Silliman College
Encyclopedia
Residential college
A residential college is an organisational pattern for a division of a university that places academic activity in a community setting of students and faculty, usually at a residence and with shared meals, the college having a degree of autonomy and a federated relationship with the overall...
at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
. It opened in 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, consisting of a full city block in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
, bordered by College, Wall, Grove and Temple Streets.
The older, Indiana limestone
Indiana Limestone
Indiana Limestone, also known as Bedford Limestone is a common regional term for Salem limestone, a geological formation primarily quarried in south central Indiana between Bloomington and Bedford....
part of the college consists of the Vanderbilt-Sheffield dormitories and Byers Hall, both originally part of the Sheffield Scientific School
Sheffield Scientific School
Sheffield Scientific School was founded in 1847 as a school of Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut for instruction in science and engineering. Originally named the Yale Scientific School, it was renamed in 1861 in honor of Joseph E. Sheffield, the railroad executive. The school was...
. The Van-Sheff portion of Silliman was built between 1903 and 1906 by architect Charles C. Haight
Charles C. Haight
Charles Coolidge Haight was an American architect who practiced in New York City. A number of his buildings survive including at Yale University and Trinity College . He also designed most of the campus of the Episcopal General Theological Seminary in Chelsea Square, New York...
in the Collegiate Gothic style. Byers Hall was built in 1903 and was designed by Hiss and Weekes
Hiss and Weekes
Hiss and Weekes was a notable architectural firm in New York active from 1899 to 1933, constructing a number of landmarks of Beaux-Arts architecture....
architects in the modified French Renaissance Style
Neo-Renaissance
Renaissance Revival is an all-encompassing designation that covers many 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Grecian nor Gothic but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range of classicizing Italian modes...
.
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 & Higgins
Eggers & Higgins
Eggers & Higgins was a New York architectural firm partnered by Otto Reinhold Eggers and Daniel Paul Higgins . The architects were responsible for the construction phase of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial beginning in 1939, two years after the death of its original architect, John Russell Pope,...
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
Old Campus
The Old Campus is a complex of buildings at Yale University on the block at the northwest end of the green in New Haven, Connecticut, consisting of dormitories, classrooms, chapels and offices...
, allowing first year students to immediately become immersed in the vibrant student life in Silliman.
The College has links to Harvard's Pforzheimer House
Pforzheimer House
Pforzheimer House, nicknamed PfoHo , is one of twelve undergraduate residential Houses at Harvard University. It was named in 1995 for Carol K. and Carl H...
and Dudley House
Dudley House (Harvard College)
Dudley House is one of the thirteen undergraduate "houses" within Harvard College, serving the very few Harvard undergraduates not living in one of the other twelve houses; this includes student's living in the off-campus Dudley Co-ops. It also serves certain graduate students.Dudley House is...
, as well as Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
and Brasenose College, Oxford
Brasenose College, Oxford
Brasenose College, originally Brazen Nose College , is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. As of 2006, it has an estimated financial endowment of £98m...
. Its rival college at Yale is Timothy Dwight College
Timothy Dwight College
Timothy Dwight College, commonly abbreviated and referred to as "TD", is a residential college at Yale University named after two university presidents, Timothy Dwight IV and Timothy Dwight V. The college was designed in 1935 by James Gamble Rogers in the Federal-style architecture popular during...
, located directly across Temple Street.
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 (representing salamander tails), and a green crossing bar containing three acorns. In heraldic terms, the shield is described as "Arms: Argent, three piles wavy gules, on a fess vert three acorns or." The colors represent the four ancient elements: red for fire, white for air and water, and green for earth. The acorns are an element taken from the family arms 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 known as "Sally" made by Michael Mackenzie SM '03 that is worn to intramurals and Yale-wide events.
Physical Facilities
The college courtyard, which covers almost 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 playing various sports or lounging in the sun. Because of the size of the courtyard, sports such as stickball, wiffle ball, football, and frisbee are often enjoyed.Special facilities within Silliman include Yale's only undergraduate art gallery, called Maya's Room (named for Maya Tanaka Hanway, '83), a big-screen movie theater (Silliflicks), a dance studio, a half-court basketball facility called the Sillidome, computing facilities, a student kitchen, 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. The Buttery, a student-run eatery in the basement that serves greasy goodness on weekday nights, is designed in the style of the 50's and its surrounding area includes games such as ping pong, air hockey, and pool.
