Education

Yale University To Open First New Professional School In More Than 40 Years


Yale University announced Tuesday that it would formally open the Jackson School of Global Affairs for the fall 2022 semester. As reported in the Yale News, the school, which is currently known as the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, will become the first degree-granting professional school created at Yale in more than 40 years. The last professional school to open at the university was the School of Management in 1976.

In making the announcement, Yale President Peter Salovey also named James A. Levinsohn, the founding director of the Jackson Institute and the Charles W. Goodyear Professor in Global Affairs at Yale, as the school’s inaugural dean, beginning July 1.

Of the new school, Salovey said, “The impact this will have on the world through the students who receive an education through the scholarship that the Jackson School is involved in and through the practical policy advice that it can provide is going to be tremendous and will ramify — yes, it will ramify Yale — but more importantly, it will solve problems in the world.”

The Jackson Institute was formed in 2010 through a founding gift from ex-pharmaceutical businessman and philanthropist John Jackson, a 1967 Yale graduate, and his wife, Susan. The couple donated $50 million to launch the Institute with the understanding that Yale would consider transforming it into a school at a later time.

In 2019, the Yale Board of Trustees approved plans to expand the institute into a professional school, contingent on the university raising $200 million to endow the institute. On Tuesday, Salovey said that the university had reached that goal.

Under Levinwohn’s Leadership, Yale faculty have been working to develop several initiatives that will fall under the new school’s umbrella. A Master of Public Policy degree has been created, and other changes to the institute’s curriculum have been made.

In addition, the Jackson Institute has added an undergraduate Global Affairs major, as well as the Kerry Initiative and the Johnson Center for the Study of American Diplomacy. It’s also incorporated several existing Yale programs in the policy studies area, including the Maurice R. Greenberg World Fellows Program, the Leitner Program on Effective Democratic Governance, the Global Health Studies Program and International Security Studies.

Crediting the work of a team of faculty, university leaders, staff, students, and donors to get the Jackson Institute ready for the transition, Levinsohn added. “We will open the best-in-class school of international policy next fall, and I am hugely grateful to have the opportunity to lead this new School — Yale’s first in decades.”

Plans call for the new school to collaborate with other professional units at Yale, as well as with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Yale College. According to Yale News, at least three more faculty are expected to join the school in the fall, including Amit Khandelwal, an economist at Columbia University. Two faculty already at Yale – Lorenzo Caliendo at the School of Management and Penny Goldberg in the economics department – will receive half-time appointments in the Jackson School.

The school also plans to add to its already existing roster of international practitioners that includes diplomats, journalists, and policymakers who serve as senior fellows. The fellows teach courses, conduct research, and consult with students. Past and current fellows include columnist and political commentator David Brooks, former governor and presidential candidate Howard Dean and Ambassadors Anne Peterson and Harry K. Rogers.



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