Clarence Page’s Sept. 10 column about five Orthodox Jewish students at Yale who don’t want to live on campus sensibly explored many of the issues raised by their position (Op-Ed).
Unfortunately, Mr. Page, perhaps inadvertently, used language suggesting that the position of the five students is typical of Orthodox Jewish students at Yale and that Orthodox Jewish students, in general, “feel they can’t abide living in Yale’s dorms.”
The vast majority of Orthodox Jewish students at Yale live in the residential colleges and other dorms and interact freely with other students. For whatever reasons, these five students have chosen to make a point by seeking admission to Yale, then challenging the requirement that they live in dorms.
Whether a college such as Yale should require all students to live in dorms, without undue segregation of any sort, is open to legitimate debate. In that debate, however, it is important to be precise about the issues and people involved. Most Jewish students (and alumni) would not agree that their religious beliefs compel the position asserted by the five students.
