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STANDARD 10: PUBLIC DISCLOSURE
Description
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Description Appraisal Projection Attachments
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Yale University provides a wealth of publications, both in print and in electronic form,
for its students, potential students, faculty, alumni, staff, and the general public. Chief
among these are the catalogs of the college, the graduate school, and the ten professional
schools. Whereas authority for the preparation of these publications rests largely in the
schools themselves, the office of the University Printer (which reports to the Office of the
Secretary of the University) provides editorial oversight of all of the catalogs of the
schools in the University, bringing an appropriate level of consistency and quality to
them. Each catalog provides a history of the school and the university, a statement about the mission and purpose of the school and the work of the university, and a list of the faculty and officers of the school. They list the courses offered as well as academic regulations and requirements of degree programs. The catalogs also include official statements on affirmative action, security policies, and intercollegiate athletics. Each school provides (in its catalog or ancillary publications) a description of its admissions requirements, fees, and financial aid opportunities. (A chart showing the specific items included in each catalog is included in Attachment 1.) The undergraduate course catalog, Yale College Programs of Study, is the flagship publication of Yale College. Unlike the catalogs at many other colleges, it is published annually, which means that the information contained in its 550-plus pages is timely and complete. The course listings show all of the critical information about each course, including the instructor's name and the meeting time of the course. This allows students to have a complete picture of the curricular options available to them without referring to multiple publications. The catalog is rigorously edited and strict rules govern the material that is published in it. For instance, only courses that will be offered in the following academic year appear in the bulletin. In addition to course listings, the catalog contains the academic regulations of the college and detailed listings of the requirements of each major program. Classroom assignments are published in the Fall and Spring Supplements. The catalog and the supplements are available online, and are linked electronically to course syllabi submitted by instructors. The Office of Undergraduate Admissions has redesigned a number of its key publications and direct mail strategies in recent years. The office has refined and improved its personal interactions with high school sophomores and juniors through personalized letters and a handsome summary piece entitled Yale Possibilities. The Yale College viewbook was completely redesigned and rewritten in 1993, and again significantly revised and updated in 1998. Also in 1998, Admissions produced a new booklet on diversity, a pamphlet on science and engineering opportunities, and a redesigned and more substantive brochure for international students. In 1994 it produced a new video that has been appraised as being bold and creative. In each case the office consults knowledgeable people in other offices to ensure that the information it includes is accurate and timely. In recent years Yale has taken a number of steps to improve and reconceptualize its publications. The position of University Printer, vacant since 1994, was filled in 1998 in order to bring oversight at a high level to the various publications of the university. In 1997-98 the Yale College Dean's Office engaged an experienced graphic designer to redesign three of its most important secondary publications--the Freshman Handbook, the Undergraduate Regulations, and the Calendar for the Opening Days of College. The new design is less formal and more colorful than the previous design, and the hope is that this will encourage students to read what is inside. This move reflects an important shift in the philosophy of publications--a recognition that the message cannot be separated from the medium. It is not enough to print information accurately. It must be displayed in a manner that is attractive and eye-catching and yet reflects the character and traditions of the institution. The Office of Public Affairs publishes the Bulletin and Calendar, which is distributed thirty-five times a year to faculty and staff. It gives daily listings of campus lectures, concerts, and performances, and it includes feature articles on visitors, campus news, and special events. Also included in the Bulletin is a weekly police log and periodic announcements about search committees and review committees. Annually it gives a listing of campus programs and resources; Policy Statements on Student Records (the Buckley Amendment) and a Drug-Free Workplace; a supplement on Yale's Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Policies and University Grievance Procedures; the Yale College Executive Committee Annual Report; and a listing of Standing, Special, and Appointments Committees. The Yale Alumni Magazine is not published by the university, but rather by an independent entity, Yale Alumni Publications, Inc. This independence gives the Magazine a fair amount of editorial freedom, and as a result, its content is surprisingly frank and at times controversial. The Magazine is published eight times a year and is distributed to 70,000 alumni and others in the university community. The phenomenal growth of the World Wide Web in recent years has revolutionized publishing throughout the world. Yale has been actively involved in many of these developments, and many of Yale's printed publications are available in electronic form on the Web. In addition, much material is available only on the Web, and this development offers great opportunities as well as pitfalls which will be addressed below.
