Following accusations of plagiarism earlier this month, Fareed Zakaria (Yale ’86), the prominent journalist and media personality, has resigned from the Yale Corporation, the university’s governing board. According to The New Haven Register, Zakaria sent a letter to Yale President Richard Levin, in which he said:

“I have decided that I will not be able to serve a second term as a Successor Fellow of the Yale Corporation. I am reexamining my professional life and I have recognized that, in order to focus on the core of my work, I will have to shed some of my other responsibilities.”

Zakaria went on to call his position on the Yale Corporation, “the single largest commitment of time, energy, and attention outside of my writing and television work.”

Among Zakaria’s media responsibilities are a column in Time magazine and a weekly show on CNN. After using several paragraphs from a New Yorker essay without attribution in his Time column, Zakaria was suspended earlier this month by both Time and CNN, but has since been reinstated. Following investigations into Zakaria’s work, both companies have determined that this was an isolated incident. Read the rest of this entry »

Yale College Council President and GoodCrushDarling Jon Wu just emailed all undergrads with some surprising and promiscuous (in the old-timey sense) news: Yale will offer next year’s seniors the option to live in Mixed Gender Suites. Not too much of a shocker, given that every other Ivy has already taken the gender-neutral plunge. Regardless, the email has been met with campus-wide celebration and student declarations of “victory” (after all, these kids camped out in the New Haven cold to rally for the program).

And, just like the Hanover Police, the man finally caved in. Yale’s Class of 2011 will get to mingle in unisex common-rooms and blur meaningless, culture-imposed gender lines as “part of a pilot program,” which the YCC hopes to extend to the rest of the College after a year of review. But don’t worry kids, this won’t be a complete free-for-all. The new policy:

1.  Each bedroom within a suite must be single sex. A man and a woman may not occupy a double bedroom, but they can elect to live in separate single bedrooms within a suite.

So no hetero-roomie-sex, for now…

2.  No student will be assigned to a mixed-gender suite against his or her will.

…or imprisonment (?).

3.  Mixed-gender housing groups will get no advantage or disadvantage in the housing selection process. If they are not able to select a suite that can accommodate them, they may need to break into different groups that may or may not be mixed gender.

Plus, ostensible fairness! And finally,

4.  Students in intimate relationships are strongly discouraged from entering into a shared suite arrangement.

So, basically, you can’t be like this girl... for many reasons.

The new policy found unanimous approval from the Yale Corporation (in the wake of a successful and liberating Sex Week), as well as our friends over at The Bullblog. Here at IvyGate, we’ll be reserving judgment until we see how the pilot program fares. Questions remain… Will it coax back the unwashed off-campus hordes? Will Jesse Morrell make an angry return? What will become of the fine art of sexiling? How will the trannies respond? How will Jesus respond? And has noone considered the cooties?

This breaking news brought to you by a very tired and midterm-addled IvyGate EIC. For our past coverage of Yale’s housing sturm und drang, check out this excellent analysis from our predecessor, Adam (he lives on!).

And, for what it’s worth, read the full, earth-shaking YCC email after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »