Where have all of Yale's leaders gone?

The glare of the political spotlight may be too hot for '90s graduates.

By Carl Bialik

The Yale College charter, drafted in 1701, established a college wherein, "youth...may be fitted for publick employment both in Church & Civil State." Since its inception, Yale College has maintained a commitment to producing the nation's leaders.

It has prepared many students for a career in civil service, a fact easily demonstrated by the presence of Yale alums in national politics. Yale graduates serve as the governors of six of the nation's 50 states--including California, New York, and Texas--the mayor of Baltimore and the mayor-elect of Washington, D.C.

All these powerful alums, however, graduated by 1980--just at a start of the decade remembered more for greed than for social sacrifice. Today, there are only 11 Yale College graduates in Congress--the fewest since1956. According to surveys of Yale graduates, a smaller percentage of employed members of the classes of 1984 and 1985 entered political careers immediately after graduation than did members of any other surveyed class since 1971. Although the numbers have since picked up, more politically-minded students today seem to be rejecting electoral politics for other forms of public service.

"I do remember an earlier time when students I knew well were really interested in politics. They would say, `Maybe I'll do something first, then I'll run for legislature or Congress,'" University historian and History Professor Gaddis Smith, PC '54, GRD '61, said. "I don't happen to know students now who've told me the same."

Political Science Professor David Mayhew, who has taught at Yale since 1968, has noticed the same trend. "I just haven't seen many students in the last five years express political aspirations," he said. "The recommendations I write are overwhelmingly for law school and sometimes for business school."

Most interviewees attributed the declining number of students planning a career in electoral politics to the apathy and cynicism that is typically associated with college campuses today. But Yale is not a typical college.

Why Washington?

"Yale has an excellent reputation of being not overly preppy, with pretty solid, down-to-earth, people. It doesn't get the kind of remarks that Hahvahd gets," Senator James Jeffords (R-Vt.), SM '56, also a graduate of Harvard Law School, said. Kurt Schmoke, DC '71, mayor of Baltimore, added, "My constituents have said many times that they are proud that I was graduated from Yale."

Mayhew, considered one of the nation's foremost experts on electoral politics, thinks the Yale name carries as much benefit to a candidate now as it ever did, despite occasional fluctuations in its value. "I noticed in 1994, when Republicans had their great surge, there was a great scarcity of politicians educated in the Ivy League--an anti-Ivy surge--but that's exceptional," he said.

The relationship between Yale alumni in elective office and the University can be a mutually beneficial one. Jeffords mentioned that he has consulted with Yale University Presidents and makes an effort to support legislation that will benefit Yale. "The latest one was to change laws to try to help them find ways for more senior professors to move on," he explained. "Another thing we helped them with was to expand the bonds that could be sold for university buildings. There was a cap on the amount that any university could sell. We expanded the level so they could use tax incentives to raise money for buildings."

Clearly, putting people in office benefits the Yale in more ways than one. University President Richard Levin, GRD '74, emphasizes the University's constant commitment to providing students with opportunities to get involved in politics. Yale College Dean Richard Brodhead, BR '68, GRD '72, agrees. "Yale gives a positive emphasis to the ideas of citizenship and community service all the way along, from admissions to when people get here, to the college system, to an emphasis on volunteerism."

The University's greatest successes in motivating students to enter the political arena, however, have come from inspiring student discontent. All three of Yale's most recent alders--Ward Two Alder Jelani Lawson, MC '96, and Ward One Alders Josh Civin, CC '96, and Julio Gonzalez, CC '99--cited support of Yale's labor unions. "If you're looking for something about Yale's involvement with New Haven that tends to plunge Yale students into engagement with activism, it is Yale's often blatant abuse of its own unionized workers," Civin said.

Jeffords recalled his service with the Naval Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) at Yale as an inspiration to enter politics. "It was extremely valuable. That was at the height of the Cold War. Thus it was very enlightening to be connected with the military at that point," he said. After graduating from Yale, Jeffords went on to serve three years of active duty in the Navy before beginning his legal career.

In 1970, however, all ROTC branches left Yale's campus.Today there are only Air Force and Army ROTC programs, and the Army program is currently vacant. Yale's eight Air Force cadets must commute to the University of Connecticut in Storrs every Thursday and receive no Yale credit for their courses.

In addition, none of the students interviewed cited particular courses from what Levin called Yale's "broad liberal education" as influencing their commitment to politics. Lawson was a political science major at Yale. "I guess Yale provided me with the theoretical basis behind politics, but political theory and political application are very different things," he said, laughing.

