Campus clips

Yale’s new residential colleges took a step closer to reality in November when they won final approval from New Haven’s City Plan Commission. The university has already done extensive site work on the $500 million project, which will be built on Prospect Street north of the Grove Street Cemetery. If funding is in place, Yale hopes to begin construction this year and open the two colleges in 2015.

Richard Levin ’74PhD, the longest-serving president in the Ivy League, was also the highest paid in 2009, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education’s annual survey of executive compensation. Levin made nearly $1.63 million in total compensation, about $1 million of that as base pay.

The Association of Yale Alumni is partnering with ONE, an advocacy group cofounded by U2 lead singer Bono, to work on international service projects. The collaboration will begin with a Yale Alumni Service Corps project in Ghana in July that will include teaching with a summer school program, a medical clinic, community building projects, and microbusiness consulting.

Native American students will have their own cultural center this fall in a building on High Street. The Native American Cultural Center currently shares space with the Asian American center. Last fall, Yale College welcomed its largest-ever class of Native American freshmen: 40 who identify themselves as primarily Native American and another dozen who identify themselves as Native American along with another group.

A ban on food and drink in the Bass Library was lifted in October, making legal what was already a widespread practice. "Let’s acknowledge the fact that they [students] want to bring in food and drink and deal with the reality," University Librarian Susan Gibbons told the Yale Daily News.