Straws in the Wind - Part 480

From the Yale Daily News: A Yale committee is set to release recommendations on grade inflation in November but could face an unclear implementation timeline, according to administrators. The announcement arrives as grade inflation remains a top issue for universities across the nation, some of which have taken action... It is “hard to say” when new grading guidance would go into effect, Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis told the News after a closed-door faculty meeting about grade inflation in Luce Hall... 

The standing Committee on Teaching, Learning and Advising anticipates to release specific recommendations for grade reform in November, Paul McKinley, a Yale College senior associate dean, wrote in [an] email to the News. That committee is chaired by economics professor and former University provost Benjamin Polak and includes Yale College Council President Alex William Chen ’28 and YCC Vice President Michelle Jimenez ’28, in addition to faculty members. In April, the Committee on Trust in Higher Education released a sweeping report that acknowledged declining national trust in universities and proposed measures to address this problem. One of its suggestions was to impose a “3.0 mean, or some other college-wide standard, so that letter grades can once again be used in a reliable and comparable way.” 

...Ultimately, it’s the Yale College Committee on Teaching, Learning and Advising that’s gonna make recommendations that the faculty will consider,” Lewis said in an interview with the News...

Full story at https://yaledailynews.com/articles/yale-committee-set-to-release-grade-inflation-guidance-in-november.

Straws in the Wind - Part 479

From Forbes: Add Vanderbilt University to the ever-lengthening list of premier institutions that are expanding their offers of free tuition to undergraduate students. The university announced last week that it was revising its Opportunity Vanderbilt financial aid program and will provide tuition-free scholarships to students from families with incomes up to $200,000 and typical financial assets. The previous threshold for free tuition was $150,000, which Vanderbilt established just two years ago, in 2024. The new eligibility criteria will take effect in fall 2027, and it will apply to both current undergraduate students as well as those who enter Vanderbilt next fall.

...Between 2024 and 2025, MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Texas, Brandeis University, the University of Utah, Smith College, Bryn Mawr College, the Stevens Institute of Technology, Wake Forest University, Emory University and The Ohio State University all rolled out their versions of free college tuition. The current year has seen a quickened pace of new offers. First, Yale University announced it was expanding its financial aid program and would offer free tuition to entering undergraduates from families with annual incomes below $200,000 and cover all the costs of attendance for those from families with incomes below $100,000. Two months later, the University of Notre Dame enhanced its undergraduate financial aid program so that students from families with annual income below $150,000 would have all their tuition costs covered starting in the 2026-27 academic year.

In May, the University of Chicago unveiled one of the most generous aid packages, guaranteeing free tuition starting in the fall of 2027 for undergraduate students from families with annual income less than $250,000. As part of its plan, Chicago promised it would cover tuition plus the costs of housing, meals and other fees for students from families with income less than $125,000. Rice University followed suit in August, announcing that it was expanding its major financial aid program and would, starting with students who enter in fall 2027, offer free tuition to those from families earning up to $200,000 annually...

Full story at https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2026/09/21/vanderbilt-to-pay-tuition-for-families-with-income--of-200000-or-less/.

Yale Deal - Part 15

From the Yale Daily News: Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis stayed silent on the federal investigation into Yale College admissions during his first interview with the News this academic year. Though he declined to comment on the Department of Justice’s inquiry into whether Yale discriminates against white and Asian applicants, Lewis said he has always valued diversity “of all kinds.” ...

When asked... if Yale College admissions discriminated against white and Asian applicants, Lewis declined to comment on the investigations. “I think, on that, I just should refer you to President McInnis’ comments because of the ongoing nature of that,” Lewis said. McInnis also said... that she believes Yale’s admissions practices follow the law but that she does not know how courts will interpret the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling. She added that she does not comment on ongoing legal matters...

Full story at https://yaledailynews.com/articles/lewis-mum-on-federal-inquiry-but-stresses-diversity-by-legal-means.

Straws in the Wind - Part 477

From the Harvard Crimson: Former Harvard College Dean Rakesh Khurana criticized the December 2023 congressional testimony of three university presidents on campus antisemitism — including then-Harvard President Claudine Gay — saying none of them could explain what a university is for. The remarks, delivered in a lecture at Cornell University last week, are Khurana’s most direct public comments on the backlash that ended Gay’s presidency and set off two years of federal scrutiny of Harvard.

Khurana delivered the Milton R. Konvitz Memorial Lectureship in American Ideals on Thursday, an annual Cornell lecture named for the civil liberties scholar who taught there for four decades. His talk — “From Institutional Mission to Administrative Means: The Bureaucratization of Universities” — argued that universities have grown too heavy with administrators and lost institutional legitimacy. Khurana earned his bachelor’s degree at Cornell...

