History and Traditions

The Faculty of the Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office has been an independent entity since July 2014, when Tamar Szabó Gendler took office as the inaugural Dean of the FAS. As a relatively new administrative body, the FAS Dean’s Office is not only steeped in the centuries-old traditions of the University, but also has the opportunity to create its own traditions and legacy. Some of these symbols and traditions are described below. 

The excellence of the FAS faculty is the most important tradition of the FAS. Yale aims to be the research university most committed to teaching and learning, and to that end cultivates an outstanding faculty of internationally recognized scholars and teachers. The FAS faculty embody this ambition. 

Coat of Arms

The Faculty of the Arts and Sciences’ coat of arms was designed by Tamar Gendler and University Printer John Gambell, University Printer in 2016. It uses traditional heraldic elements to symbolize the teaching and research mission of the FAS.

As FAS ladder faculty teach and train graduate students, the upper left quadrant refers to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences using Maltese crosses from the graduate school’s coat of arms, a reference to Wilbur Cross 1889 PhD, who was dean of the graduate school from 1916 to 1930. Diagonally opposite are ermine symbols drawn from the coat of arms of Yale College, as every FAS faculty member teaches undergraduate students.

The two remaining quadrants are occupied by the “Yale,” a goat-like mythical creature historically used in European heraldry as a marker of higher education. The Yale gets its name from the Hebrew word yael, meaning ibex. On the FAS coat of arms, it symbolizes the intellectual curiosity and inquiry of the FAS faculty in both the Arts and the Sciences.

Commencement and the FAS Mace

Several FAS symbols can be found each year at University Commencement. Since 1948, a faculty member or university leader serves as the senior marshal of the faculty and carries the University’s wooden and silver mace. Among the carved figures decorating the mace are two representing art and science, respectively.

In 2019, FAS Dean Tamar Gendler commissioned artist Howard Newman to create a ceremonial mace to represent the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at official university ceremonies. The design and creation of the FAS mace was supported by a gift from Patricia and Kenneth McKenna ’75 PhD ’78.  It was first carried in the commencement processions in 2022 and will be carried each year by a distinguished member of the FAS faculty. 

The mace is decorated with symbols that reflect FAS research and teaching: the popular ankylosaurus from the Peabody Museum’s Rudolph Zallinger mural, the Latin word for ‘truth,’ an LED bulb, the Sheffield School’s famous zeppelin window, and others. The head is filled with stones taken from the banks of the Quinnipiac River, giving the mace an unexpected sonic element and offering tribute to the indigenous inhabitants of the area where Yale now stands. Along the shaft of the mace, beginning just below the head, a series of metal bands will eventually bear the names of the successive Deans of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.