Assembly LXI: The Undergraduate Curriculum at Yale
Thursday, October 24 - Saturday, October 26, 2002
Assembly Chair Marc B. Lockhart '84
Executive Summary

Yale College Class Meetings

The Yale College Class group at the AYA has experienced great success with an overhaul of Yale College Reunions, starting in 1999. This success has been measured by positive feedback received via our post-reunion surveys and a strong increase in attendance. Our current goal is to extend the lessons learned in the overhaul process to other class activities, including leadership development and the planning of other class events.

To help focus our efforts, we surveyed officers last year about their priorities for their class and asked for their feedback on AYA support and how we might improve our service to volunteers. Responses can be generalized in four areas: more individual contact with AYA staff, more guidelines and how-to manuals, greater assistance with individual class website development and improved support of new officers, including mentoring by more experienced officers.

AYA efforts to address these needs have included the following

• In conjunction with the AYA website redevelopment and the launch of the Online Alumni Directory, the Yale College Classes website has been redeveloped, with a goal to be of interest to many alumni, not just class officers. In addition to information from the AYA, classes will be encouraged to submit news and information about events and projects.
  
  
• The AYA has been able to offer better assistance with class website development. Several classes have utilized resources at Yale, including paid web designers within Yale's information technology staff, for initial class website design.
  
  
• Development of the online Class Officers Toolbox. The first phase is now live at www.aya.yale.edu/classleaders. The site will provide resources for class officers and other class leaders. Officers will receive updates as the site continues to be developed.

To follow up on many requests for more contact with staff and more opportunities to collaborate with other officers, two breakout sessions were held following the plenary session.

Class Council Breakout
The focus of the breakout was to explore the many ways a class council can be structured, when and why they developed and how they can assist in making a class an active one. Four experienced class leaders (Bruce Roberts '47, Ed Greenberg '59, Peter Wells '60, and Jimmy Lu '77) shared their own thoughts and experiences.

In the discussion that followed, interest was expressed in developing a class officer mentor program. Officers interested in either mentoring or being mentored should contact their staff liaison.

Mini Reunions & Multi-Class Events
Both multi-class events and individual class mini-reunions have become increasing popular and successful over the last several years. Two officers (Shana Katz '01, Ed Cantor '61) shared their personal experiences. They offered some key success factors and helpful advice for each type of event. The AYA also handed out an updated version of the Mini-Reunions Planning Guidelines.

A discussion followed with attendees sharing their own experiences as volunteer organizers and as attendees. There was general agreement that both of these types of events create a unique feeling of involvement and cohesiveness within the class and that all classes would benefit from organizing these events.

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