The Silliman Cupola (Formerly 1810, known as I-43 post-renovation) gained notoriety in the early 1980s as the site of the John Lennon Memorial Phoenix Triplex, a three-story meeting place for the Yale Mutants (a group of Yale eccentrics, bohemians, artists, anarchists, libertarians, and free-thinkers). It was spot-lit externally in emerald green, and featured a powerful internal strobe light which could be seen across the Yale campus. The Cupola today is still accessible to Mutant alumni during Reunions via a series of secret passwords and entry techniques. Mutants were often connected to the New Haven underground music scene and/or WYBC, Yale's radio station. One Mutant resident from the late '80's is said to have designed the Yale building that terminates the other end of Hillhouse Avenue.
Renovations
In August 2007, after three years of on and off construction, students moved back into a newly renovated Silliman College. Students now enjoy a reconfigured dining hall and servery, a stadium-seating movie theater, and a large student activities space that includes a new art gallery, dance studio, gym, basketball court, weight room, buttery, game room, and television entertainment space. The Silliman College courtyard was also restored to its former glory, with new patio spaces, benches, and grass. The renovation cost some $100 million, by far the most spent on any residential college renovation at Yale.Because of the size of Silliman College, the renovation work on the college was completed in several phases instead of the 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 was shut down during the 2006-2007 school year for the rest of the renovation. All students from the college moved 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 were completed.
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 has won the cup twice more for a three year streak, edging out Timothy Dwight by over 200 points in 2007, and Ezra Stiles by about 100 points in 2008.Silliman's Recent Intramural Secretaries:
Michael Mackenzie '03,
Kira Goldman '04,
Alejandro Bribriesco '04,
Conor O'Toole '04,
Matthew Lynch '06,
Miguel Agrait '06,
Zachary Turnbull '07,
Brett Andrews '08,
Angel Enriquez '08,
Katrina Preston '08,
Sarah Keesecker '09,
Matthew Bressler '09,
Kelly Livingston '09,
Tsegazeab Bekele '10,
Adam Allouche '10
Alexandra Andrews '11,
Quyen Slotznick '11,
Dong Won Lee '12,
Josh Howard '12
McKaye Neumeister '12
Alexander Allouche '13
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, started by Mo Nasr '04 and 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.
Silliman also celebrates the Kentucky Derby
Kentucky Derby
The Kentucky Derby is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbred horses, held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The race is one and a quarter mile at Churchill Downs. Colts and geldings carry...
with an annual Derby Party that features traditional dishes such as burgoo
Burgoo
Burgoo is a term used for many types of stew or porridge made from a mixture of ingredients.-North American usage:Burgoo is a spicy stew, similar to Irish or Mulligan stew, often served with cornbread or corn muffins....
, derby pie
Derby pie
Derby pie is a pastry created in the Melrose Inn of Prospect, Kentucky, USA, by George Kern with the help of his parents. It is often associated with the Kentucky Derby.The pie is a chocolate and walnut tart in a pie shell usually with a pastry dough crust...
, and bourbon
Bourbon whiskey
Bourbon is a type of American whiskey – a barrel-aged distilled spirit made primarily from corn. The name of the spirit derives from its historical association with an area known as Old Bourbon, around what is now Bourbon County, Kentucky . It has been produced since the 18th century...
candy.
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.
In 2007, Silliman College was renovated. A room formerly in the Master's House, N21, became the room of five juniors. With a large, two level common room, two doubles, and a single, N21 became known as the Hotel Lobby for its (largely imagined) debauchery at night and rigorous debate during the day.
Silliman hosted many creative events organized by the Yale Mutants in the 1970s and 80s, culminating in the Festival of Life in 1982.
Silliman Fame
Silliman gained fame when the popular movie Mona Lisa SmileMona Lisa Smile
Mona Lisa Smile is a 2003 romantic drama film produced by Revolution Studios and Columbia Pictures in association with Red Om Films Productions, directed by Mike Newell, written by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, and starring Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Julia Stiles...
featuring Julia Roberts
Julia Roberts
Julia Fiona Roberts is an American actress. She became a Hollywood star after headlining the romantic comedy Pretty Woman , which grossed $464 million worldwide...
