'GQ' magazine says Yale has lost much of its prestige

Judith Rodin should be happy about coming to the University this summer, Interim President Claire Fagin said last night. But not solely because of the opportunities which await her in West Philadelphia. Because this month's Gentlemen's Quarterly magazine labeled her university the most troubled school in the Ivy League. That's right. GQ said Yale University has lost its prestige. "I would be pretty unhappy if I were at Yale," Fagin said. "[The article] is certainly very, very negative." How bad could it be? Bad enough, according to Rodin. "I think all of us at Yale think that it's old news painted in the worst possible light," she said. The nine page article entitled "The Last Boola-Boola," written by none other than a Harvard alumnus, reported that Yale is "falling apart," is "no longer the equal of Harvard," and has one of the nation's most dangerous campuses. While GQ may not be The New York Times, it doesn't make life any easier for Rodin, Yale's provost. "I don't know enough about GQ, [but] I think that anytime there are negative articles about institutions, no matter where they're published?I would not minimize the potential," she said. And Fagin said the article, which many have labeled as "one sided," is not entirely fiction. "People do talk about it?I've heard discussions about?the infrastructure and the fact that there's been so much deferred maintenance," Fagin said. $1.5 billion of deferred maintenance, to be exact, according to GQ's John Sedgwick, the author of the article. Sedgwick said in his article that Yale's physical condition is suffering from years of inattention. Rodin acknowledged that the campus is in bad shape, "[but] we've known that since 1987," she said. She added that what bothers her about the article is that nothing which is reported in it is very recent. "I think it's the fact that it's old news," she said. Whatever the outcome, Fagin had only one comment for Rodin, who will be leaving Yale this month and starting at the University July 1. "She ought to be smiling," Fagin said.

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