Athletics director to retire
Tom Beckett, after serving as director of athletics at Yale for 24 years, will retire in June 2018. Since Beckett came to Yale, its teams have won 118 championships, 73 first-place Ivy League finishes, and numerous other post-season victories. In tribute to Beckett, supporters and friends of Yale Athletics joined in creating an endowment to name the Yale director of athletics position the Thomas A. Beckett Director of Athletics. President Salovey has appointed Marvin Chun, dean of Yale College, to chair an advisory committee that will search nationally for Beckett’s successor.
Dwight Hall renovation under way
The Old Campus home of Dwight Hall at Yale is undergoing a $4 million renovation. The culmination of efforts begun in 2003 by donors and university administrators, the renovation includes redesigned student meeting rooms, collaboration spaces, and co-working technology, and the refinishing of Dwight Hall’s historic interiors and extensive millwork. Founded in 1886, Dwight Hall has operated out of 67 High Street since 1930, when it shifted its operations to the building that formerly housed Yale College’s original library. Work began in September and will continue through May 2018.
First First-Year Scholars graduate
Thirty-four inaugural students of the First-Year Scholars at Yale (FSY) program graduated last May. Launched in summer 2013, FSY is Yale’s summer bridge program for incoming first-years who are the first in their families to attend college, had low-income backgrounds growing up, or otherwise come from segments of the population who might not traditionally have had access to elite institutions. Admitted students live in Ezra Stiles College for five weeks while getting connected with campus resources and completing their first Yale course credit, English 114. Now in its fifth season, the program has almost doubled, serving about 60 first-years every summer.