Morse College

Morse College
Motto	In Deo Non Armis Fido In God, not arms, I trust (Samuel F.B. Morse family motto)
Named For	Samuel Morse
Established	1961
Colors	Black, white, red
College Master	Frank Keil
College Dean	Joel Silverman
Undergraduates	~480
Called	Morsel
Location	302-304 York Street
Harvard Sister House(s)	Mather House
Homepage	http://www.yale.edu/morse

Morse College is one of the twelve residential colleges at Yale University, built in 1961 and designed by Eero Saarinen. It is adjacent to Ezra Stiles College. The current Master is Frank Keil, Professor of Psychology and Professor of Linguistics. The Associate Master is Kristi Lockhart. Following the Spring 2005 semester, former Dean Rosemary Jones stepped down. Dean Alexandra Dufresne assumed Morse's decanal responsibilities in the Fall 2005 semester, but recently announced she will leave the position, and the university, after the 2006-2007 academic year. On May 2, 2007, Yale College Dean Peter Salovey announced that Joel Silverman will become the next Dean of Morse College.

Notable alumni

• Jennifer Beals, actress from Flashdance and The L Word.
• Sada Jacobson - 2004 Olympic Bronze medal winner for sabre fencing
• Allan Heinberg - Co-creator of The OC, writer for The Gilmore Girls, Sex and the City, etc., 1989
• Joseph Lieberman, U.S. Senator and former Vice Presidential candidate
• Douglas Warner, former Chairman, J.P. Morgan

History

In his report on the year 1955-6, Yale President A. Whitney Griswold announced his intention to add at least one more residential college to the system Yale had launched only two decades earlier. "We have the colleges so full that community life, discipline, education, even sanitation are suffering," he stated. This news bred wild rumors about four or five new colleges being added to Yale's system. Nothing substantial was announced until the spring of 1959 when Eero Saarinen '34 was chosen as the architect, and the Old York Square behind the Graduate School became the designated site. The Old Dominion Foundation, established by Paul Mellon '29, provided money to build two "radically different" colleges, which would alleviate the growing strain on the older colleges.

Morse College is an eclectic structure built on an odd, angular site with many design features that are reminiscent of the Tuscan villages, most notably San Gimignano. The college consists almost entirely of single rooms, and in a modern attempt to capture the spirit of Gothic architecture, Saarinen eliminated all right angles from the living areas. This resulted, notoriously, in two rooms which have eleven walls, none of which is long enough to put the bed against and still be able to open the door. In a 1959 article in the Yale Daily News, Eero Saarinen discussed his design for Morse. "Our primary effort was to create an architecture which would recognize the individual as individual instead of an anonymous integer in a group." Those who have lived in it generally regard the design as a disaster.

The college provides several amenities to its resident "Morsels." The fourteen-story main tower provides an inspiring view of all of New Haven. The common room's decorations include air hockey, pool, ping-pong, foosball, and a big-screen tv. Morse Happy Hour is held approximately every week, providing free beverages for the college community. The single rooms, arranged in suites but with no common rooms, reflect changing tastes in the early 1960s and provide students with greater privacy but, in some instances, greater isolation than in the more enjoyable living quarters of some other colleges.

Morse has an adjacent "twin" residential college named "Ezra Stiles" which is architecturally similar and built at the same time. The two distinct colleges share an underground kitchen which serves as a walkway for the public to the Payne Whitney Gymnasium. Architecturally, Morse and Stiles differ from predecessors by having more private space per student, and the lowest ratio of natural light aperture to wall surface of any other colleges.

College 'cheers'

• "Morse, Morse, Hung like a horse!"
• "Dot dot, dash dash, we're Morse college, kiss our axe!" (in reference to Morse code and the battle axe that is part of Morse's shield)
• "Dit dot dit, rah rah Morse!"
• "Morse is the Co-op, DANCE! Morse is the Co-op, DANCE! Bet you want to get inside our PANTS!" (In reference to a common slur formerly used by students of other residential colleges that Morse College looked like the old Yale Co-op building and present Yale Bookstore.)
• "Morse always wins"

Trivia

• The Morse courtyard is home to two well known sculptures - Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks by Claes Oldenburg and a piece by J. Seward Johnson.
• Morse's mascot is the walrus, because in French le morse translates to walrus.
• A student in Morse is known as a "Morsel," also the name of the small cafe ("Buttery") in Morse's common room.

External links

• Morse College, Yale

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