Four-year college systems benefit other universities

While the University announced concrete plans to implement four-year residential colleges just last week, another Ivy League institution, Yale University, has had four-year colleges for almost 70 years.

Much of the social and cultural life at Yale centers on the colleges. Each college has a master, who is responsible for coordinating cultural and social events within that college, often holding teas and dinners in the master's house.

Life in Princeton's two-year residential colleges is very similar to life in Yale's colleges, though there are some differences that result from longer stay.

Master Nathan Fry of Ezra Stiles College cited a close sense of community as one of the chief advantages of living in a residential college for four years. Staying in the same college for the duration of their undergraduate experience allows students to build a closer relationship with their community than is possible in two years, he said.

Fry also said juniors tend to be the most active students in the colleges.

"The year of the greatest activism in the college community and for the college is the junior year," he said. "That's the year we get the most interaction among students and contribution to the college typically."

The interaction between the college faculty and students has other benefits.

Master Nathan Sledge of Calhoun College said because of the close relationship he enjoys with his students, he is able to write close to 70 letters of recommendation a year for fellowships, graduate schools and other programs.

Students in the four-year colleges also cited the sense of community as an advantage.

"I think it's a great system," junior Samuel Hendel said. "I think that it gives a sort of small community within a larger campus."

However, the same tight-knit community can also serve as a drawback, some students said.

"Because you're in the same college all four years, you don't meet as many people as you might want to," sophomore David Chu said.

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Yale's four-year colleges were conceived by Yale graduate Edward Harkness as a response to perceived elitism and segregation on campus, said Judith Schiff, Yale's chief research archivist. Harkness borrowed the idea in turn from English universities like Oxford and Cambridge, she said.

"It was his idea from visiting English colleges to create a democratic way of life in which all students are treated pretty much equally," Schiff said.

After some controversy over the idea, during which Harkness also gave money to Harvard University to implement a similar system, Harkness endowed eight residential colleges, the first of which opened in 1933.

Yale now has 12 four-year residential colleges, to which freshmen are assigned randomly. Like those at Princeton, Yale's residential colleges range from collegiate Gothic to more modern, utilitarian styles. Each has its own dining hall, master's house and library.