YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2022 · yaledailynews.com
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OPINION SCOTT: Seize this opportunity “For Humanity” A rare constellation of tragedies throughout the world, all aimed at suppressing democratic aspirations and the intelligentsia that gives them voice, provides Yale, albeit tragically, with a unique chance to give real substance to its recent slogan: “For Humanity.” Scholars and intellectuals at-risk trapped in many countries face arrest, imprisonment, torture and death for daring to speak, write, sing, paint and tweet in defense of an open society with democratic
THIS CRISIS FOR DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS AND MOVEMENTS PRESENTS YALE WITH AN OPPORTUNITY TO INSTITUTIONALIZE A COMMITMENT TO LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE AND EXPRESSION WORLDWIDE BY CREATING A HUB THAT WILL PROVIDE SAFETY, SUPPORT AND ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL RESOURCES TO INTELLECTUALS AT RISK. freedoms. Many have been murdered. Many have been imprisoned and many are in hiding or have fled the country to seek asylum. Syria, Afghanistan, Myanmar, occupied Ukraine, Russia, Sudan, Iran, Egypt, Tibet, Xinjiang do not come close to exhausting the list of places where democratic expression is often met with lethal force. This crisis for democratic institutions and movements presents Yale with an opportunity to institutionalize a commitment to liberty of conscience and expression worldwide by creating a hub that will provide safety, support and academic and professional resources to intellectuals at risk. A Center for Refugee Intellectuals and Democracy would create an international com-
munity of scholars united by similar aspirations. They would continue their work for an open society at home by research, writing, artistic production, film, documentation and policy work. In doing so, they would greatly enrich the intellectual life of undergraduate and graduate education while benefiting from the intellectual resources that a major research university can offer. As I and others envision it, the Center would welcome several prominent intellectuals at risk from two or three countries in turmoil who would collaborate in crafting democratic strategies, documenting human rights abuses and both promoting and embodying an inclusive democratic culture in their work. The Center would hopefully become widely known as a bastion of temporary asylum for democratic intellectuals. A university-wide committee, first conceived by President Salovey last March, has been considering initiatives for scholars at risk. Now, eight months later, it appears that a report to Salovey is imminent. One hopes it will be expansive and bold rather than minimal and timid. There are historical reasons to be pessimistic. From the mid-19th century to the mid-20th,, for example, there were at least two major pulses of refugee intellectuals from Germany to the United States that helped shape higher education in America: the refugees from the 1848 revolutions and the intellectual refugees, Jews and nonJews, from Nazism. The former was instrumental in shaping mid-Western land grant universities as well as public culture — music, museums, libraries, parks, newspapers, etc. The latter pulse, of course, completely reshaped large parts of science and humanities curricula. Yale, to my knowledge, played little to no role in welcoming these intellectuals. In the case of Jews, it was just beginning to come to grips with its own history of institutionalized antisemitism. Nor, more recently, did Yale play a notable role in offering temporary intellectual sanctuary to scholars fleeing the military regimes in Chile, Brazil and Argentina. In my 45 years of teaching at Yale, I have come to think of this institutional lack of agility in terms of the adage attributed to the New England farmer: “Never be the first one to try something new, nor the last.” Here’s a historic opportunity to seize the initiative, and in doing so both enrich Yale immeasurably and make a signal contribution to the defense of democracy.
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Class registration is a part of Yale’s hidden curriculum, with its own fine prints and unspoken rules that could catch students unawares upon first glance. With the shopping period gone, the Editorial Board would like to urge Yale College to do more to preserve the principles of academic exploration and pursuit of curiosity that are bedrocks of a liberal arts education. We call upon Yale College to make the course registration process more transparent and accessible, especially for classes requiring applications and pre-registration. We also call on Yale College to extend the Add/Drop period by one week, so students may make more informed decisions about their schedule. For many prospective students, shopping period served as a major point of appeal in choosing to apply to and attend Yale — a promise that the University would provide us with the greatest space possible to explore our interests, try new things and perhaps stumble upon new academic passions through happenstance. However, the current registration process breaks this promise, leaving students severely hindered in their capacity to expand their academic horizons. When the College made the shift to Add/Drop in spring 2021, Dean of Yale College Marvin Chun claimed that the new registration process would constitute a reframing of shopping period, not an elimination of it. However, there is very little evidence that the spirit of shopping period has persisted through the change. As the system exists currently, there is only one week between the start of classes and the end of Add/Drop. This means some classes only meet one time, or perhaps even not at all, before Add/Drop ends. Further, Add/ Drop allows students to enroll in no more than 5.5 credits during the trial period without special permission from their Deans. This means that students not only have far fewer opportunities to actually attend the classes that interest them, they also have far fewer opportunities to even sign up for classes. All of the above means that the courses most outside a student’s comfort zone will be the first to go. Students are expected to register for courses half a semester in advance, with little to no information to base these decisions on. Many classes do not have accurate listings for times and locations during course selection. Some classes are even being added to the registration site after course worksheets are due. This lack of information causes scheduling issues for students. Classes students had initially prioritized by adding to their early registration sheet may no longer fit into their schedule, putting them at risk of not being able to find
