List of Yale University student organizations

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There are a number of student organizations at Yale University.

The Yale Political Union, the oldest student political organization in the United States, is often the largest organization on campus, and is advised by alumni political leaders such as John Kerry, Gerald Ford, and George Pataki.

The university features a variety of student journals, magazines, and newspapers. The latter category includes the Yale Daily News, which was first published in 1878 and is the oldest daily college newspaper in the United States. Dwight Hall, an independent, non-profit community service organization, oversees more than 2,000 Yale undergraduates working on more than 60 community service initiatives in New Haven. The Yale College Council runs several agencies that oversee campus wide activities and student services.

The campus also includes several fraternities and sororities. The campus features at least eighteen a capella groups, including the most prominent of which is The Whiffenpoofs. A number of prominent secret societies, including Skull and Bones, are composed of Yale College students.


Contents

[edit] Greek organizations

The fraternity system in America, which began at William and Mary with the creation of Phi Beta Kappa, grew up at Yale. The early fraternities were junior, sophomore, and even freshman societies that controlled campus politics, including entry into the senior societies that Yale's early Phi Beta Kappa spawned. Those fraternities, however, bear little resemble to the Yale frats of today.

Several fraternities and sororities have chapters at Yale, including:

[edit] Community service organizations

  • Dwight Hall, an umbrella community service organization overseeing more than 300 community service and social justice initiatives

[edit] Political organizations

[edit] Musical groups

Student musical groups include four university-sponsored organizations composed primarily of undergraduates:

  • The Yale Concert Band[4].
  • The Yale Precision Marching Band[5], a scatter band that performs at home football games and many hockey and basketball games. They are known for their comedic halftime shows and arrangements of popular music.
  • The Yale Jazz Ensemble[6], an 18-piece big band/swing band
  • The Yale Glee Club[7]. Founded in 1863, the Glee Club today includes about 80 men and women who sing baroque, classical, modern, and folk tunes.
  • The Yale Symphony Orchestra[8], a full orchestra that performs classical and modern pieces.
  • In addition, the student-run Davenport Pops Orchestra[9], Saybrook College Orchestra[10], Berkeley College Orchestra[11], Jonathan Edwards Chamber Players, and Bach Society[12] all provide free concerts of symphonic masterworks.
  • The Yale Tango Club [13], host of the Yale Tango Fest [14].

[edit] A cappella singing groups

Undergraduates also sing in more than a dozen a cappella groups.

All men

  • The Whiffenpoofs[15] began the tradition of college a cappella singing groups in 1909. The group is limited to male seniors; each spring 14 juniors are selected ("tapped") for membership. Admission to the group is highly competitive. Alumni include Cole Porter and Fenno Heath.
  • The Spizzwinks(?)[16], founded in 1913, is Yale's oldest underclassman a cappella group.
  • The Yale Society of Orpheus and Bacchus[17], founded in 1938, is Yale's oldest continually active underclassman a cappella group.
  • The Yale Alley Cats[18], founded in 1943, has become one of the most internationally renowned of the American collegiate vocal ensembles.
  • The Baker's Dozen[19], founded in 1947, tours annually, and has performed at the White House. They were assaulted in San Francisco in what was termed a "homophobic verbal and physical assault" on December 31, 2006.[20]
  • The Duke's Men of Yale[21], founded in 1952, sing all-male a cappella. "Da Doox" tour internationally, compete nationally in a cappella competitions, and sing for famous people, most recently Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Dan Brown, and Vanna White.
  • The Yale Russian Chorus[22], founded in 1953, is a predominantly male group of students and community members who sing liturgical and folk music of Russia and other Eastern European lands.

All women

  • The New Blue[23] was established in 1969, when Yale College first admitted women undergraduates. It is Yale's first all-female a cappella group and the college's first women's organization.
  • The Yale Women's Slavic Chorus[24], founded in 1969, sings Eastern European folk songs.
  • Proof of the Pudding was founded in 1975.
  • Something Extra[25] was founded in 1977.
  • Whim 'n' Rhythm[26] is a seniors-only group, founded in 1981 to launch a tradition similar to the Whiffenpoofs'.

