T H E O L D E ST C O L L E G E DA I LY · FO U N D E D 1 8 7 8
NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2012 · VOL. CXXXV, NO. 4 · yaledailynews.com
INSIDE THE NEWS MORNING EVENING
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Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins aims to become Alaska’s youngest state rep
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Elis prep for home opener and fundraiser kickoff
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PAGE 5 FEATURES
PAGE 8 NEWS
PAGE 12 SPORTS
END OF AN ERA
After nearly two decades, Levin to retire in 2013
EARL LEE/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
BY TAPLEY STEPHENSON STAFF REPORTER After two decades leading the University, Richard Levin will end his presidency after this academic year. Levin’s announcement, emailed to the Yale community Thursday morning, was not totally unexpected: He had said previously that he would see the Yale Tomorrow drive to its conclusion before departing. With Yale Tomorrow
concluded in July 2011, a new set of four-year labor contracts ratified over the summer and YaleNUS College set to open in Singapore next fall, Levin told the News he felt it an apt time to step down. Levin said he told the Corporation three years ago that he had several objectives he wanted to complete before leaving Yale — settling the labor contracts, balancing the budget, developing West Campus, launching YaleNUS in Singapore and construct-
ing the two new residential colleges. Of those stated goals, Levin leaves one notably unfulfilled: Yale still needs to raise roughly $300 million to complete the new residential colleges, a $500 million project. “The best thing I can do is to raise as much for my successor as I can, to leave some sort of dowry behind,” Levin said. “And depending on who the successor is, it may be a person who has similar expe-
rience with this.” Former Yale Corporation Senior Fellow Roland Betts ’68 said the University is “one or two major gifts away from breaking ground,” adding that he expects Levin to work on fundraising for the colleges and to continue serving on the board of Yale-NUS during his sabbatical year. But after his nearly 20 years in Woodbridge Hall — currently, the longest term of any Ivy League president — Levin’s decision still
Legacy spans city, globe
caught many off guard. Several faculty and administrators interviewed said they had been expecting Levin to step down in the near future. But most learned of Levin’s plans Thursday morning, either from his email or during a meeting of deans and directors. Yale College Dean Mary Miller, who was at the meeting, called the timing of the announcement an “enormous surprise.” “I immediately rolled back to 20 years ago,” Miller said. “As a
BY GAVAN GIDEON STAFF REPORTER As members of campus absorbed the news of University President Richard Levin’s coming departure, it didn’t take long for the question to arise: Who will be next?
[Provost Salovey has] had University-wide responsibility for 10 years as dean and provost. He’s an obvious one. ROLAND BETTS ’68 Former senior fellow, Yale Corporation
YDN
University President Richard Levin pictured after the announcement of his appointment.
On Oct. 2, 1993, Yale President Richard Levin took the stage at his inauguration. Previously the dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Levin assumed leadership of a University that was running a substantial budget deficit, allowing its physical plant to deteri-
orate and planning to reduce the faculty by 10 percent. On Thursday morning, nearly 20 years later, Levin announced that he plans to step down at the end of the academic year. As one of the longest-serving presidents in Yale’s 311-year history, he leaves behind a legacy defined by revitalization in New Haven and newfound expansion abroad.
SEE LEVIN PAGE 7
Speculation about successor begins nearby
1993
BY GAVAN GIDEON AND TAPLEY STEPHENSON STAFF REPORTERS
tenured member of the faculty who had received the news of Rick Levin’s appointment with such incredible joy, and to feel the time collapsing across this 20 year span. It felt downright teleological, this sense of an era.” Fifty-seven of 112 students interviewed Thursday said they were “surprised” or “shocked” by the news of Levin’s departure. Twenty one said they expected
With the end of Levin’s era now in sight and the hardships of the early 1990s a distant memory, many are already asking whether he might be remembered as one of Yale’s greatest presidents — if not the greatest. “Rick’s a legacy,” Law professor and former Dean of Yale Law School SEE LEGACY PAGE 6
The search for Yale’s 23rd president has yet to begin, and multiple administrators declined to comment Thursday on matters regarding Levin’s potential successor. But with Levin’s days in office definitively numbered, speculation has begun as to whether the top candidate to take the helm of the University is already close at hand. Chief among potential successors, Provost Peter Salovey — the University’s second highest-ranking administrator — has been mentioned as a candidate who might be prepared to take the reins. Yale Historian Gaddis Smith ’54
GRD ’61 said Salovey, who came to Yale in 1986 as a professor of psychology, has earned “high qualifications” for the presidential post through his current role as provost, to which Levin appointed him in August 2008. Before his provostship began, Salovey served as dean of Yale College for four years and as dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences for about a year — the post Levin held before he became president in 1993. Roland Betts ’68, a former member of the Yale Corporation who was appointed in 1999 and served as senior fellow for eight years, said that Salovey “is obviously going to be a candidate.” “He’s had University-wide responsibility for 10 years as dean and provost. He’s an obvious one,” Betts said. “Who the others will be, I have no idea.” In examining potential candidates, the Corporation’s search committee will consider a number of factors, such as age, experience and relationship to the University. The search committee will also decide between choosing SEE SUCCESSION PAGE 6
MORE INSIDE For an analysis of Levin’s impact on Yale’s relationship with New Haven, see page 6.