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A Serious Number
March
2001 -- Special Tercentennial Edition
Anniversaries
are the occasions by which we measure our age, but also our progress.
Depending on the setting, we celebrate 13 as the threshold of adulthood,
18 as the voting age, and 21 for permission to legally consume alcohol.
But the more conventional grouping is in fives and tens; silvers
and golds. There are few institutions in this country that have
come close to 300. Yale is now there.
Of
course age alone is no absolute testimony to anything but durability.
In Yale's case, the number resonates with substance. Joining the
rest of the University in this Tercentennial year, the Yale Alumni
Magazine offers a survey of Yale's achievements defined largely
through the work of people who have passed through the University
as students. They include some of the most influential individuals
in American history, going back beyond the existence of the United
States itself.
We
have drawn on their accomplishments in virtually every significant
field of endeavor, but even so can only suggest the scope of Yale's
contributions. At the core of the issue is an essay by Lewis Lapham '56 on what the sum of the parts means to one --
admittedly partisan -- observer.  |
