Yale’s Most Popular Class Ever: Happiness; Now Online, Free

Yale’s Most Popular Class Ever: Happiness; Now Online, Free

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(from the New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/26/nyregion/at-yale-class-on-happiness-draws-huge-crowd-laurie-santos.html) By David Shimer|Jan. 26th, 2018 Jennifer Chen, left, and Sean Guo are among the almost 1,200 students taking Laurie Santos’s “Psychology and the Good Life,” at Yale. The class was recently moved to Woolsey Hall, the university’s concert venue, from Battell Chapel, which could only accommodate a crowd of 800.CreditCreditMonica Jorge…

Reunion Hacks: Hotel Rooms

Reunion Hacks: Hotel Rooms

ByBill Newman

Yes, it’s quaint, and a bit nostalgic, to sleep in our old rooms … on those “Yale single” bedframes that squeak when you sit on them.  But many spouses and partners are not so, um, adventurous, not to mention brave enough to deal with shared bathrooms, third-floor walk-ups and the other limitations of dorm living.  They (or we!) want a regular hotel room, thank you. This guide will tell you all about hotels in the area, and how to get reservations. 

Stephen Schwarzman Gives MIT $350 Million Anchor Gift For School Of Artificial Intelligence

Stephen Schwarzman Gives MIT $350 Million Anchor Gift For School Of Artificial Intelligence

ByHarry Forsdick

Stephen Schwarzman, the billionaire cofounder and CEO of private equity giant Blackstone, is donating $350 million to a new $1 billion college for the study of artificial intelligence at MIT. In most universities, the study of artificial intelligence is centered in engineering and computer science departments. The new MIT school will seek to cultivate AI scholarship across disciplines, including the sciences and the humanities.

Survey: 4. Politics Then and Now

Survey: 4. Politics Then and Now

ByThomas Guterbock

We are only a couple weeks away from the mid-term elections — consequential elections being held during a time of extreme partisanship and vitriol. Reasonable minds can debate whether 1968 or 2018 represents the worst case of division within the country in our lifetimes. That said, now seems like a great time to report to you what the Class Survey said about our political opinions in 1969 and today.

New Haven and Yale, a 300-Year Relationship

New Haven and Yale, a 300-Year Relationship

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From the New Haven Register:  https://www.nhregister.com/news/article/Top-50-300-year-relationship-molded-New-Haven-13303757.php By Ed Stannard|Oct. 13th, 2018 NEW HAVEN — Judith Schiff is a living encyclopedia of Yale University history. As the chief research archivist at Sterling Memorial Library, Schiff can offer dates and facts as if she had just looked them up that day. But Schiff’s relationship with Yale goes back to her…

Mini-Reunions Announced for Richmond and DC

Mini-Reunions Announced for Richmond and DC

ByDoug Colton

Editors’ Note:  Doug Colton is one the three co-chairs of the Reunion Committee. Based on the success of regional  “mini-reunions” in Boston and New York, the Reunion Committee is organizing get-togethers in places where Classmates are clustered.  The first two of these have been announced.  If you are in or near either the greater DC area, or the…

First semester freshman year:  Yale’s goodbye to Columbus

First semester freshman year:  Yale’s goodbye to Columbus

BySteven Davis

The day before Columbus Day, 1965, Yale University press almost put Columbus himself out of business.  Publication of The Vinland Map and Tartar Relation made the case that a map inscribed on very old parchment showed that someone else discovered the New World some 400 years earlier.  The New York Times broke the story which, back then, was hardly fake news.  It was, in fact, to the world and at least this Yale Freshman, a big damn deal.

Yale May Consider Exiting Private Funds in Social Investment Shift

Yale May Consider Exiting Private Funds in Social Investment Shift

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from Bloomberg News:  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-11/yale-opens-door-to-exit-private-funds-in-social-investment-shift By Janet Lorin Oct. 11th, 2018 Yale, which has about 60 percent of its $29.4 billion endowment in such alternative assets, made the statement as part of its ethical investment policy. The Ivy League school said it will work with its outside managers to adhere to its standards. “In addition to attempting moral…

Captain Grace Hopper’s Lessons

Captain Grace Hopper’s Lessons

ByRichard Seltzer

When Yale decided to rename one of its residential colleges, my college, from Calhoun to Grace Hopper, I was annoyed. Then I remembered that I had met Captain Grace Hopper, had heard her deliver a speech, and had written an article about her back in 1983, when I worked for DEC, the minicomputer company.  Here’s what I learned and what I’ve come to think about her, the computer and internet revolutions and what it may mean to education at Yale.

Lunatic Fringe

Lunatic Fringe

ByWayne Willis

The Lunatic Fringe was one of several Yale rock bands that played the songs we could drink and dance to at our Saturday night mixers. The women bussed in from what we called the “girls’ schools” were always the main event of course, but the Fringe did their part to get everyone on the dance floor, playing the hits at juiced up tempos.

Nordhaus Wins Nobel Prize

Nordhaus Wins Nobel Prize

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Editor’s Note:  Not technically News from our Class, Nordhaus was on the faculty from 1967 on.  If you studied under him, please leave comments below. (Source: New York Times, Oct. 8, 2018)
WASHINGTON — The 2018 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science was awarded on Monday to a pair of American economists, William D. Nordhaus and Paul M. Romer, for their work highlighting the importance of government policy in fostering sustainable economic growth. Mr. Nordhaus was honored for pioneering the assessment of the economic impact of climate change, including his advocacy for governments to tax carbon emissions.

Yale’s Swensen Invests in $400 Million Crypto Fund

Yale’s Swensen Invests in $400 Million Crypto Fund

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from CNBC. The most influential endowment manager just jumped into crypto with bets on two Silicon Valley funds Swensen, who manages Yale’s $29.4 billion endowment, has invested in two funds dedicated to cryptocurrencies, sources tell CNBC. The funds are run by Andreessen Horowitz and Paradigm, which was started by Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam and former…

I’m Seeking Names Of Some Draft Resisters

I’m Seeking Names Of Some Draft Resisters

ByJim Sleeper

Classmates, do any of you remember or have information about a small anti-draft demonstration on Beinecke Plaza one wintry morning in early 1968, our junior year? Three seniors handed their draft cards to Bill Coffin in an act of civil-disobedience, stating that they would refuse conscription into the Vietnam War. I came across the gathering…