other classes in time since most classes are overfilled by the Add/ Drop period. The current system also restricts exploration through the convoluted structure of both a first-come, first-serve basis for certain courses while simultaneously allowing internal application structures for others. The current registration system punishes students who do not have a concrete idea of what they want to study. With early applications for preference selection courses opening on Nov.1 and the registration worksheet opening on Nov. 14, the current registration timeline falls within Yale’s elongated “midterm season.” Many students have to scramble to research and apply to
WE COME TO YALE WITH A LOVE OF LEARNING, WHICH THE COURSE REGISTRATION SYSTEM SHOULD ENCOURAGE INSTEAD OF ABATE. courses on top of studying for their exams. This issue is compounded by the fact that for underclassmen, many of their decisions on which courses they are interested in are not made until after the conclusion of the semester and they gauge their overall interest in a particular course or topic. The pervasive sentiment among underclassmen has been that the new early registration system — which opens course registration sequentially by class year — inhibits their ability to experience courses that could be pivotal in reorienting their academic interests. Though underclassmen typically enroll in primarily larger survey-like courses, it is often the opportunity to engage with a few higher-level seminars that steer younger students towards one potential major over others, particularly in humanities and social science courses that carry less of an emphasis on sequence. Consequently, first-years and sophomores are incentivized to declare majors on SIS in advance to gain an advantage in registering for classes affiliated with that major. Advanced seminars often give priority to those studying related majors, and even circulate private sign-up forms to their major email list before the normal registration period begins. Students could
even declare majors to get into particular classes, then undeclare and declare new majors to get into completely different classes each semester. We understand that the new registration system has many benefits, especially for faculty. Some professors prefer this to the old shopping period because it gauges how much genuine interest there is in a class, which is important for hiring Teaching Assistants and designing classroom activities. Since class attendance did not settle until the end of shopping period as well, professors would lose out on two weeks of instruction time. However, this early registration system may also put extra pressure on faculty by forcing them to craft syllabi and course admission policies at the same time as teaching their current courses. While respecting concerns from faculty, we can still create a more transparent course registration process to keep more of the benefits of shopping period. Extending the Add/Drop period by one week, for example, would allow students to make more informed decisions about the courses they are taking, but would likely not result in large admission changes. Faculty will have more time to fully show what their course is like to students and more accurately gauge their demonstrated interest at the same time. Departments must also respond to requests to increase enrollment in popular limited-enrollment subjects, such as creative writing, visual art and history seminars. Additionally, there could be more standardized measures put into place to ensure that students of all backgrounds have the ability to explore Yale’s curriculum while enabling professors to maintain intensity and rigor in smaller courses. The course registration process sets the tone for the upcoming semester: it’s a time where the intellectual curiosity of Yalies shine. Some students download syllabi of courses they find interesting, others take courses from many different departments, and almost all become more excited about their academic journey ahead. We come to Yale with a love of learning, which the course registration system should encourage instead of abate. A more transparent and streamlined registration process will allow students to do what they do best: make informed choices to study what they want. YALE DAILY NEWS EDITORIAL BOARD Contact the board at editorialboard@yaledailynews.com .
JAMES C. SCOTT is the Sterling Professor of Political Science, Anthropology and Environmental Studies. Contact him at james.scott@yale.edu .
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EDITORIAL: Make course registration more transparent
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LETTER 10.25 The “save our sidewalks” op-ed correctly notes that New Haven and the U.S. in general is not bicycle friendly. The solution could and should go beyond more and safer bike lanes. Better and preferably-electric public transportation would reduce the need for bikes. Vigorous enforcement of actually clear ordinances on the subject of bikes would help, as would increasing fines for violations. Unfortunately, the New Haven ordinance on the subject of where bikes can be driven is not clear at all. It is so unclear that city officials and police often have no idea what the NH ordinance allows or prohibits. For example, the NH ordinance prohibits riding bikes on sidewalks, but there is no exception for children under the age of 12. Such an exemption has been asserted to exist by the city parking director. Furthermore, the ordinance as written prohibits people from even wheeling their bike along a sidewalk. The
prohibition is not limited to riding the bike on the sidewalk. I doubt if this result was intended by the City Government, but nevertheless, that is what the ordinance says. Contrary to Ms. Hopkinson’s article, there is no prohibition under NH law for riding a bike on the grass on the Green or elsewhere. Only motorized vehicles are expressly prohibited from doing that. The City of New Haven’s online “informational” site concerning bikes and sidewalks makes absolutely no mention that bikes on sidewalks are illegal. All it says is that such behavior is impolite and dangerous. That omission is not only strange, but counterproductive. The New Haven bike-riding ordinance does not apply to grassy areas or sidewalks that are on the Yale Campus because the campus is private property. Complaints about such activities must be addressed by the Yale Administration, not the City of New Haven. Additionally, bike lanes in and of themselves are not a proper
solution because car doors are opened into them willy-nilly. Driver awareness needs to be improved. Also, most bike lanes in New Haven that do exist are too narrow to provide any true security. In most of Europe, drivers must allow for 1.5 meters — 5 feet — of space between car and bike when passing. If the driver cannot, then the driver cannot lawfully pass the bike. As Ms. Hopkinson points out, a major source of problems is the bikers, not just drivers. Most bike accidents of which I have been aware over my many decades on this planet are caused by careless biking as much as careless driving. Inattentive pedestrians too are a major cause of accidents involving bikes. In conclusion, at least one of your faithful readers would like to see vigorous fact checking of all op-eds, especially those written by staff members. JAMES LUCE is’66 is an alumnus. Contact him at jaume@sbcglobal.net .
