The Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning (301 York Street) in Sterling Memorial Library features several spaces designed to accommodate courses and other teaching and learning activities. To request the Poorvu Center space for a Yale class or related activity, please review the information below and submit the application form, two weeks, prior to your requested date. Due to expected demand, we may not be able to accommodate all requests. This form should also be used to submit requests to teach in the Technology Enhanced Active Learning (TEAL) classroom located at 17 Hillhouse Ave. and Watson Center (60 Sachem St.) Rooms A74 and B74. 

Items to know before completing the form:

The Poorvu Center will only consider requests from approved Yale community members. Room capacities listed in our forms have not been reduced for proper social distancing, please keep this in mind when reserving a space.

As you will see when reviewing the descriptions of our classrooms, the largest class we can accommodate in the Poorvu Center is 30 people. Please be mindful of this space limit when considering whether the Poorvu Center might be the right location for your course. The TEAL classroom and Watson Center classrooms can accommodate more people.  

Please note that you are expected to bring your own technological equipment when utilizing Poorvu Center rooms (e.g. Mac laptop adaptors, presentation advancers/clickers, power adapters).

With extreme rare exception, courses are assigned to Poorvu Center for one semester with the expectation that they will rotate to another space on campus in order to provide more faculty the opportunity to teach in the Poorvu Center. We will work with instructors to ensure that the course activities implemented during your semester in the Poorvu Center can be translated into most other classrooms at Yale. This approach DOES NOT apply to use of the TEAL classroom. The practice has been established to allow instructors to teach in the TEAL classroom for numerous consecutive semesters or years and that will not change. Please only use this form for TEAL courses and seminars; for study halls, meetings and events within TEAL, please use 25Live. 

In response to faculty suggestions, the Poorvu Center and the University Registrar will collaborate to consider as part of this process requests for use of the TEAL classroom (for FAS courses) located at 17 Hillhouse Ave and Watson Center A74 and B74. Faculty assigned to teach in either Poorvu Center space or the TEAL classroom through the Poorvu Center's intake process will benefit from early assignment with ample lead time to design their course and consult with the Poorvu Center.

Please note that we provide technical support for all courses taught at the Poorvu Center. Watson and TEAL are supported by IT Classroom Technology Services. Instructors teaching in those rooms will need to arrange technical support with the IT Classroom Technology Services team.

The Poorvu Center will prioritize space assignments for courses that meet one or more of the following criteria:

1. Courses taught by faculty seeking to work with the Poorvu Center team on elements of course design and assessment.
2. Courses that involve developing a pedagogical model or approach that can be replicated in other courses.
3. Courses that leverage the space design by engaging students in active learning and/or thoughtful use of technology.
4. Courses that leverage the centrality and visibility of the Poorvu Center to showcase excellent teaching practices.
5. Courses that have not already been taught in a Poorvu Center space.

Timing and notification:

For fall semester courses: submit your classroom request for the Poorvu Center, Watson, or TEAL by mid-July. We will notify instructors of assignments in the Poorvu Center, Watson, or TEAL by mid-August. Requests that arrive later will be considered within two weeks after receipt, if capacity allows.

For spring semester courses: submit your classroom request by Thanksgiving. We will notify instructors of assignments in the Poorvu Center, Watson, or TEAL by mid-December. Requests that arrive later will be considered within two weeks after receipt, if capacity allows.

For one-time or short-term use of spaces: submit your request at least one full week before your class session. We will review requests with our internal space planning committee to assess availability and support capacity.    

The Poorvu Center will review the list of proposed courses with the Poorvu Center Advisory Committee. This group represents our key campus partners and can offer guidance about the teaching examples we host in our space.