Yale Gets A New SCHOOL: Jackson School of Global Affairs
Yale moves forward with transforming Jackson Institute
By Tara O’Neill | Apr. 6th, 2019
NEW HAVEN — Yale University’s Board of Trustees has approved the transformation of the university’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs into a school.
The trustees are hoping to open the new school in the fall of 2022. But in order for that to happen, an additional $200 million has to be raised for its endowment.
The announcement came from President Peter Salovey on Saturday. The school is expected to focus on problems of global importances, including climate change, war and peace, ethnic conflict, inequality and migration.
The Jackson School of Global Affairs will be the first professional school at Yale since the School of Management opened in 1976.
“Now more than ever, our world needs creative ideas and leadership to help end global conflicts and solve intractable problems,” Salovey said in a prepared statement.
The school is meant to be an intimate community of faculty, practitioners and students that conduct research.
“Yale will continue to fulfill its long-standing mission to educate passionate public servants who confront the day’s most daunting challenges with wisdom, facts, insight and courage,” Salovey said.
He said the process of hiring faculty for the school is set to begin immediately.
John and Susan Jackson have provided a monetary gift to help the university establish the school. John Jackson was a 1967 graduate of Yale. The Jacksons made a donation to support the Jackson Institute in 2010.
“We believe Yale has all the pieces in place to create a school that prepares a new generation of globally engaged leaders and generates ideas that improve the world,” John Jackson said in a prepared statement. “We are thrilled to help the university advance this vital mission.”
“We are very proud to be a party of this,” said a statement from Susan Jackson. “The world needs the best of what Yale brings to global affairs: we believe that faculty and students in this new school can change the course of history for the better.”
In his prepared statement, Salovey expressed gratitude to the Jacksons for their support.
Back in 2017, Provost Ben Polak named an advisory committee of eight faculty members to decide whether the Jackson Institute would be converted into an independent professional school. The committee issued a report in November 2018 that recommended the institute be made into a school of global affairs. The committee’s recommendation was shared with the community and the university got feedback from students, faculty and staff.
“Yale is uniquely well-situated to establish a leading center of research and learning in global affairs,” said a statement from Judith Chevalier, the William S. Beinecke Professor of Economics and Finance at the Yale School of Management, and chair of the advisory committee. “With the Jackson Institute, Yale already has a vibrant convening space for education and scholarship on issues of a global nature.”
Salovey said the new school will give its students knowledge of the world around them.
The new school is expected to retain the institute’s Senior Fellows Program at its current scale — meaning students will continue to work with practitioners, including diplomats, military leaders and journalists.
“Expanding the Jackson Institute into a school of global affairs is a natural and exciting next step,” said a statement from Jackson Institute Director James Levinsohn, the Charles W. Goodyear Professor in Global Affairs, and professor of economics and management. “It will allow us to attract the world’s best talent, including renowned practitioners who have impacted our world, a world-class research faculty whose work will contribute answers to the pressing questions of the day, and wonderful students from across the globe.”
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