Thomas MacMillan Photo
Yale’s Lauren Zucker speaks with Dwight Alderman Frank Douglass.
In a discussion about improving town/gown relations with Yale, city lawmakers offered several suggestions: help set up the “jobs pipeline,” expand the university’s homebuyer program, and extend Yale shuttle service to all New Haveners.
Bruce Alexander, Yale’s head of New Haven and State Affairs, didn’t make any promises in response to those requests but assured aldermen the university would discuss them further. He said Yale is already at work developing its own jobs pipeline as well as helping to create a larger one for the city.
Alexander made those comments at a Monday night briefing of the Board of Aldermen. He and his staff met with 17 of the city’s 30 aldermen in a room at the Dixwell Yale Community Learning Center on Ashmun Street. It was the latest in a number of briefings aldermen have put together recently. Lawmakers were briefed on the Shubert theater in March; this month they’ll be briefed on Yale-New Haven Hospital and the city’s Safe Streets Manual.
The briefings come at the request of a Board of Aldermen that this year contains a large number of rookie lawmakers, many of whom swept into office on a tide of support from Yale unions, which recently settled a new contract with the university. The union-backed-majority board has been working on a stated agenda of jobs, youth, and public safety.
The centerpiece of the jobs piece has been an effort dubbed the “jobs pipeline,” envisioned as a way to prepare more New Haveners for local jobs and make sure they end up in them. It’s an effort that Yale has signed on to, both as a presence on the city’s jobs pipeline committee and by beginning to work on a jobs pipeline of its own at the university. Yale and its union included a “pipeline” in their recently reached four-year contract, which will help low-wage workers, for instance, train for higher-skilled positions and open spaces for local entry-level employees in the process.
Asked after the meeting about Yale’s jobs pipeline efforts, Alexander said that Yale has appointed human resources staffer Diane Turner to work full time on developing it. He said he didn’t have details on exactly how it will work, but that the effort would be towards increasing the number of New Haven residents that can be hired at Yale. The first step is to identify which jobs at Yale would be most appropriate, he said.
Reached by phone, Laurie Kennington, head of Yale’s Local 34 union, offered some details on the Yale pipeline effort. She said the pipeline is enshrined in language in the recent contract.
Most Yale employees start their employment with the university as casual workers, that is, non-permanent workers without benefits. The university has made a commitment to finding ways to hire more New Haveners into these positions, Kennington said. The university will also be giving priority to people who emerge from any local training programs that the citywide jobs pipeline sets up.
The contract also has a focus on “promoting from within,” Kennington said. As Yale promotes more local people to better jobs at the university, more spots will open up below that can be filled by local people at entry levels, she said.
“The university has been really wonderful in saying this is a priority,” she said.
1/3 Of Workforce Is Local
Alexander (pictured) and other Yale officials mentioned that pipeline several times Monday night as they laid out for aldermen a recent history of Yale’s cooperation with the city of New Haven. Yale’s contributions to the city can be separated into three themes, Alexander said: Jobs and “tax base strength,” “human development” especially of young people, and “neighborhood partnerships.”
Lauren Zucker, Yale’s director of New Haven affairs, tackled the first theme. Yale is the city’s largest employer, ahead of Yale-New Haven Hospital. Yale employs over 4,000 New Haveners, about a third of the university’s staff, and pays them over $325 million in wages each year, Zucker said.
Yale has helped created jobs by bolstering a burgeoning biotech boomlet in town and by sprouting new businesses at the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute, said Zucker.
She put up a chart showing the growth of Yale’s voluntary payments to the city over the years, from $2.3 million in fiscal year 2005, to $8.1 million in fiscal year 2012. In addition, Yale pays $4 million in property taxes each year, and $15 million in permit fees over the three years, and the city gets over $30 million each year in state payments in lieu of taxes for Yale’s tax exempt property, Zucker said.
Karen King, who works with Zucker, took over to talk about Yale’s support for “local youth.” In addition to its partnerships with local schools and programs, the university brings thousands of kids to campus for programs, she said. She wowed aldermen with two long lists of programs for kids sponsored by Yale, including the $4 million Yale plans to give each year to New Haven Promise, the city’s college scholarship program.
Alexander, talking about the third theme of “Neighborhood Partnerships, spoke about the success of Yale’s Homebuyer Program, which helps Yale employees buy houses in certain neighborhoods in town. He spoke about Science Park and community gardens and the work Yale has done to transform dilapidated homes into shiny refurbished houses.
Fair Haven Heights Alderwoman Brenda Jones-Barnes (pictured) asked about expanding the homebuyer program into her ward. She offered to give Alexander a tour of the neighborhood. He said Yale does the program in neighborhoods that it believes need it.
Beaver Hills Alderman Brian Wingate (pictured) said the city still has a town/gown divide. “There’s still an us and them perception out there,” he said.
Hill Alderman Jorge Perez, the president of the board, said town-gown communication has improved dramatically during his 24 years in office. “It’s like day and night.”
It would improve even more, Perez said, if Yale increases the percentage of employees who are New Haveners. As that percentage increases from 30 percent up to 40 or 50 percent or even higher, “the whole feeling will be much better,” he said.
Shuttle Diplomacy?
East Rock Alderman Jessica Holmes offered another suggestion: Open up the Yale shuttle service so that all New Haveners can hop on and off the buses. “It’s a great service,” she said. But the fact that it’s open only to Yale-affiliated people “reinforces some of the town/gown divisions.”
Alexander promised to help set up a meeting with the person who runs the shuttle service.
Aldermen enjoyed a sumptuous spread at the meeting.
Yale employs 4,000 New Haveners. There are at least 10,000 unemployed and underemployed workers living in New Haven. That figure does not count youth, who rarely can get to jobs.
Increasing the percentage of "local" workers at Yale from 30% to 40%, as Perez suggests Yale do, therefore wouldn't make a huge difference in our unemployment rate, especially considering the number of workers who will be decamping to the suburbs as soon as their large raises kick in over the next few years.
Adding shuttle service would be great, if you work at Yale, but wouldn't help the other 10,000 unemployed people that much. The youth program idea is great, but doesn't help unemployed parents all that much.
Do the leaders of our Board have other ideas that don't involve Yale?
It seems clear that they want more jobs at Yale and more free parking lots and free shuttles so that their constituents can get to them easily. But I'm not sure how that helps the rest of the city, particularly lower-income workers.