Some students also are worried that the new colleges, which would be built north of the Grove Street Cemetery bounded by Prospect, Canal and Sachem streets, would be too far from the historic center of campus, which is less than a mile away. Levin promised better shuttle bus service, enhanced security and other measures to tie the new colleges to the existing campus.
Expanding colleges have proven controversial in some cities.
In New York, Columbia University is seeking to expand into Harlem against a backdrop of protests from residents who say the Ivy League school's ambitious project would destroy their working-class, minority neighborhood. Columbia's $7 billion plan calls for razing much of an old manufacturing neighborhood.
But New Haven officials support Yale's expansion, according to Levin. He says a larger student enrollment would help the city's economy.
A telephone message was left Wednesday for New Haven Mayor John DeStefano.
The buildings would be about 235,000 square feet each. Yale hopes to begin construction in 2011 and open the new colleges to students in 2013.
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