Coeducational

  • Redhot & Blue[27], founded in 1977 as Yale's first co-educational a cappella group, is known for the intricate and challenging arrangements of its jazz-based repertoire.
  • Living Water[28], founded in 1979, calls itself "Yale's Christian a cappella group."
  • Mixed Company [29], is one of the oldest mixed a cappella groups at Yale.
  • Out of the Blue[30], founded in 1987, calls itself "Yale's only co-ed, pop-rock a cappella group."
  • Shades[31], founded in 1988 to sing the music of the African diaspora (including R&B and gospel).
  • Magevet[32], founded in 1993, is Yale's "first, best, and only Jewish a cappella singing group."

[edit] Theatrical organizations

  • The Yale Dramatic Association[33], founded in 1900, is the second-oldest college theatre company in the country; "The Dramat" has featured the work of such noted Yale graduates as Cole Porter, Thornton Wilder, and Stephen Vincent Benet. It typically produces three productions a year including a full-scale musical each spring in the University Theater. Smaller-scale productions are mounted on the stage of the Yale Repertory Theatre and the School Of Drama's black box theatre. Prominent former Dramat members include Sam Waterston, Austin Pendleton,George Roy Hill, John Badham, Cheryl Henson and many others.
  • The Yale Drama Coalition is an umbrella organization overseeing some 20+ student-directed, student-produced plays each semester. These are generally funded by the Sudler Funds of each residential college, which award up to $1000 to mount art shows and theatrical productions created by members of that college.
  • Yale's Improvisational comedy organizations include The Viola Question [34], Just Add Water , The Purple Crayon[35], and the Exit Players.
  • Sketch Comedy groups include The Fifth Humour, Suite 13, the Sphincter Troupe, and Red Hot Poker.
  • The Control Group, Yale's experimental theatre troupe and only theatrical ensemble, puts on 2-4 productions a year.
  • The Yale Gilbert and Sullivan Society [36] produces one operetta per year.
  • The Yale Undergraduate Musical Theater Company, or YUMTC [37] produces musical theater. It was conceived by Greg Edwards, a member of the class of 2005.

[edit] Senior societies

Yale is also known as the home of many senior societies and secret societies. [38] Some of these groups are "landed" while others are "underground." Landed groups are considered among the most prestigious, because they have tomb-like structures in which to hold their meetings. Among these groups are:

These societies select members of the student body for lifetime membership.

[edit] Other notable clubs

Private clubs at Yale exhibit a range of membership models: all-student, student-faculty, or student-faculty-alumni, and a gamut of topical interests or organizing missions. Some are almost as well known as famous secret societies and some share characteristics including selective membership, endowments, noteworthy buildings, characteristic traditions, or on-campus historical antecedents as 19th c. or 20th c. fraternal organizations. Clubs located within the campus area are woven into the fabric of Yale life, even though most do not have any formal affiliation with the University.

