Ezra Stiles College
Ezra Stiles College is one of the fourteen residential colleges at Yale University, built in 1961 and designed by Eero Saarinen.[1] The college is named after Ezra Stiles, the seventh President of Yale. Architecturally, it is known for its lack of right angles between walls in the living areas. It sits next to Morse College.
Ezra Stiles College
19 Tower Parkway
Stilesians
1961
Black, Gold
Alicia Schmidt Camacho
Murphy Temple
478 (2013-2014)
A. Bartlett Giamatti Memorial Moose
Origin[edit]
In his report on the 1955–56 academic year, Yale President A. Whitney Griswold announced his intention to add at least one residential college to Yale's two-decade-old system. "We have the colleges so full that community life, discipline, education, even sanitation are suffering," he said.[2] After several years of speculation about the possibility of four or five new colleges, the university confirmed the construction of two new colleges in spring 1959, choosing Eero Saarinen '34 as the project architect and the Old York Square behind the Graduate School as the site. The Old Dominion Foundation, established by Paul Mellon '29, provided funding for the construction of Stiles and Morse, calling for the building of two "radically different" Yale colleges in order to reduce over-crowding.[3]
Student life[edit]
The mascot is the A. Bartlett Giamatti Memorial Moose. Ezra Stiles students presented the college with the taxidermy moose head in 1972 when they found out that the then College Master A. Bartlett Giamatti would be leaving the role with instructions not to hang his picture in the college, as had been the custom.[11] Giamatti in 1977 became Yale's youngest president, and in 1989 was named Commissioner of Baseball. Giamatti's son, actor Paul Giamatti, lived in the Head of college's House on the Ezra Stiles College grounds from birth through age five. The moose appears on much of the Ezra Stiles apparel and is part of the Ezra Stiles cheer.[12]
Stiles has had success in Yale's intramural sports program, winning the Tyng Cup — presented to the residential college with the best intramural sports performance — in 1964, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 2003, 2004, and 2005.[13] This 10-cup total places Stiles just one behind leaders Pierson College and Timothy Dwight College. More recently, the college has taken second place behind Silliman College, which won the Cup in 2006, 2007, and 2008. Stiles also won the intramural water polo championship in 2020, making it the first major Stiles intramural win in a several-year-long drought.
Ezra Stiles and Morse used to co-host an annual Casino Night since the early 1990s, until it was shut down due to legal concerns. A formal affair, the event featured casino-style games and live music.[14] Stilesians also host an annual "Medieval (K)night." For one night in April, the dining hall is transformed into a medieval banquet hall, and students enjoy medieval fare and dramatic re-enactments of "Beowulf" and dragon battles after besieging and pillaging rival colleges.[15] In addition to raiding other colleges, Stiles has historically also pranked their fellow residential colleges. In 2019, the "Morse" banner in the Morse dining hall was edited overnight to read "Moose". While the culprits were never caught, Stilesians were the prime suspects.[16]
The college is well known for a robust arts community, maintaining a student-run art gallery, and holding "Stiles Arts Week" for over 40 years. During Arts Week, the college hosts study breaks and activities which have included painting pots for succulents, workshops in stop-motion animation, and open mic nights. For Arts Week 2020, the week kicked off with a 12-hour knitting marathon called "The Great Knit."[17] Recently Arts Week has included the Stiles Student Film Festival, a formal affair featuring films from all Yale students regardless of major or residential college affiliation. Arts Week culminates in a "classical brunch," in which Stiles musicians perform classical music during brunch.[18]