The YSC IDEA

A Shared Vision

To be a center for student life and the arts that encourages social cohesion, creativity, and self-expression.

A Shared Mission

To leverage dining, conversation, and the arts as part of students’ educational experience, convening people across schools, disciplines, and communities for moments of discovery and connection.

A Platform for Shared Values

• Collaboration
• Wellness
• Belonging

A Shared Idea: Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access

As an organization that strives to embrace fully the ideals of a just and equitable society, we at YSC humbly acknowledge the indigenous peoples and nations — including Mohegan, Mashantucket Pequot, Eastern Pequot, Schaghticoke, Golden Hill Paugussett, Niantic, and the Quinnipiac and other Algonquian speaking peoples — who have stewarded through generations the lands and waterways of what is now the state of Connecticut. We honor and respect the enduring relationship that exists between these peoples and nations and this land.

Yale Schwarzman Center was established in 2015 to foster collaboration, wellness, and belonging at Yale through dining and the arts. Our commitment to Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA) is fundamental to our core values and integral to everything we do. Consistent with Yale University’s mission, we champion "the free exchange of ideas in an ethical, interdependent, and diverse community."

We stand against all forms of discrimination, racial injustice, and economic and social inequity. We recognize the power of human connection to encourage cultural exchange, to educate, and to inspire action.

Because each of us have unique perspectives, we support and celebrate everyone’s ability to teach and learn. We hope that by sharing lived experiences and forging new experiences — whether our paths cross in person or online — we will lay the foundations for a more just and equitable society.

We offer Yale Schwarzman Center as a conduit for students, faculty, staff, and members of the wider community to engage, discuss, challenge, and grow. Through dialogue and shared action, we strive to transform together.

Furthermore, we accept responsibility for the outcomes of our work as we advance IDEA through our core values. Examples of our work include, but are not limited to:

• Fostering a diverse and inclusive organization, and promoting collaboration through equity in employment, leadership representation, board membership, and artist engagement;
• Building partnerships with New Haven community organizations;
• Promoting resource sharing to equitably support student/stakeholders’ creative development and to advance cultural equity;
• Welcoming, honoring, and ensuring that everyone is valued and heard, aware that factors such as gender, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, economic background, and religion matter and shape our perspectives; and
• Recognizing the wide-reaching effects of social isolation and systemic oppression, and promoting community health and wellness through social cohesion.

We commit to the YSC IDEA and invite you to join us!