""The Gatekeepers"- Julianna Bentes, Yale '04

Byerly
Tue, 04 Jan 2005 16:39:22 +0000

Friday, members of United Students at Yale delivered a petition calling for greater student input in University policy-making to the office of Yale President Richard Levin.

In one of the group’s first concrete actions, the members presented the petition, which they said contains 3,017 undergraduate signatures to Nina Glickson, an assistant to the president.

“We are asking for more meaningful input into the decisions that affect our lives,” reads a cover letter that accompanied the petition. “We have identified three areas of widespread concern – financial aid policy, diversity on campus, and Yale’s actions as a local and global citizen.”

Several USAY members said the petition’s ambiguity aimed at allowing the University flexibility in deciding how to include the student body.

“It was intentionally left open-ended,” said Julianna Ben"tes '04, who helped deliver the petitions, which do not contain USAY’s name."