Silliman College
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| Silliman College | |
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| Named after | Benjamin Silliman |
| Established | 1940 |
| Sister Houses | Dudley House and Pforzheimer House |
| Master | Judith Krauss |
| Dean | Hugh Flick |
| Undergraduates | ~450 |
Silliman College is a residential college at Yale University. It opened September 1940 as the last of the original ten residential colleges, and includes buildings that were constructed as early as 1901. It is the largest college in terms of area and students, consisting of a full city block in New Haven, Conn, bordered by College, Wall, Grove and Temple streets.
The older, Indiana limestone part of the college consists of the Vanderbilt-Sheffield dormitories and Byers Hall, both originally part of the Sheffield Scientific School. The Van-Sheff portion of Silliman was built between 1903 and 1906 by architect Charles C. Haight in the Collegiate Gothic style. Byers Hall was built in 1903 and was designed by Hiss and Weeks architects in the modified French Renaissance Style.
The newer, Georgian brick portion of the college, which includes most of the core facilities and the Master's house, was completed in 1940 when the college was opened. Architect Eggers and Higgins designed this part of the college.
Due to Silliman's size, the college is able to house its freshmen in the college instead of on Yale's Old Campus, allowing first year students to immediately become immersed in the vibrant student life in Silliman.
The College has links to Harvard's Pforzheimer House and Dudley House, as well as Trinity College, Cambridge and Brasenose College, Oxford Its rival college at Yale is Timothy Dwight College, located directly across Temple Street.
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[edit] Silliman College Shield and Mascot
Silliman College's shield has a white background, three curving red lines emerging from near the bottom of the shield, and a green crossing bar containing three acorns. The colors represent the four ancient elements: red for fire, white for air and water, and green for earth. The acorns are in honor of Frederick Vanderbilt, 1876, who funded the college's construction.
The college's mascot is the salamander. Students in the college refer to themselves as Sillimanders. Silliman also owns a salamander costume suit made by Michael Mackenzie SM '03 that is worn to intramurals and Yale-wide events.
[edit] Physical Facilities
The college courtyard, which covers an entire city block, is the largest enclosed courtyard at Yale and is one of the glories of the old college. Students can be seen here playing various sports or lounging in the sun. Because of the size of the courtyard, sports such as stickball, football, and frisbee can all be enjoyed.
Special facilites within Silliman include Yale's only indoor rock climbing wall, Yale's only undergraduate art gallery called Maya's Room (named for Maya Tanaka Hanway, '83), a big-screen movie theater, a squash court, an art studio, a half-court basketball facility called the Sillidome, a printing press, computing facilities, a student kitchen, a dance studio, multiple music practice rooms, and a state-of-the-art [http://www.sillimancollege.org/modules/tinycontent/index.php?id=36 sound recording studio. The college's library, located in the third floor of Byers Hall, is commonly referred to as the Sillibrary.
[edit] Renovations
Because of the size of Silliman College, the renovation work on the college will have to be completed over several phases instead of the traditional 15-month renovation completed on other colleges.
In the summer of 2004, the roof and windows were replaced on the brick section of the college. Extra dormers were also added to the roofs so that student rooms could later be installed in the former attic spaces.
In the summer of 2005, the Silliman Tower underwent a complete interior renovation.
The entire college will be shut down during the 2006-2007 school year for the rest of the renovation. At that time, all students from the college will move into either Swing Space (a new dormitory built especially to house students during college renovations), the Elm Street Annex or into independent off-campus housing until the renovations are completed.
When the buildings reopen, students will be able to enjoy a reconfigured dining hall and servery, a stadium-seating movie theater, and a large student activities space that will include a new art gallery, dance studio, gym, basketball court, buttery, game room, movie theater, and television entertainment space. The renovation is rumored to cost well over $100 million, by far the most spent on any residential college renovation at Yale.
[edit] Activities and Traditions
[edit] Intramural Sports
In 2006, Silliman College ended Ezra Stiles College's 3-year Tyng Cup winning streak and was crowned Tyng Cup Champions for having the best intramural record of Yale's 12 residential colleges during the 2005-2006 academic year. Silliman beat Ezra Stiles by slightly over 100 points (1186.5 to 1082.5). This championship marked Silliman's sixth Tyng Cup win and the first since 1972. Silliman was also Tyng Cup Champion in 1941, 1943, 1968, 1969.
Silliman's Recent Intramural Secretaries: Michael Mackenzie '03, Alejandro Bribriesco '04, Conor O'Toole '04, Matthew Lynch '06, Miguel Agrait '06, Zachary Turnbull '07, Katrina Preston '07, Brett Andrews '08, Angel Enriquez '08, Sarah Keesecker '09
[edit] Other Activities and Traditions
Each fall, Silliman hosts a Yale-wide 80s theme party called the Safety Dance, the largest dance at Yale. For its own students, Silliman has an annual Freshman Olympics where students from its various entryways compete in teams for the "Clean Sweep" broom and Richfest (named in honor of Rich Marshall, a member of the Silliman class of 1996), an outdoor day of fun complete with a dunk tank, cotton candy, and a moon bounce, thrown as classes end in the spring. A short-lived winter edition of Richfest, called Rachfest (after Rachel Wasser '04), featured an inflatable jumping castle in the snow.
During Halloween week, Silliman hosts Yale's largest haunted house in the Silliman basement featuring student actors. This event, which is free to the student body, has drawn hundreds of students each year, with lines stretching well into the Silliman courtyard. Silliman also hosts several other Halloween week events including a "Halloweenie Roast," pumpkin carving competitions, and a costume contest hosted by the Master (with a popular tradition of nakedness).
Throughout the year, the Silliman Activities Committee hosts many other events including very popular Karaoke Nights at Naples Pizza, the Silliman Screw, and trips to NYC, the movies, and to ski resorts.
Each winter, on the night of the first snowfall, Silliman and its rival college, Timothy Dwight, fight each other in a massive snowball fight that takes place in the courtyards of the two colleges.
The Silliringers, a group of students using hand bells donated by a former master, perform each year at the college's Christmas Party. The college has its own newspaper, College and Wall, named for two streets that border it.
[edit] Silliman Fame
Silliman gained fame when the popular movie Mona Lisa Smile featuring Julia Roberts, Julia Stiles and Kirsten Dunst, was partly filmed in the Silliman College courtyard and common room. The Temple Street facade of Silliman was used to represent Harvard University, and the Wall Street Gate and the common room were used to represent Wellesley College.
Many Silliman students were used as extras in the film and those who were not gathered in the courtyard to watch the filming.
[edit] Famous alumni
- David Hyde Pierce, 1981, actor, best known for playing the role of Niles Crane on Fraiser
- James Jeffords, 1956, Independent U.S. senator from Vermont
- Strobe Talbott, 1968, Brookings Institution president, former Time correspondent
- Stone Phillips, 1977, newscaster
- Daniel Yergin, 1968, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Energy Consultant
- Nerissa Nields, 1989, of the band The Nields
- Elizabeth Kostova, 1988, author
[edit] External links
| Residential Colleges of Yale University |
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