He named one only as a school in Connecticut — an apparent nod to Yale University that drew laughs. Between 2003 and 2021, its human resources department jumped from 11 staff to 192, and its development staff spiked from 71 to 333, while the faculty went from 610 to 675...

Khurana said rising inequality had also reshaped how universities raise money, pushing them toward a small number of very large gifts... That arrangement held, Khurana said, only as long as donors asked for nothing in return — and it has not survived the collapse in public trust. Donors now style themselves as “impact philanthropists” who want a say in how their money is spent...

Full story at https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/9/21/khurana-criticizes-gay-testimony/.

Straws in the Wind - Part 474

From the Yale Daily News: Yale spent $26.2 million on outside legal fees — a 46 percent increase from the previous period — in the fiscal year ending June 2025, which includes the first five months of the second Trump administration. The approximate $8.3 million jump from the $17.9 million spent in fiscal year 2024 is the largest increase on record for Yale, according to publicly available tax filings dating back to 2001 — though the University’s spending on legal fees has trended upward over the last five years. The $26.2 million figure corresponds to the period from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025, the most recent one with public disclosures available, and comes from Form 990 disclosures filed in May 2026...

Yale’s lobbying spending has also skyrocketed during the second Trump administration. After Trump’s 2024 election victory, [Yale President] McInnis began a lobbying push to address declining trust in universities and oppose policies that could cut Yale’s funding...

Full story at https://yaledailynews.com/articles/yale-increased-legal-spending-amid-trump-administration-inquiries.

Food for Thought - University Investments

From an online/emailed book review in the Journal of Economic Literature of Mission and Margin: A Practical Guide to University Finances:

In the last 40 years many universities have followed the lead of Yale University under its legendary chief investment officer David Swensen and have tried to increase expected returns through judicious risk taking in multiple asset classes. A riskier asset allocation delivers a higher expected return and hence a higher sustainable spending rate, but it worsens the university’s risk management problem. The trade-off should be transparent but can be obscured when universities invest in illiquid assets, such as real estate and private equity, whose valuations are only gradually adjusted to reflect market conditions.

--

Note: Our recent coverage of the Regents' Investments Committee which met on Sept. 14 pointed to the large chunk of illiquid assets in the portfolio.

Yale Deal - Part 14

From the Yale Daily News: A centuries-old debate over whether Yale buildings should be exempt from Connecticut property tax is taking center stage amid the University’s controversial settlement negotiations with the Trump administration... State Democratic legislators threatened to revisit the exemption in a July letter that urged Yale not to settle with the federal government and implored that it bring the Trump administration to court over the Department of Justice’s inquiry... 

Yale’s earliest tax exemption was included in a 1745 revision of its original 1701 charter. That exemption was confirmed in Article 8 of the state’s 1818 constitution. An 1834 proviso set the income cap for tax-exempt properties at $6,000 and removed a former exemption on the homes of Yale faculty members. Other Connecticut colleges and universities are similarly exempt from taxation per state statutes... The exemption’s roots in a colonial agreement do not necessarily protect it from alteration, University of Virginia Legal Historian George White GRD ’67 wrote in an email...

The lawmakers who signed onto the July letter wrote that Yale’s original purpose of fitting students for public employment has become, in the “modern era,” an obligation to stand “as an anchor institution for free thought, free inquiry, and constitutional government.” A potential settlement with the Trump administration, they wrote, would jeopardize that obligation... Law professor and property law expert David Schleicher said in a Zoom interview that it is unlikely that a court would “ever say that Yale is not fulfilling the terms” of the state constitution. However, it would be “good for Yale to be popular in the state of Connecticut,” he said. The real implication of the letter, he suggested, is “‘if you do this, it would really piss us off.’” ...

Full story at https://yaledailynews.com/articles/could-connecticut-revoke-yale-s-centuries-old-property-tax-exemption.

Yale Deal - Part 13

From the Yale Daily News: The U.S. Treasury Department introduced a rule that would strip federal tax-exempt status from private universities the Trump administration deems as engaging in racial discrimination, including in admissions and school programs. The proposal... arrives as Yale and a slew of other universities are under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for alleged discrimination against white and Asian applicants in their admissions processes. In May, the Justice Department accused the Yale Medical School of engaging in racial discrimination, and in July, University President Maurie McInnis confirmed that the investigation had expanded to include Yale College and Yale Law School...

The Treasury proposal is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to force schools to abandon diversity measures or policies that benefit minority students... Yale spokesperson Karen Peart wrote in a statement to the News that Yale will “carefully review” the proposed rule. “Yale is committed to following the law and does not tolerate discrimination of any kind,” Peart wrote...