  • The Elizabethan Club is a literary discussion club, with a reciprocal relationship with the Signet Society at Harvard. Researchers may request access through Yale's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library to items in "The Lizzie's" private collection of Shakespeariana and other British historico-literary material. Reference: The Elizabethan Club of Yale University and Its Library, Stephen Parks; Introduction by Alan Bell, Yale University Press, 1986, ISBN: 0300036698
  • Mory's is a dining club for alumni, faculty and student members. Its carved paneling, silver cups, Yale memorabilia and atmosphere make it an echt-Yale venue for the Whiffenpoofs and other singing groups' performances.
  • The Chai Society, founded in 1996, is dining and social club founded on the principles of Jewish leadership and communal identity at Yale and in the world at large. Its membership ranks are open to all Yale students, faculty, and affiliates, regardless of their ethnic or religious backgrounds.
  • The Fence Club was the historical name for the Psi Upsilon fraternity at Yale. In 1934, Psi Upsilon, by then a venerable junior fraternity, renounced its national affiliation and became the Fence Club, in honor of the Yale Fence. It was a very prestigious house at Yale and many of its members went on to become members of Skull and Bones, including George H. W. Bush. However, in the mid-1970s, the Fence Club went defunct when the University required a mandatory meal plan for all students. Its reputation led to its demise being noted in the Official Preppy Handbook in 1980. From 2004-7, the Psi Upsilon fraternity reestablished a chapter on campus. In 2007, the chapter severed all ties to the Psi Upsilon fraternity after a dispute with the national organization, retaining only the name Fence Club. In addition to other leading U.S. government figures, former CIA Director Porter Goss and Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte were members. The former clubhouse at 220 York St. is used by the University as classrooms.[44]
  • The Rockingham Club (1981-1986) was founded by Lord Nicholas Hervey as a social club for Yale student descendants of royalty or aristocracy, a requirement later modified to allow membership by offspring of the "super-wealthy." The club survived only five years and the clubhouse (an off-campus clapboard building housing a full length portrait of Lord Hervey and other artifacts of the European jet-set) held parties whose invitations were in demand by a certain demographic of Yalies and their guests.
  • The Corsair Club, The Zodiac Club, The Kittens Club, and the Round Table. Dining clubs that appear to have existed at Yale in the 19th century. (See researcher's reference at http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byform/mailing-lists/exlibris/2003/01/msg00017.html)

[edit] Student publications

  • The Yale Daily News, or "YDN," is a daily newspaper that was founded in 1878. It claims to be the oldest college daily newspaper.
  • The Yale Economic Review is a quarterly journal of popular economics.
  • The Yale literary magazine, founded in 1836, is the oldest literary review in the nation, and publishes poetry and fiction by Yale undergraduates twice per academic year.
  • The Yale Herald is a weekly newspaper that began in 1986.
  • The Yale Politic is a quarterly politicial journal that traces its roots to 1947.
  • The New Journal is Yale's oldest and largest-circulating undergraduate magazine. Founded by Daniel Yergin and Harold Newman in 1968, the publication focuses on strong writing while covering issues that affect both Yale and New Haven.
  • The Yale Record is Yale's campus humor magazine. Founded in 1872, it is America's oldest college humor magazine.
  • Rumpus Magazine is an irreverent monthly tabloid that mostly covers campus gossip and prints an annual "Yale's 50 Most Beautiful" list.
  • Five Magazine is a progressive call-to-action magazine that tries to make campus activism more efficient and effective.
  • Yale Law Journal is an academic review published at Yale Law School.
  • The Yale Scientific Magazine, founded in 1894, is a quarterly science magazine and is the nation's oldest undergraduate scientific publication.
  • The Yale Globalist is a quarterly international affairs magazine.Globalist Foundation website
  • The Yale Entrepreneur focuses on entrepreneurship internationally, nationally, and locally and is sponsored by the Yale Entrepreneurial Society (YES).
  • The "Yale Anglers' Journal", founded in 1996, is published bi-annually by undergraduates, and accepts contributions from outside the school.
  • The"Yale Israel Journal", solicits essays and articles from various well-known academics regarding the history, politics, and culture of Israel.
  • The Yale Journal of Medicine and Law is a bi-annual journal published by undergraduates dealing with issues in health care.

[edit] Other organizations

The Yale Entrepreneurial Society is a student-run nonprofit dedicated to encouraging entrepreneurship and business development in the New Haven area.

The Yale College Student Investment Group is the largest investment group among the Ivy League schools.

Bulldog Productions is the only undergraduate film production company at Yale University, one of the few companies of its kind in top-tier American liberal arts universities.

The Yale Engineering Design Team, founded in 2003, is a student-run organization that helps students work on engineering projects and competitions. They are noted for running the annual Junk Yale Wars where students take a day to build something out of junk that fits some set of design specifications.

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