Josh Geballe, ES '97, who lost the District 12 Connecticut State Senate race by fewer than 300 votes on Tues., Nov. 3, benefited from Yale's flexibility, which allowed him to work as Rep. Rosa DeLauro's (D-Conn.) campaign manager the first semester of his senior year. "To say I was not a model student is an understatement," he said. "I was able to take a light courseload and do most of my work for classes after the election was over."

An earlier start

Like Geballe, many politically-minded Yale students today fit their classes around serious political work. In 1972, when the voting age was reduced from 21 to 18, several new opportunities emerged for Yale students with political inclinations. Chief among these was the position of New Haven Alder. Since 1972, Yale students have comprised a majority of Ward One voters and, unsurprisingly, have nearly monopolized the seat. Some Yale students have also served as Ward Two alders, another ward with a high percentage of Yale residents. This Ward Two position, currently held by Lawson, gave Tony Williams, SM '79, the mayor-elect of Washington, D.C., his start in politics.

Other students become active in electoral politics even further from Yale. Jim DiTullio, JE '01, worked as an assistant to the deputy campaign manager for Scott Harshbarger's campaign for Massachusetts governor this past summer. "I learned that politics is a rough-and-tumble game and that there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes that tells you a lot about personalities in politics," he said. Harshbarger had angered many Democrats for his indiscriminate campaign against corruption as state attorney general, targeting members of both major parties. DiTullio was crestfallen when Harshbarger lost on Tuesday. "Harshbarger was the first candidate I truly believed in--both for his political vision and for his personality," he said.

The Yale College Democrats and Republicans, which each have approximately 40 active members, take direct political action, rallying for candidates and helping with the hard work of campaigns. This is what Smith remembers fondly as "politics at the very lowest level--Yale students organizing for one candidate or another, canvassing door-to-door, getting out and speaking on behalf of candidates." Smith believes that such grass-roots activism has diminished since his college years, but Josh Kagan, SM '00, president of the Yale College Democrats, is not so sure. "You can talk about political apathy, but when you look around campus, you see a lot of activist work," he said. "It doesn't compare to 1968, but we're not quite as far off as a lot people think."

An aversion to rolling up the sleeves

Civin thinks that too many students take a passive approach to public service. He recalls a strong spirit of volunteerism in Yale students, but said, "There wasn't enough of a balance in terms of people addressing the root causes, the systemic issues [by getting involved in local government.]"

Civin emphasized the importance of local politics. "To come directly into public service at a national level, you don't really understand how million-dollar decisions would affect a kid living in a public housing development."

Bob Kokta, BK '00, who was Gonzalez's Republican opponent last year, agreed that "it is important to have people in government who do not spend their lives focusing on the goal of running for Congress," he said. Unlike Civin, however, Kokta believes that "It's important to have experience in the private sector before entering politics."

Some politically active students are wary of ever seeking an elected office because of what they learned while at Yale. "If you look at the life politicians lead, they're continually going non-stop, especially during campaign season. It's kind of inspiring, but also kind of daunting," Kagan said. He plans to work in a non-elected position in public service.

Kimberly Taylor, TC '99, last year's YCC president, said, "It takes a very particular type of person to be willing to be exposed to constant attention, media and otherwise." Taylor was not immune to this kind of attention; she noted wryly, "I think the most recent issue of Rumpus is the first that I haven't been in since the end of my sophomore year."

Nonetheless, although "politics looks a little bit grubbier than it did" in the '60s, according to Mayhew, many students still consider the possibility of elected office. Gonzalez, who sees money as the biggest obstacle to young, progressive politicians, said, "I will always be involved in electoral politics in one way or another." DiTullio, who saw the candidate he truly believed in lose because of personality politics, added, "You've always got to believe in democracy and keep faith." He plans to be a legislator some day, either on the state or national level. Taylor, despite her distaste for media coverage, noted, "The idea of effecting positive change on a large scale is certainly appealing."

Senator John Kerry, (D-Mass.), JE '66, agrees that the current political system provides some disincentives to young people considering running for office. "There is no question that the campaign finance system in our country needs reform. We are moving from a democracy to a `dollarocracy,'" he said. Kerry cautioned that, "It is important to the health of our democracy to have new and creative young people serving in public office. While the system needs reform, if you're not part of the system, you won't be able to change it."

Today's breed of students who leave Yale interested in politics have already weathered the challenges of campus and New Haven political life. But many students who enter Yale are apolitical, or are turned off by these challenges, and become apathetic to politics. This worries Smith. He recently met with freshmen at a luncheon, and asked them, what was on their minds. "I couldn't get any answer. No one said anything," Smith related.

Brodhead pointed out, however, that one's political activity in college is an imperfect indicator of the future. "[Texas Governor] George Bush, DC '68, who was in my class in college," he said. "No one would have thought of him as notable for his political ambitions."

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