Full story at https://yaledailynews.com/articles/treasury-threatens-tax-exempt-status-of-schools-with-diversity-programs.

Yale Deal - Part 12

From the Yale Daily News: For the first time, first-year students were mandated to attend an orientation event that asked them to consider the interplay between higher education and democracy. The conversation — led by Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis and History professor Beverly Gage ’94 — took place in two sessions... The conversations, which centered on the relationship between higher education and American democracy, touched on topics including campus protests and free speech — which were also discussed at a teach-in marketed as an alternative to the panels themselves...

Hours before the first session began, over 300 alumni, students, professors and local union members gathered on Cross Campus in a teach-in, headlined “Democratize Yale,” to demand the protection of student free speech and assembly, the democratization of the University board of trustees, the codification of academic freedom and that Yale not settle in negotiations with the Trump administration.

...Lewis said during the later session that protest regulations were necessary to “ensure the ability of each student to get an education, the ability to back them, and to teach.” He noted Yale has “rules regarding the time and place and manner, not content related rules,” and that protesters can protest an issue from both sides...

Full story at https://yaledailynews.com/articles/first-years-attend-panel-on-protests-and-yale-s-place-in-democracy.

===

From the Chronicle of Higher Education: ...There were... indications that at least one national organization is interested in the fight. Indivisible, an anti-Trump advocacy group founded during President Trump’s first term, previously bought billboards on Interstate 95 to urge Yale not to settle. It provided signs and T-shirts for this rally. The event seemed to go off without a hitch, although [Alex Chen, Yale’s undergraduate student-body president] said later that “free expression facilitators,” staff members trained in Yale’s free-expression policies, had approached him to ask what was going on. “It’s a little bit chilling,” he said, “to have them watching your every move.”

In addition, two people identifying themselves as staffers from the Office of Public Affairs told reporters that they could not be on Yale’s grounds. Instead, journalists had to stand on a public sidewalk, about 250 feet away from the protest. “It’s to protect the privacy of the students and faculty,” one of the staff members said.

Full story at https://www.chronicle.com/article/yale-activists-defy-rules-to-warn-against-deal-with-trump.

Alternative Advice

If you go to Yale, you should embrace uncertainty. But if you go to Penn, you can explore bravely.

Yale Deal - Part 11

From the Yale Daily News: ...Two digital billboards appeared alongside stretches of Interstate 91 and Interstate 95 in New Haven decrying Yale’s settlement talks with the Trump administration. The digital billboards, which are 14 feet tall and 48 feet wide and went live on Aug. 10, display the message “Yale is failing intro to ethics by cutting a deal with Trump” alongside a circled red “F.” They were purchased by Indivisible, a national advocacy group whose aims include defending against the Trump administration’s attacks on higher education, according to its website.

The group is hoping to raise awareness about Yale’s negotiations with the Department of Justice as students return to campus this fall, according to Indivisible’s National Advocacy Director Andrew O’Neill. Yale College, Yale School of Medicine and Yale Law School are under federal investigation for allegedly discriminating against white and Asian applicants. The University has proposed at least two offers to the Justice Department amid settlement negotiations...

Full story at https://yaledailynews.com/articles/billboards-along-i-95-join-chorus-urging-yale-not-to-settle-with-trump.

Yale Deal - Part 10

From the Yale Daily News: University President Maurie McInnis failed to assure student leaders that Yale wouldn’t use students’ rights as bargaining chips in its talks with the Trump administration, said four undergraduate and graduate leaders who met with McInnis... The leaders criticized McInnis’ lack of transparency about the talks and the Yale administration’s refusal to make explicit commitments about international students, diversity programs and transgender students. McInnis also dismissed that Yale’s negotiations would mirror the deals peer institutions have made with the Trump administration in areas outside of admissions, one attendee said.

...An information page about the Department of Justice negotiations that was recently posted on the University president’s website notes that a deal would not compromise Yale’s independence, academic freedom or its responsibilities to students, faculty and staff...

Full story at https://yaledailynews.com/articles/student-leaders-say-mcinnis-meeting-left-them-unassured-on-trump-talks.

Yale Deal - Part 9

From the Yale Daily News: University President Maurie McInnis has engaged in private conversations with student leaders, as well as the faculty senate chair, about Yale’s attempts to settle with the Trump administration — a venture that has faced widespread backlash from students, faculty and alumni. Michael Farina, the chair of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Senate, wrote in [an] email to the News that he has spoken with McInnis about the potential settlement and felt optimistic.