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Description Appraisal Projection Attachments
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AppraisalYale consists of many entities bound together under the organizing principle of the University; these diverse parts share a dedication to the fundamental missions of education and research to which the university is committed. Because its constituents are so varied, the University has chosen to allow each of its components to have a high degree of autonomy over its publications. Because of this there is a widely variable visual character to the publications that these organizations produce. This is true for print publications as well as electronic ones. Publications made in ink and paper, which have a long history at Yale, have taken on some consistency because of the development of categories and production patterns used for their annual creation. The clearest example of this is the University Bulletin Series, which shares a common format and general overall design. Minor productions of the various departments, schools and colleges, however, take on a widely variable appearance. This a fundamentally good condition, and it would be unfortunate and unrepresentative if design and production controls were rigidly applied to these publications; Yale is diverse, and it is appropriate that its print publications reflect this diversity. When we consider electronic publications–and by this we chiefly mean the Yale Web site–then the diversity expands into a state of near chaos, and we believe that this aspect of the university publishing activity needs to be brought under some degree of control. It is not surprising that Yale’s Web site is somewhat out of control. It is true partly because it is such a volatile medium, without the stabilizing influence that traditional print media has always imposed upon authors and publishers. The diversity and wild nature of the Web also derives from the fact that most of its content is designed and posted by relative amateurs, working in the new field of desktop HTML publishing. Yale has recently redesigned the top levels of its Web site, but it would also be helpful if University constituents were given some broad guidelines for Web page design and content. At present many pages in the Yale site are extremely unclear or ineffective about what they represent and how the information they hold relates to Yale as a whole. None of us wishes to see the engaging medley of Yale publications bowdlerized to a uniform and probably boring standard of design. In fact the content of Yale's publications is excellent, and their varied appearance and form is engaging and appropriate. We believe that only minor changes are needed in Yale's print publications, and that Yale’s electronic offerings call for more extensive reworking simply because the medium is new, evolving, and fundamentally ephemeral. As a University Yale is committed to the broad activities of research and education, and at the core of this exploration is the recognition that little good work can be done without intellectual freedom for those doing the work. Yale's publications reflect this belief. The University is not a monolithic, single product organization, but rather one of extremely far-reaching diversity. We believe that Yale's publications accurately reflect this fundamental aspect of the University's nature.
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ProjectionIn the first decade of the new century University publications will be sorely challenged by the uncertainty of shifting platforms for "public disclosure." Print publishing, in the last decade, has become "distributed" in the course of the desktop revolution, radically affecting the centuries-old publishing, editing, designing, and economic systems which governed the production of reading material. And now, as Yale has only begun to adjust to this, the Web has emerged as a radical and increasingly efficient technology for providing access to information produced by and about organizations like Yale. Although print will remain an important medium for the foreseeable future, critical questions will arise based upon the multiplicity of publications media. For example:
In this context of shifting media, Yale affirms its ongoing commitment to editorial integrity and thoughtful design, particularly for its Bulletin Series and the major publications of its schools. The University pledges to continue to create publications which are distinguished by editorial, visual, and functional quality. It is explicitly not the intention to create a graphically uniform voice, or rigid corporate identity. But since a level of graphic recognition and consistency would have practical and visual benefits for the University and its audiences, Yale is beginning a comprehensive effort to provide editorial and graphic guidelines and resources to its constituent schools and organizations. This initiative, which encompasses both print and the Web (as well as campus signage and licensed Yale products) was first realized in spring of 1999 in the reworking of the most visible pages of Yale's Web site and will begin to be implemented in print publications by mid-fall 1999. Yale is a critically important audience of its own publications. Its sense of itself, its identity and activities, are reinforced by publications so written and designed that the community can recognize and affirm itself in them. This aim is, if anything, even more important of publications intended for external consumption than it is of in-house communications. If our publications are eloquent and accurate, and their design is apt and useful, they will serve our external audiences, and they will inspire and focus Yale in its missions of teaching and research.
LINKS TO STANDARDS: | S1 | S2 | S3 | S4 | S5 | S6 | S7 | S8 | S9 | S10 | S11 | Links to S10 Attachment: | Attachment 1 | |
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Description Appraisal Projection Attachments
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