Yale University has recently opened one of its prestigious freshman-orientation programs previously restricted to minority students to white students.
The program, Cultural Connections, is a weeklong session at the end of August, allowing 125 incoming freshman the opportunity to acclimate to the Yale culture on campus. Among the activities offered during the week are discussions about nationality, ethnicity, race and a layout of the university’s academic expectations for all students.
Yale University spokeswoman Gila Reinstein said she did not know much about Cultural Connections, but supplied a letter from Dean Richard Brodhead e-mailed to students announcing the program’s expansion. Reinstein said the letter was sent to students on Friday and provides the best explanation of the change on the Yale campus.
In the letter, Brodhead said after consultation with Yale’s General Counsel office, the university has decided to expand admission to the program to white students.
Brodhead also noted cases presented at other universities affecting Yale’s decision. The letter referenced Supreme Court rulings made in 2003 that reaffirmed affirmative action in higher education.
“[The ruling] makes it harder to justify programs that separate student communities instead of building them into an interactive whole,” Brodhead said in the letter. “While our commitment to supporting the needs of minority students in Yale College remains unchanged, this moment requires us to examine our programs intended to foster an inclusive student community to make sure they successfully serve that goal.”
Other programs at Yale that also changed are the Science, Technology and Research Scholars Program and the Mellon/Bouchet fellowships, which have similarly become available to white students in addition to minority students.
The letter also said deans of the cultural centers, along with the General Counsel’s office and associate dean of student affairs Betty Trachtenberg, will host meetings with students to discuss any questions or concerns with the expansion of these programs.
University of Wisconsin junior and president of the Black Student Union Christopher Loving said opening up the Cultural Connections to white students was both a positive and negative step toward diversity.
“I think it’s a good thing, because [the program is] allowing for students from majority culture to learn from the minority cultures,” Loving said. “On the other hand, I do feel like students of color need to get acclimated to the campus, lifestyle and challenges, whether they’re cultural or academic.”
Loving said he participated in UW’s Summer Collegiate Experience (SCE) the summer before his freshman year, where he and roughly 45 to 50 other minority students completed two three-credit classes free of charge.
Loving said the university provided free room and board and tuition to SCE’s participants, and all students had to do was attend. Loving said he made some of his best friends at the summer program, and he feels SCE is the best program offered by UW.
“A lot of students of color come here, and the circumstances they come from do not allow them to be equipped to pursue the challenges of the university,” Loving said. “The changes aren’t necessarily academic.”