, Julia Stiles
Julia Stiles
Julia O'Hara Stiles is an American actress.After beginning her career in small parts in a New York City theatre troupe, she has moved on to leading roles in plays by writers as diverse as William Shakespeare and David Mamet...
and Kirsten Dunst
Kirsten Dunst
Kirsten Caroline Dunst is an American actress, singer and model. She made her film debut in Oedipus Wrecks, a short film directed by Woody Allen for the anthology New York Stories...
, 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.
When Indiana Jones 4
Indiana Jones 4
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a 2008 American adventure science fiction film. It is the fourth film in the Indiana Jones franchise, created by George Lucas and directed by Steven Spielberg. Released nineteen years after the previous film, the film acknowledges its star...
was filming in New Haven (summer 2007), Dean Hugh Flick and several other Silliman students were cast as extras. A car/motorcycle scene was also filmed along the College Street side of the college, even while it was still under renovations.
Famous alumni
- George Roy HillGeorge Roy HillGeorge Roy Hill was an American film director. He is most noted for directing such films as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting, which both starred the acting duo Paul Newman and Robert Redford...
, 1943, movie director - Renée RichardsRenee RichardsRenée Richards is an American ophthalmologist, author and former professional tennis player. In 1975, Richards underwent sex reassignment surgery. She is known for initially being denied entry into the 1976 US Open by the United States Tennis Association, citing an unprecedented women-born-women...
, 1954, transgendered tennis player - James Jeffords, 1956, Independent U.S. senator from Vermont
- Strobe TalbottStrobe TalbottNelson Strobridge "Strobe" Talbott III is an American foreign policy analyst associated with Yale University and the Brookings Institution, a former journalist associated with Time magazine and diplomat who served as the Deputy Secretary of State from 1994 to 2001.-Early life:Born in Dayton, Ohio...
, 1968, Brookings Institution president, former Time correspondent - Daniel YerginDaniel YerginDaniel Howard Yergin is an American author, speaker, and economic researcher. Yergin is the co-founder and chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, an energy research consultancy. It was acquired by IHS Inc...
, 1968, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and energy consultant - Stone PhillipsStone PhillipsStone Stockton Phillips is an American television reporter and correspondent. He is the former co-anchor of Dateline NBC, a newsmagazine TV show. He also has worked as a substitute anchor for NBC Nightly News and Today and as a substitute moderator on Meet the Press. He is known for his clear...
, 1977, newscaster - Evan WolfsonEvan WolfsonEvan Wolfson is an American civil rights attorney and advocate. He is founder and executive director of Freedom to Marry, a group favoring same-sex marriage in the United States...
, 1978, activist - David Hyde PierceDavid Hyde PierceDavid Hyde Pierce is an American actor and comedian best known for playing psychiatrist Dr. Niles Crane on the NBC sitcom Frasier, for which he received many accolades including four Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.-Early life:Pierce, the youngest of four siblings,...
, 1981, actor, best known for playing the role of Niles Crane on "Fraiser" - Anthony A. WilliamsAnthony A. WilliamsAnthony Allen "Tony" Williams is an American politician who served as the fifth mayor of the District of Columbia for two terms, from 1999 to 2007. He had previously served as chief financial officer for the District, managing to balance the budget and achieve a surplus within two years of...
, 1982, the fifth mayor of the District of Columbia from 1999 to 2007 - Elizabeth KostovaElizabeth KostovaElizabeth Johnson Kostova is an American author best known for her debut novel The Historian.-Early life:Elizabeth Z. Johnson was born in New London, Connecticut and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee where she graduated from the Webb School of Knoxville...
, 1988, author - Nerissa Nields, 1989, of the band The NieldsThe NieldsThe Nields was a folk-rock band that performed from 1991 to 2001. It toured much of the United States, performing with artists such as Dar Williams, Moxy Früvous, and Catie Curtis and appeared at many folk festivals...
- Ben GreenmanBen GreenmanBen Greenman is an American writer and magazine editor.-Biography:Greenman was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Miami, Florida. He attended Miami Palmetto High School and then Yale University where he worked on the Yale Herald...
, 1990, author - Rob Berman, 1992, theatrical music director on Broadway
- Joshua FoerJoshua FoerJoshua Foer is a freelance journalist living in New Haven, Connecticut, USA, with a primary focus on science. He was the 2006 U.S.A...
, 2004, author of "Moonwalking with Einstein"