"In response to a recent uptick in unauthorized tour groups around campus, a new policy will restrict non-Yale-affiliated tour groups from entering the residential colleges.
Under the new policy, adopted by Yale Heads of College and tour guides, only tour groups organized by the Yale Admissions Office and the Yale Visitor Center are permitted to enter the residential colleges." …
https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2019/01/18/new-policy-restricts-tours-of-the-residential-colleges/
I think it’s scary they ever allowed unauthorized groups!
^^ @momofsenior1: I’m not sure what is so scary. At other universities/ivy league school’s, it’s a non-issue. For example: any student, tourist, or tour group can walk into Harvard Yard and view the outside of the dorms from within Harvard Yard. (Unauthorized visitors and tour groups cannot gain access to any of the entryways, dorms or dining halls without a student ID.) Ditto with Princeton campus, as well as Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, Cornell and UPenn, It’s only at Yale that walls are erected around the colleges internal yards to keep non-Elie’s out. IMHO – and I’m saying this with a kid who graduated from Yale – I think that is very off-putting and comes off as elitist. The doors to Yale’s internal college dorm yards should be open to everyone.
The article implied that groups were gaining access inside buildings. Specially it says “where students live.” IMO, I would not want random people getting into my daughter’s dorm.
It’s one thing for people to be able to walk around the common grounds of a campus, another to be inside buildings, especially dorms.
Harvard and MIT get an endless stream of tour buses filled with international students. Some enterprises are making a mint off of them. It is literally all day long. They file off buses, take pics, have a mini tour and I guess they are on to the next school. There does not appear to be evidence of any having applied to the schools. I guess they are intended to help students decide where to apply. What an expense that must be!
I agree. However, as a parent visiting my son, I could not gain access to the locked common grounds of Saybrook as I didn’t have a student ID. After texting my son, I would have to wait – sometimes 10 minutes or more – for him to come down from his dorm room and physically open the locked gates to the common grounds. IMHO, that is very off-putting and adds to the impression that Yale is an elitist campus. That’s not the case at other universities.
That’s crazy @gibby! The message that sends is not necessarily only elitist, but in an unsafe area.
Entrance to the courtyards of Penn’s Quad is access controlled.
No, I wouldn’t want “strangers” or an unknown group to have access to the residential floors in a dorm. A legit group can identify themselves to admissions. It doesn’t suggest elitist to me. Only the unfortunate reality that security is an issue.
My kids’ college didn’t have any traditional wall around the campus, purposely. Of course, dorms have security access. And so do academic buildings. At many places, not just on campuses, there’s security of some for or other. Way back when I was in college, we were told to contact security if strangers were wandering around. Not in the main quad, not on lower campus, but where their reasons were anyone’s guess. We had key access, back then. Not in an unsafe area.
As far as I know, anyone and everyone can walk through the various open gates and enter Old Campus, which is mostly first-year dorms, so I think that’s equivalent to the situation at Harvard of everyone being able to enter Harvard Yard.
I don’t believe at Harvard anyone without a key card is supposed to be able to enter the Houses (certainly not the entryways and rooms), just like at Yale unauthorized visitors can’t enter the Colleges. It may feel more accessible at Harvard because fewer of the Houses are built around central courtyards.
I agree that if you’re a parent it’s annoying to have to wait for your kid to come down and let you in, or for someone to walk through the gate so you can slip in, but I can understand the reasons for the policy.
Exactly.
Easily solved with a text: “I’m parking the car and I’m 5 minutes out. Meet me downstairs.”
In theory I think academic institutions ought to be available to all who have a legitimate reason to be there or use it. But I also understand why a school like Yale would pretty much say “enough”. While it is obviously a historic site and therefore it is understandable that people are interested in touring the grounds, it is still primarily a university. Attending students have a right to expect the school to protect the school’s climate/environment such that it continues to have the feel of a university to the students.
MIT has an open campus, something that seems to reflect its values-and except the actual residential buildings/dorms, people are free to enter any building. And as I mentioned above, MIT gets a steady stream of bus tours. But MIT is very spread out and is very much part of a bustling community. There’s usually so much action anyway on Mass Ave, where the buses seem to let off and pick up, that these tours don’t seem to impact much. I can’t say the same for their impact on Harvard. There I think they are horribly disruptive and do change the climate of the area. They huddle in large groups while the leader gives the spiel. And some of the groups are large enough that getting by them on the sidewalk can be difficult. If there was usually only one group it wouldn’t impact that much. But at any given time, especially during good weather seasons, there may be 5 or 6 large groups gathered in Harvard Square. It’s not the campus, obviously, so they can’t be excluded but they are very disruptive. If as many are hitting Yale’s campus, I can understand them saying “enough” and locking them out.
There must be some foreign enterprises making a mint on these bus tours that seem to take these groups from one school to the next. Some schools are large enough to absorb the impact, I can’t imagine how Yale (or Princeton) would do that.
The central colleges surrounding Old Campus have relatively small enclosed courtyards. Many of the colleges’ libraries have windows overlooking their courtyards. There are often benches, grass and trees. They are natural places to read and socialize in small groups. I don’t see why it is any issue that unauthorized groups or persons should be denied having access to what were designed as private spaces.
MIT has restricted key card access, as appropriate.
The other thing to understand about most of the Yale colleges is that the entrance to the courtyard is generally the only point at which security can be applied. There’s no other “front door.” The students’ rooms are in entryways – effectively vertical hallways – that exit into the courtyard, and that are generally not locked. So once you are in the courtyard, you have access to all of the hallways where college students live, as well as to all their common rooms, rehearsal rooms, laundry rooms, etc.
It’s a real pity, because some of the interior courtyards are quite beautiful – Branford and Saybrook, especially, and Pierson come to mind. Saybrook is all imperial and hostile from the street – walled and massively vertical – but lovely inside. It would be nice if visitors could see that. But the college gates were locked even when I was there, 40+ years ago. People were more casual about propping them open at times, but there were plenty of occasions when people I knew lost or forgot their keys and had to stand around the gate waiting for someone to let them in.
This thread has brought up a question for me, along similar lines. I live within a block of a major private T20. There are wonderful programs open to the community on nearly a daily basis. The university’s grounds are also spectacular and there are community members walking/biking/running through campus constantly. No walls, no barriers. Just keyed access to residence halls. Even the campus libraries are open to the public with valid ID. IMO, it fosters good will between the university and the town. Does Yale not have any public programs for the residents of New Haven? If so, how do they get onto campus?
They just walk on. When you read “residential colleges,” think “residence halls.”
Very true, but that is also true at Harvard. However, Harvard’s upperclass residential houses do not have the same locked gates. Anyone can walk into the courtyards of Winthrop, Lowell, Eliot, Kirkland etc. and view their interior courtyards.
@JHS – My son’s entryway at Branford is locked. Moving in required free hands first for the massive gate to the courtyard and then to open the door to his entryway. I am not complaining; the extra lock is good since they do not seem to lock their suite.
@momofsenior1 – The programs open to HS students were held in academic buildings. The ones my son attended were held on weekends, with a couple on school days. I don’t know if the buildings were unlocked only for the day, but I had no trouble going in to use a bathroom while waiting to pick him up.
I don’t know when this changed, but back 40 years ago, the entryways were unlocked within the residential colleges, but (as noted) the gates were supposed to be locked, but often weren’t–although they were usually closed and locked at night. More recently, the entryways are also locked. (I think they were always locked on the Old Campus, which was open to the public during the day.)