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History
In 1934, the Yale Political Union was founded in JE.

Design
The dominant architectural style of JE is neo-gothic, and the college is comprised of four two- to four- story buildings surrounding a single courtyard. It is the only one of James Gamble Roger's eight colleges to blend new and pre-existing buildings. Less ornate than the Harkness Memorial Quadrangle, JE became the template for Yale's gothic residential projects. Begun in 1910 and finished in 1924, JE's oldest building is Weir Hall, a castellated structure originally home to Yale's Department of Architecture. Incorporating towers salvaged from an 1851 building, it is the oldest building in use by any residential college. Adjacent to Weir Hall are Dickinson and Wheelock Halls, designed by Rodgers and built in 1924 as the York-Library dormitory. When the Yale Corporation approved the college plans, all three buildings were given over to JE. Rodgers plan integrated and expanded these three buildings, added a dining hall and master's house, and finished the quadrangle with Kent Hall.

Expansion and Renovation
JE's buildings incorporate residential, academic, social, recreational, and dining spaces. Though the basic architectural program of the college has remained unchanged since its opening, JE has undergone significant renovations. In 1965, Weir Hall was officially giving over to JE. This allowed for the construction of a library, seminar rooms In 1994, JE underwent a partial renovation to conduct basic maintenance and upgrade building systems. In 2007, as part of a twelve-year program to renovate all of Yale's residential colleges, Newman Architects led a major, yearlong renovation of JE. The renovation aimed to improve connectivity and accessibility, upgrade building systems, and restore and enhance building facilities. Most residential suites were reconfigured, administrative offices were consolidated, and elevators and lower-level staircases were installed throughout the college. After several months of delays due to the complexity of the renovation, the college was rededicated in December 2008 in a ceremony commemorating the 75th anniversary of the residential college system.

Residences
A Master's House was added to JE at the time of its conversion into a residential college. This three-story single family home is the formal residence of the master of JE, who hosts dinners, teas, and other ceremonial events for the college.

Student housing is divided into suites of two to eight, each with a common room and adjoining single or double private rooms, as well as several dozen standalone single rooms allocated to upperclassmen. The college can accomodate 212 undergraduate residents. In addition to student rooms, Kent Hall contains apartments for the dean of JE and two resident fellows, and Weir Hall has three private rooms for graduate affiliates.

The freshman class lives in Farnam Hall on the Old Campus, and approximately half of the junior class live in McClellan Hall.

Great Hall & Common Rooms
The Great Hall, the Rogers-designed dining hall in JE, is in the style of an Elizabethan [[banquet hall, with a high timber truss ceiling and oak wall paneling. The style is unique among the residential colleges, but akin to that of the University Commons. Unlike the Commons, which is the largest dining venue on campus, the Great Hall was designed to be one of the smallest dining halls at Yale. On the hall's walls are portraits of each former master, usually commissioned at the end of their tenure.

The college's three adjacent common rooms are intended for small gatherings and dinners. The main Common Room frequently hosts extracurricular activities and musical recitals. The Junior Common Room and Senior Common Room, each more formal spaces, are used for weekly dinners of the college's fellowship as well as senior class functions.

Libraries & Seminar Rooms
Both libraries in JE are located in Weir Hall. At the foot of Weir Hall is Curtis & Curtiss Library, a non-circulating library of JE memorabilia. It was designed by Rodgers and features stained glass pieces produced by G. Owen Bonawit. The two-story Robert Taft Library, named for Senator Robert Taft, originally belonged to Weir Hall and was given over to the college in 1965. An expansion in 2008 added study carrels and a computer cluster. The upper floor is the Beekman C. Canon Reading Room, informally known as "Upper Taft".

JE has two seminar rooms adjacent to its libraries. They are used primarily for the residential college seminar program at Yale, in which scholars apply to each college to teach undergraduate seminars. They are also used for study and meetings of student groups and secret societies.

Basement
Prior to 2007, the Jonathan Edwards basement was largely unfinished, though it contained a squash court, print shop and dark room. After the renovation, a buttery, dance studio, game room, gym, and student kitchen were installed, and a new shop was created for the JE Press. The renovation converted the squash court into a 60-seat theater and excavated under Weir Hall to add an art gallery. This also completed a subterranean circuit under the college quadrangle, allowing access to any part of the college through its basement.

Courtyard & Grounds
JE contains one of the smallest central college courtyards at Yale. At the college's founding, the courtyard comprised a single lawn and an ellipitical pathway. A gated Master's Courtyard was constructed at the courtyard's east end, giving the Master's House additional privacy and social space. In 1989, Cesar Pelli & Associates oversaw a landscaping plan that introduced tulip planters and magnolias to the courtyard.

Three iron entryway gates were cast by blacksmith Samuel Yellin. Yellin emblazoned the main gate with the dates "1720" and "1932", referencing the year of Edwards' graduation from Yale and the year of the college's founding.

Art & Artwork
Tributes and memorabilia related to Jonathan Edwards are found throughout the college. Given to Yale by Edwards' descendants, original portraits by Joseph Badger of Edwards and his wife, Sarah Pierpont Edwards, hang in the Master's House dining room, and facisimilies hang in the Senior Common Room. A walnut slant-top desk believed to have belonged to Edwards also resides in the Master's House. The desk was discovered in the basement of the old Divinity School during its demolition in 1931 and moved to JE. In 2008, stone-cut replicas of the Edwards' tombstones, hand carved by The John Stevens Shop, were installed in the college's basement.

