In the world according to Yale University, people see him and think: black preacher. People see her and think: Vietnam Memorial, that black wall so many people hated way back when but now find a moving tribute to the fallen of a generation.
The Rev. David Lee and Maya Lin are vying for the same trustee's seat on the board of the Yale Corp., the policy-making body for the New Haven university and overseer of its $10 billion-plus endowment. Each year the alumni, 120,000 strong, are permitted to elect one of their own to a seat on the board. They usually choose from a slate of nominees, somewhere between two and five candidates, put on the ballot by a committee of alumni and Yale officials. But this year, the nominating committee submitted only one candidate: Lin.
Lee had by then already launched a grass-roots campaign and forced his way onto the ballot through a seldom-used petition process. He collected 4,500 signatures.
So Yale, the 300-year-old institution that helps define Establishment, is in a dither because it has a full-fledged campaign on its hands with ads and mass mailings.
Yale officials, while doing their best to support Lin's candidacy, are officially opposed to such politicking. It ain't genteel, they say. But it is rather funny, in a weird sort of way. Yale feels threatened that someone who says he represents the people of New Haven, where the school has been a dominant presence for a couple of centuries, and who has the support of labor unions there, might actually sit at the same table as the board members who represent the Establishment.
"There is a blind spot at Yale - no one is responsible for the community interests," Lee says, while making the case that he would change all that.
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Not that the gown part of the classically tense town-gown relationship hasn't been reaching out to New Haven, helping to vitalize that city through its programs in art, economic development and education, among others.
Lee, who grew up in the projects in the New Haven area and now serves as pastor of a New Haven church, says he just wants the university to do more with and for the city.
"The one thing that angers me the most - makes me so angry - is that people have the audacity to think I don't love Yale," he told the Yale Daily News.
Lin has said very little since her nomination, preferring "the Yale way," which includes heavy politicking on her behalf. "I think it preferable to rely on my background, accomplishments and affection for Yale rather than some new comments that might be interpreted as trying to garner votes," she said in a statement to alumni.
Lin has the Establishment behind her. Lee has the unions. She's got the Yale Graduates for Responsible Trusteeship. He's got the state's attorney general as well as Sen. Joseph Lieberman. But none of these endorsements says a thing about what either candidate would do for Yale or, God forbid, the world beyond.
This is "sound and fury, signifying nothing." What this is not is clear. It is not male versus female - Yale has had women on its overwhelmingly male board before. This is not about choosing a favored "minority" and, thus, making some sort of statement. Yale has been there, done that.
For Yalies, who can be found in all walks of life all over the world, this is a big deal. The ferocity of the battle confirms how resistant institutions are to that which is unorthodox.
And that's why this fight is important beyond Yale. The issues being fought out - the struggle of marginalized people to be heard, the conflict between a powerful institution and the community around it - are repeated throughout the nation. Think of the debate over whether the corporation in charge of redeveloping lower Manhattan should include a representative of the victims' families.
Even non-Yalies can watch the outcome in New Haven as a mirror of the current state of the nation.
by E.R. Shipp
Knight Ridder-Tribune Columnist
E.R. Shipp is a columnist for the New York Daily News. She won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1996. Readers may write to her at eshipp2002@hotmail.com.
