Campus clips

The Jackson Institute for Global Affairs should become an “intentionally small” school of global affairs, a faculty committee recommended in a report released in November. The committee, convened by the provost and chaired by economics and management professor Judith Chevalier ’89, envisions a degree-granting school, interconnected with the rest of Yale and focused not on public policy, like Harvard’s Kennedy School, but strictly on global affairs. With sufficient funding, the report says, the transition from institute to school could be achieved within three to five years.

Yale Divinity School

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The Divinity School unveiled a portrait of James Pennington, the first African American to attend classes at Yale, at an event in its common room in October. The portrait (left) was painted by Brooklyn artist Jas Knight. Pennington was permitted to audit classes at the Divinity School in the 1830s, but he was not allowed to enroll or even to speak in class. Pennington went on to become a prominent minister and abolitionist.

Yale police officers approved a collective bargaining agreement with the university in October, more than two years after their previous agreement expired. Officers in the 93-person department will get 3 percent annual pay raises, protected health benefits for retirees, and more overtime opportunities. The university said that by the time the agreement expires in 2023, Yale police will be “among the highest-paid officers in the state.”

Forty-eight protesters were arrested at a sit-in at Yale’s investments office in December. They included students from the group Fossil Free Yale, which wants the university to divest itself of stocks in fossil-fuel companies, and Despierta Boricua, the Puerto Rican student association, which advocates divesting from holders of Puerto Rican debt. The university’s Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility has said that shareholder engagement is the best way for Yale as an investor to respond to climate change, and that “divestment from Puerto Rican debt is not warranted when an investor is abiding by the applicable legal framework.”