Sculptures have adorned the courtyard since its opening. In the 1930s, the courtyard featured an early eighteenth-century bronze statue of a young slave holding a sundial, purported to have belonged to Elihu Yale. It has since been removed. Since 1998, the Yale University Art Gallery has loaned a twelve-foot bronze sculpture by Dimitri Hadzi, entitled "Floating Helmets", to the Master's Courtyard. . In 2012, a bronze sundial honoring Master Gary Haller was installed near the site of the original sundial.

The work of artists affiliated with the college are on rotating display their art in the college's basement art gallery. A permanent installation of prints by Walker Evans can also be found in the basement, as well as historical memorabilia and ephemera printed by the JE Press.

Culture Draw
Each semester, a raffle is held for the students of the college to attend cultural and artistic performances in New York and New Haven. Fellows of the college accompany groups of students to each performance, usually taking them to dinner beforehand. Culture Draw events usually include performances of the Metropolitan Opera and New York City Ballet, Broadway musicals and plays, and symphony orchestra concerts.

Great Awakening
At the beginning of the Fall semester, students hold a courtyard picnic to commemorate the birth and legacy of Jonathan Edwards, including the American religious revival he inspired. The event serves as the college's yearly in-gathering.

JE Screw
The JE Screw is the college's iteration of the "screw" dances popular at Yale, in which suitemates will set up blind dates for each other and require pairs to find each other prior to the dance. JE Screw customarily takes place in the fall semester and is open to members of the college and their dates.

Men of JE
Formed in the early 1990s, the Men of JE are an audition-only a capella group with a secret membership. Claiming to be "part a capella group, part defender of Yale and JE ideals," the Men are known to pester and pull pranks on members of Branford and other residential colleges. They traditionally perform original songs at JE events, whether or not they are invited to do so. Although not officially disbanded, The Men have not appeared publicly since 2011.

Spider Ball
Traditionally held immediately before Reading Period, JE hosts a semi-formal dance open to members of the college and their dates. It is considered to be the most lavish and formal residential college dance.

Wet Monday
Drawing on the Polish tradition of Dyngus Day, JE's Wet Monday water fight occurs each year at midnight on Easter Monday. While freshmen blitz the college with water balloons and squirt guns, upperclassmen attempt to defend the college quadrangle with an arsenal of hoses, water balloons, and other creative deterrents.

Fellowship
By nomination of the master and approval of the Council of Masters, any Yale faculty member or affiliate can be named a fellow of JE. Fellows hold weekly fellows dinners in the college, teach college seminars, advise students on their course of study, and participate in the ceremonies and traditions of the college. The fellowship's most senior members appointed as president of the Junior Common Room and president of the Senior Common Room by order of seniority. Notable fellows include Bob Alpern, Harold Bloom, David Bromwich, Shelly Kagan, Frank Rich, James Prosek, Herbert Scarf, Tom Steitz, and Robert Stern.

Graduate Affiliate Program
Graduate students of Yale are invited to be affiliates of JE by the master. The graduate affiliates. Up to three graduate affiliates can live in the college, where they help the master organize lectures, teas, study breaks, and other functions. As resident fellows, they are junior members of the college fellowship.

Intramural Teams
Yale's residential colleges compete in an annual intramural competitions in several dozen events. Each year, the most winning college across all events receives the Tyng Cup. After clinching the cup only twice in the first seventy-five years of the competition, in 1958-'59 and 1995-'96, JE won three consecutive Tyng Cup championships in 2009-'10, 2010-'11, and 2011-'12. It is currently tied for eighth in all-time Tyng victories.

Jonathan Edwards College Council
Like its counterparts in the other residential colleges, the Jonathan Edwards College Council (JECC) is the elected student council that governs student life in the college. In conjunction with the master and Dean, the JECC manages student facilities, capital purchases, and residential policies. In addition, many college traditions are organized by the JECC.

Social Activities Committee
The Social Activities Committee is a volunteer student group which hosts study breaks, dances, and miscellaneous college events.

The JE Press
As recently as the 1980s, every residential college possessed press shops in order to print announcements, posters, and menus: projects now dominated by digital printing. As of 2013, JE is one of two residential colleges which retains its active use of its print shop, the JE Press. JE owns four presses, including an automated Vandercook press. The other three are manual, one of which belonged to Frederic Goudy. The JE Press is overseen by printer Richard Rose, who teaches classes each year in the printing arts.

The Jonathan Edwards Trust
JE is the only college at Yale to retain an independent endowment, the Jonathan Edwards Trust. The Trust was formally established in 1966 for the purposes of supplementing the programs and resources provided to the college by Yale. It has generally been used for educational, artistic, and cultural programming. Since its foundation, it has been used to produce the Edwards' portrait facsimiles and tombstone replicas, to refurbish the JE Press and the college's concert pianos, and to support operatic and musical productions.

Robert C. Bates Fellowship
In addition to the Trust, JE received a large bequest in 1962 memory of Robert C. Bates, a fellow of the college and professor of French, by his sister Amy Bradish Groesbeck. These funds are disbursed as teaching and undergraduate research fellowships.

Tetelman Fellowship
Endowed in memory of Alan S. Tetelman, a JE alum and professor of metellurgy at UCLA who was killed in a plane crash, the Tetelman Fellowship supports lectures and research fellowships at Yale. It is administered by the master of JE, who invites distinguished scientists and science advocates to give the semesterly Tetelman Lecture. Past lecturers include Robert Ballard, Harry Blackmun Murray Gell-Mann, the Dalai Lama, David Lee, Amartya Sen, Maxine Singer, and James Watson.

The Tetelman Fellowship also supports undergraduate research in the natural and applied sciences.

Sister College Relationship
JE's sister college in Harvard College is Eliot House, a relationship formalized in 1934. . The hospitality of each college is open to the fellows and students of the other; this primarily takes place at The Game, during which Eliot House and JE host students of the other college.