Class of 2014 5th Reunion - Welcome - 2014

Join the early birds for a night out in Elm City

Box 63

338 Elm St, New Haven, CT 06511

Plan to meet your friends at Mory’s, the place to be Thursday night as the doors are thrown open to all returning alumni! Complimentary food, cash bar, impromptu singing and camaraderie from 9 pm to midnight.

Friday morning, we will feature several of Yale's distinguished faculty members, as well as some special tours around campus.

Paul Turner, Henry Ford II Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Viruses are the majority of earth’s inhabitants. But their small size caused the incredible biodiversity of viruses to remain invisible to humans until early in the last century. Nevertheless, the course of human history has been impacted by deadly virus epidemics for thousands of years or more. Despite conventional wisdom, however, very few viruses actually make us sick.  In fact, past and present virus infections are essential for human well-being and the maintenance of healthy ecosystems, and in the future a virus may even save your life. This lecture concerns the amazing biodiversity of viruses, their profound impact on the history of life on earth, and recent advances in virus biotechnology that address energy, disease and environmental concerns.

Sten Vermund, Dean and Anna M.R. Lauder Professor of Public Health

The concept of carbon neutrality is a simple one: an institution reduces carbon emissions into the atmosphere proportionately to the amount of carbon that it emits.  This presentation will highlight the challenges of global warming, the ecological context (human, animal, and plant) of these changes, the threats of climate change to human health, and how one might mitigate health harms. He will also discuss what Yale and other U.S. universities are doing to achieve carbon neutrality, as well as how Yale might do even better in this arena.

Visit one of the most beautiful spaces in the Library, the recently renovated classroom in Manuscripts and Archives. While there view a selection of fascinating materials from our holdings that are used by Yale faculty in their classes with undergraduates. Enter the classroom through the entrance at the fireplace end of the Linonia and Brothers (L&B) Reading Room.

Heather K. Gerken, Dean of the Yale Law School and Sol and Lillian Goldman Professor of Law

Imagine turning a classroom inside out, enlisting our most extraordinary resource – students – in the service of change. Imagine if we enabled students to learn by doing, to put theory into practice through hands-on work, to bring their training to bear on shared problems. At Yale Law School, we call such classes “clinics.” In recent years students and faculty have convinced the courts to allow veterans to file class action suits; and won injunctions to halt the President’s first travel ban, and to protect DACA DREAMers, and sanctuary cities. They’ve created the first community bank in New Haven, transformed bail practices in Connecticut, uncovered evidence of genocide in Myanmar, and challenged the use of executive power in the U.S. Dean Gerken will describe Yale’s clinical model and discuss the ways in which other university faculty and law schools could turn their own classrooms inside out.