Yale grad students raise concern about university’s undergrad enrollment growth Two residential colleges to open for undergraduates in 2017

(Arnold Gold-New Haven Register) A crane at a construction site for two residential colleges for Yale University crosses Prospect St. in New Haven on 3/2/2015. (Arnold Gold-New Haven Register) A crane at a construction site for two residential colleges for Yale University crosses Prospect St. in New Haven on 3/2/2015. Photo: Journal Register Co. Photo: Journal Register Co. Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Yale grad students raise concern about university’s undergrad enrollment growth 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

NEW HAVEN >> The graduate students’ organization at Yale is raising questions about the impact of two new residential colleges on undergraduate education at the university.

The Graduate Employees and Students Organization, which is seeking to be recognized as a Yale union, made its points in a report titled “Teaching in a Growing Yale: Critical Questions.”

The report questions how much in extra money will be spent on undergraduate teaching, the ratio of tenure-track (“ladder”) faculty to non-ladder teachers, such as graduate assistants and adjunct professors, and the gender and ethnic diversity of Yale’s faculty.

Aaron Greenberg, president of GESO, said the spending question was based on a May 2014 report by an ad hoc committee that said the 800 additional students Yale will enroll in its 13th and 14th residential colleges will bring in about $30 million in tuition and room and board. “The increased operating costs associated with supporting these additional students cannot exceed that amount,” said the 2014 report. The committee was led by the provost and dean of Yale College.

“This is a real departure from the way higher-education funding tends to work,” Greenberg said. If the $30 million limit is enforced, Greenberg said, “We would expect an 8.4 percent drop in the amount Yale is spending on education [per student]. If they are expecting the 800 new undergraduates to essentially pay their way, I think it raises real questions about the education of all undergraduates in general.”

The 200 members per class will increase the average class size to 1,550. The two new colleges, scheduled to open in fall 2017, are being built in a large triangle north of the Grove Street Cemetery and south of Ingalls Rink.

University spokesman Thomas Conroy said GESO’s concern about a $30 million limit to new spending is not “an accurate appraisal. That was an assignment [to the ad hoc committee],” he said. “That was not a report by the university saying this will be the budget. … I don’t know what the budget of Yale College is going to be two years from now and I don’t believe anyone else does.”

He noted that $1 billion from Yale’s endowment provides for a third of the budget and that there’s been a $200 million campaign for additional financial aid. All students are subsidized in some way, he said. Yale’s 2014-15 tuition and room and board totals $59,800.

Greenberg continued: “The second area around which we have questions is teaching and teaching resources.” According to GESO’s report, the number of teaching faculty positions shrank by three between 2008 and 2014 to 972 positions, while research faculty, who do little teaching, increased by 39 to 173 in the same period.

Greenberg said a 2008 study group had recommended “scaling up the faculty.” The 2014 report said that in the six years since 2008 “the total ladder faculty of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences has grown from 651 to 700 to prepare for the increase in teaching demand that will be generated by the additional students.” The GESO report, however, based on data from the Yale Office of Institutional Research, only counts 675 “ladder faculty.”

“Is there a question of what that will mean for the quality of educational experience for Yale College students on campus?” Greenberg asked. The situation is compounded by a reduction in non-ladder faculty between 2008 and 2014, the report states.

Abbey Agresta, a fifth-year graduate student in history, said “teaching is the most important work I do” at Yale. Her maximum discussion section is 18, which she said stretches the ability of students to engage with each other. But, she said, “The idea that section sizes would be increased is a concern for me.” The 2014 report recommends “some flexibility be accorded with respect to class size limits” in certain courses.

Greenberg said diversity of the faculty is also a concern for GESO.

“Looking at the trend over the last few years, most of the women and non-white faculty have been in [non-ladder] faculty,” he said.

According to GESO’s report, “Yale has in fact significantly increased the number of Asian ladder faculty on campus. This is an important step toward diversifying what has long been a relatively homogeneous faculty. Beyond this success, however, there has been little progress in increasing the presence of academics of color at Yale.” However, “progress on gender has been slightly better,” the report states.

Greenberg said GESO would like to have discussions with the administration, which doesn’t recognize the organization, about increasing diversity among the faculty. “One of the questions in the report is how Yale is going to meet [its] goals … if it’s not going to grow the ladder faculty. They have stated publicly that they will not be growing the ladder faculty.”

Adom Getachew, a sixth-year graduate student in political science and African-American studies, said out of 9,000 political scientists in the country, “only 168 are black women; of those only 19 are full professors. … I’ve kind of seen those trends play out at Yale as well.”

“The question for me isn’t are there going to be more ladder faculty hires [but] how are we going to diversify the faculty?” Getachew said.

“I’ve had a good experience here,” she said. “I would like this experience to be available to a lot more people to come.”

Conroy said, “The university has many initiatives to increase the diversity of the faculty. Progress has been made and progress will be made.”

He noted the appointment of Richard Bribiescas, chairman of the Anthropology Department, as deputy provost for faculty development and diversity.

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