Berkeley College (Yale) - College Life

College Life

As of fall 2011, Berkeley freshmen are housed in Lanman-Wright Hall. Previously, freshmen were housed in Vanderbilt Hall, erected in memory of William Henry Vanderbilt, a member of the class of 1893, who died in 1892 and was the son of Cornelius Vanderbilt II and Alice Gwynne Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt Hall is home to the Vanderbilt Suite; amongst the Suite's former residents is Anderson Cooper, great-grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt II, although Cooper was actually a member of Trumbull College, which housed its freshmen there at the time.

Berkeley is similar to other residential colleges, with its own gym, television room, and other amenities. It also has unique features:

• Bishop Berkeley Bagel and Beverage Bar: A place where students gather to watch movies, engage in fellowship, and eat greasy food. The Bagel Bar was founded in the late 1980s by Richard Y.C. Lee (B.A. 1991), who later died in the attack on the World Trade Center.
• South Court Basement: In addition to the Bagel Bar, the South Court basement contains a pool table, a football table, table tennis, a free NBA Jam video arcade machine, and a large television screen with a Blu-ray player. Berkeley students can be found studying and socializing here every night of the week.
• North Court Basement: Home to The Thomas Mendenhall, this includes a luxurious sitting area and is equipped with a very large entertainment center.
• The Swiss Room: A private dining room in the dining hall. Transplanted piece by piece from Switzerland, this 16th-century wooden room has been decorated with stained glass by G. Owen Bonawit and is considered priceless.
• The Berkeley Press: A complete, operational letterpress printshop, with a large powered platen press and precision Vandercook flatbed cylinder press, the Berekely Press occupies two rooms on the lower level. Students use it to produce their own books, broadsides, holiday cards and ephemera, and a regular Apprentice Course introduces newcomers into the art.
• The woodshop: A woodworking shop that is well-stocked with power tools and lumber. A professional cabinetmaker comes to Berkeley most weekends to teach students the trade.
• The tunnel: An underground passageway connecting Berkeley's two grand courts, North Court and South Court, which are divided by a grassy area in front of Yale's main library, Sterling Memorial Library. It stands steps away from the Beinecke Library, the Bass Library, the Commons, and the Old Campus. The tunnel features a variety of student murals on the walls and is a convenient pathway on rainy or snowy days.
• On the wall outside the Master's House that faces Sterling Memorial Library, there is a plaque stating that its location marks the house where Josiah Willard Gibbs lived.