmen coming to either of these schools than any one student could even go see talk (let alone meet in person) in a given year.
abl

April 20th, 2008 at 2:42 am
2

PS in case you’re curious, Jared Diamond was very disappointing in person while Steve Case was absolutely awesome. The rest didn’t really make enough of an impression on me to comment on (they carried themselves in person pretty much exactly as you’d expect them to…Albright was somewhat of a politician and Rushdie was very eloquent).
Ryan Kellett

April 20th, 2008 at 4:29 am
3

I mostly agree with abl above. Lots of famous folks come to Middlebury (another small liberal arts college which likes to go to battle with Williams) too. That said, Yale clearly is a big school with a big name and it does help bring people in, I’m sure. No one is going to dispute that.

The real issue is, as you point out, if anyone makes use of those opportunities. Middlebury students and faculty are having huge issues with overload. Go to this lecture and that lecture. A movie screening and a informal discussion.

The goal is for colleges to incorporate and validate this type of soft-learning in attending lectures and going to dinners with speakers. It’s assumed that it is valuable, but it’s not counted and weighed as part of the daily workload. Departments, deans, and student organizers mindlessly pile on the opportunities without thought to who will make use of those opportunities. Maybe if students had the time, or more efficiently used their time, they’d want to expand their knowledge in this way. Right now there exists no incentive to take advantage of these opportunities because opportunities turn quickly into burdens.

P.S. I agree, Jared Diamond is truly disappointing in person.
Sam Jackson

April 20th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
4

@abl: I meant to only say that it was rather more likely, not that it never would happen somewhere else. my statement was based on the assumption (1) that the czech environmental minister would only have shown up because of the giant governors’ conference, and (2) that large scale events like that are much more likely to happen at Yale than at somewhere smaller. I think this is something that can generally be agreed upon.

However, on your count estimate, I would say that you are grossly underestimating Yale’s numbers. There are 12 residential colleges, and each has quite a few Master’s Teas each semester, where cool people come and there are cozy functions ranging from the very small to rather larger sometimes depending on student demand– R.L. Stine of Goosebumps had a big group just recently for my college, because he was so popular, but generally they are very cozy. In any event, 12 colleges x even 5 Master’s Teas = quite a few… however, I think your number for Williams might be a little low too. I just want to emphasize that Yale, from all its angles, brings in a huge number of very interesting people. [Not even mentioning the YPU!]

My post was not intended to suggest that events don’t go on at smaller schools–I was just trying to show that a) Yale hosts really huge events which can be very fun, events which are possible more easily here than somewhere else becasue of Yale’s resources, and that lest these large events be construed as just big crowds and no interaction, they often translate into smaller and more personal interaction. I think my wording shows that.

@ Ryan: Yep. And that’s what is so sad! At the MacMillan center this past week, they were begging me to call people I knew to come because there were all these events going on at one time and they didn’t have enough people to go to all of them and felt it would be insulting to their guests who they had paid to come.

I’m not sure that it’s fair to just blame the school for there not being enough time; so much of it seems to be students just not making the time or caring to go. I think there are definite incentives, if people want to see things that way. Anyway, the room was packed for Goosebumps…. I think it can just be hard to properly promote some of the awesome niche opportunities properly. In the case of this one underattended MacMillan lecture, tha twas because it was short notice–they hadn’t had time to flyer, and they also generally contact other local colleges like UConn and Quinnipiac.
abl

April 20th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
5

Sam–my numbers were obviously totally invented. Obviously far more than 50 speakers come to Williams every year…I meant that around 50 who would be interesting to a campus-wide audience, rather than, say, just classics majors, come every year. I guess it all depends on what you consider to be an event on this very arbitrary and undefined level of coolness. Regardless, your first post implied that cool speakers only come to schools like Yale, not that tons of cool speakers come to most of the top colleges, with somewhat more coming to Yale than Middlebury or Williams.
Yale vs. Williams, or, the importance of dialogue about college life | the Sam Jackson College Experience

April 23rd, 2008 at 7:00 pm
6

[...] The second post / first real post is available here: Yale vs. Small Liberal Arts Colleges: part 2 (Money Matters) [...]

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