the Sam Jackson College Experience

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.

Yesterday, EphBlog challenged me and other Yalies to defend Yale against Williams and other small liberal arts colleges. We stepped up to the plate and demonstrated a lot of Yale’s merits which were previously unknown to a lot of the EphBlog audience; likewise I learned more about some of the advantages of Williams in greater detail.

My final conclusion was that more education and understanding would be better for everyone, since it became clear that both schools were great and had lots to offer and that it was in the best interests of students to find the place that is the best fit for them. (Also, a lot of David’s troubles seemed to stem from his assumption that Harvard = Yale, a common mistake!)

EphBlog is a great community which, as I have written before, convinced me to keep Williams on my college list for much longer than any other small LACs and much longer than really made sense given what I was actually looking for in a school. I find myself in a position where I really value a lot of the benefits of smaller liberal arts schools–intimate communities, lots of faculty interaction, and much more–but at the same time have a compelling need for the resources of a larger school. That’s why I was especially drawn to Yale–I thought it would help me bridge the divide between large and small schools, something of a happy compromise.

So, in the spirit of promoting discussion and communication, I am going to start a series where I discuss some of what Yale has to offer specifically compared to smaller schools, and how it compensates for some of its potential shortcomings in relation to them. Consider this part one, the introduction. Below is the first part of the original post that I wrote in response to David and others at EphBlog; it wasn’t completed and would have been very, very long but you can see the complete discussion at EphBlog.

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

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