that is, in fact, quite specific: the Yale Experience.rnIf you don’t want to find condomsrnat your dinner plate or to accord tornthe holy other the divine right to fornicaterneven when you want to sleep, gornsomewhere else. The Yale Experience isrnnot for you.rnWhat strange, pretentious language!rnMy colleagues at Bard College speak,rnquite properly, of a Bard education, andrnthat means some specific, worthwhilernthings. My colleagues at the University’rnof South Florida, our huge, full-servicernuniversity on the urban frontier, do notrnhave the leisure to speak of the “SouthrnFlorida experience,” but perhaps that isrnbecause (among other reasons) we arernmisnamed, being located in west-centralrnFlorida. But at Yale, that is the way peoplerntalk.rnI cannot speak Yale-talk, but I understandrnit, because a few decades ago,rnthe chairman of Yale’s (infamouslyrnmediocre) department of religious studies,rnWayne Meeks, wrote me to explainrnwhy I could not be appointed to an opening:rn”Granted you’re the best in thernworld, but we have to choose what’s bestrnfor Yale.” I wondered whether Meeksrnstood for Yale or only for his personalrnsense of Yale. So I asked him whetherrnthe Yale Medical School might tell arnbrain surgeon, or the physics departmentrntell an astrophysicist, “Granted you’rernthe best in the world, but we have tornchoose the brain surgeon/astrophysicistrnwho is best for Yale.” I received no reply.rnStill, for veteran Yale-watchers—as arnWest Hartford boy of the late 1940’s,rnwhen Yale was unashamedly anti-rnSemitic and told Jews their kind shouldrngo elsewhere, it comes naturally to me —rnthe current brouhaha still astounds. Yalernrequires freshmen and sophomores tornlive on campus. But the Jewish studentsrncomplained, “Yale . . . encourages arnlifestyle in the dormitories that there’s nornwav a fully observant Orthodox Jew canrnlive in.” Single-sex dorms and floors dornnot help, because the toilets are open tornboth men and women. The dormitoryrnenvironment is defined by the university.rnAt a freshman orientation lecture, studentsrnare told how courteously “to askrn’our roommate to leave when you wantrnto have sex with your girlfriend.” Thernrest of Yales’ sex pep talks for freshmen Irnleave to the reader’s imagination.rnBut for the Orthodox students, mattersrnwere not so simple. In their first year,rnthey actually did live off-campus, pavingrnthe required fees for a dorm room, butrneven that (rather extravagant) expedientrnis now denied them. No one has explainedrnwhy they cannot, in their sophomorernyear, avoid the Yale Experiencernthat they did not have in their freshmanrnyear. So off they have gone to the lawyersrnand the headlines.rnRecently, Brown University’s newrnpresident told the incoming class thatrntheir task is “to rebel.” In 1997? Againstrnwhat? Brown’s tough eurricukmi, whichrnrequires not a single course, abounds inrnpass/fail options, and demands littlernmore than four years of breathing in exchangernfor a degree of dubious value —rnrebel against that? No, the real messagernis that what the students bring to campusrn—the identities formed in community,rnhome, and family, in American civilizationrnas it still flourishes—finds a coolrnwelcome.rnThat is why the Yale experience has itsrnown surprises to set forth. Writing in thernNew Yor^ Times, William Glaberson reports,rn”Some students and faculty membersrnon campus here say the debate raisesrnfundamental questions about howrnmuch universities should channel peoplerninto shared experiences and howrnmuch they should encourage students tornmaintain their group identities.” Hernquotes “a Yale history professor, IvanrnMarcus,” as saying, “The universityrnwould be in chaos if it bent over backwardrnto accommodate ever}”one’s sensitivities.”rnNow in the context of Yale’s sexualrnzealotr)’, this statement is hardly surprising,rnespecially the bending-over part.rnBut the source amazes. Innocently describedrnas a mere history professor, IvanrnMarcus is in fact not only Yale’s professorrnof “Jewish history,” but a rabbi. Herncomes to Yale from the position of professorrnand provost at the Jewish TheologicalrnSeminary of America, where forrnmost of his career he educated rabbisrnin the same religious tradition that thernOrthodox students maintain condemnsrnpromiscuity. When students enter JTSA,rnthey sign a pledge to practice the teachingrnof the Torah. Marcus signed thatrnpledge when he entered, just as I didrnwhen I came along. But as a professor atrnYale, he fears “the chaos that would result”rnif Yale accommodated the “sensitivities”rnof shidents who practice Judaism’srnteachings concerning sexual modestyrnand purity. Talk about hypocrisy andrnselling out to the other side! Marcusrnstrikes me as little more than a culturalrnKapo, serving the Kommandant of StalagrnYale (who is also Jewish).rnWhen I taught at Brown, I rememberrnthat the economics professors would ask,rn”Is this particular crisis absolutely necessar-‘?”rnSo in this ease, I wondered, didrnYale perhaps have no choice but to joinrnthe lunatic fringe of politically correctrnzealotry? I consulted a housing directorrnof a large private university. He reassuredrnme that any competent housing directorrncan organize suitable housing forrnsmall groups of students with special requirements.rnHe does it every day, as dornall of his colleagues.rnWhat does it take to set aside a fewrnrooms on a secluded floor for studentsrnwho do not wish to share toilets with thernopposite sex and who voluntarily wish tornimpose parietal rules on their ownrnrooms? Only the stroke of a pen, and yetrnYale won’t do this. (As we go to press,rnYale says it is now willing to assign thernJewish men to an all-male floor but notrnwilling to enforce any rules or restrictionsrnregarding activities on their floor, meaningrnit will only accommodate the menrnon paper.)rnCripples have their ramps; gays andrnlesbians, their K-Y dispensers and theirrndouble beds; blacks, their own graduationrnceremonies; Hispanies, their ownrnunions; voyeurs, their unisex toilets—allrncourtesy of university administrators.rnBut rather than extend the same “sensitivity”rnto scarcely a minyan — a quorumrn—of Orthodox Jews, Yale wouldrnrather humiliate itself publicly and announce,rn’Tou’re not welcome here.”rnBut they do not mean only a handfulrnof Orthodox Jews. They mean religiousrnJews, Christians, and Muslims, whornabide by the divine injunctions concerningrnsexuality—encompassing modestv’—rnthat all three monotheist religions holdrnas revealed truth. Yale is making itsrnpoint, loud and clear: the faithful of Islam,rnJudaism, and Christianity may aspirernto work for God and certainly forrncountr)’, but so far as Sodom by Long IslandrnSound is concerned, they are certainlyrnnot fit for Yale. Which means Yalernhas now transcended anti-Semitism andrninvented a whole new bigotry all its own:rnif you practice a traditional religion andrnmoralitv’, you need not apply. “The Yalerneducational experience is not going to bernattractive to everyone.”rn]acob Neusner is Distinguished ResearchrnProfessor ofRehgious Studies at the Universityrnof South Florida and Professor ofrnReUgion at Bard College.rnDECEMBER 1997/41rnrnrn