“From our conversations, President McInnis’ words and actions are clearly heartfelt and forthright, and she has given us no reason to doubt her absolute sincerity in defending our academic freedom, the university, our faculty, and our students,” he wrote. “She is working to safeguard both Yale’s autonomy and our ability to accept the students of our choice. I am confident she will succeed in protecting both.”

...Four student leaders... met with McInnis... “In our meeting, we advocated for student concerns and shared them with President McInnis. We also sought clarity on what protecting students’ rights in this DOJ probe should look like,” the student leaders wrote in a joint... statement... that they plan to release more information about the meeting and their thoughts on it at a later date...

McInnis has refrained from making public comment about the settlement with the exception of a July 13 email to the Yale community, in which she confirmed that the University is seeking a voluntary resolution to the Department of Justice’s investigations into Yale admissions...

Full story at https://yaledailynews.com/articles/in-private-talks-mcinnis-leaves-faculty-leader-assured-on-trump-deal.

Yale Deal - Part 7 (background)

From the Yale Daily News: After the 2023 Supreme Court ruling that banned race-conscious college admissions, Yale administrators quickly assured the community that the University would comply with federal law while attempting to maintain diversity. Now, the University is under federal investigation for allegedly failing to comply with the ruling. In May, the Department of Justice announced an investigation into the Yale School of Medicine’s admissions practices, alleging the school had discriminated against Asian and white applicants. The investigation’s scope has since expanded to admissions at Yale College and Yale Law School, and University President Maurie McInnis confirmed... that Yale is in the process of seeking a voluntary resolution with the federal government over the probe.

At the center of the investigation is the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — which bars racial discrimination for programs that receive federal funding — and a 2023 Supreme Court decision, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which outlawed race-based affirmative action. A May letter of findings issued by the Justice Department alleged the School of Medicine’s admissions process violated that law, as interpreted by the Supreme Court decision. Experts told the News that Yale’s alleged violation may depend on whether the University found ways to circumvent the Supreme Court decision — like using a proxy for race — and whether those methods are considered illegal...

[DOJ] pointed to materials and presentations distributed to admissions officers that included guidance on admissions after the Supreme Court decision — including a slide in an internal presentation with the words, “Admissions post-SCOTUS.” “This suggests that admissions personnel are given verbal instructions during this presentation encouraging the use of race/ethnicity in admissions, and such instructions are not put in writing,” the letter reads. “The Department also has evidence that Yale attempted to circumvent the Harvard decision by using racial proxies to indirectly discriminate against applicants based on race.”

The Justice Department has not publicly released letters of findings for its investigations into Yale College or the Law School, nor has it publicly commented on those investigations. The department did not respond to a request for comment...

Full story at https://yaledailynews.com/articles/yale-admissions-is-under-investigation-could-it-have-broken-the-law.

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Note: If you have been following this Yale sequence and have been wondering about the Hebrew writing on the Yale seal (shown above), see:

https://archives.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/01_03/seal.html.

Yale Deal - Part 6

From the Yale Daily News: Yale President Maurie McInnis is arranging to meet with graduate and undergraduate student leaders in a confidential meeting as the University pursues a settlement with the Trump administration. The proposed meeting will include McInnis, Yale College Council President Alex William Chen ’28, YCC Vice President Michelle Jimenez ’28, Graduate and Professional Student Senate President Raekwon Fuller DRA ’27 and Graduate Student Assembly chair Anushka Potdar GRD ’29. According to Fuller, the meeting date has yet to be determined. Undergraduate student leaders have been vocal opponents of any settlement with the Trump administration that would compromise Yale’s independence...

Potdar declined to comment on the future meeting, citing its confidentiality...

Full story at https://yaledailynews.com/articles/mcinnis-to-meet-with-undergraduate-graduate-student-government-leaders.

Yale Deal - Part 5

Message from the president of Yale

Monday, July 13, 2026

Dear Members of the Yale Community,

Many of you have written to me in the past week regarding investigations by the Department of Justice (DOJ) into the admissions processes of Yale School of Medicine, Yale College, and Yale Law School. At Yale, our standard is to refrain from commenting on ongoing legal matters to protect the integrity of the process for Yale. I am making an exception in this instance because I am seeing speculation and misinformation spreading, and it is causing concern in our community. I recognize that this can happen when there is an absence of information, so I want you to hear the facts directly from me.

On May 14, the DOJ issued findings based on its investigation into the admissions policies and practices of the Yale School of Medicine. The DOJ also has pending investigations into the admissions processes of Yale College and Yale Law School.

These investigations concern university compliance with federal law; specifically, a federal statute, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The U.S. Supreme Court required colleges and universities across the country, including Yale, to adhere to new legal standards in admissions in its 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. As a university committed to the rule of law, we take that obligation seriously.

When the DOJ issues findings of an investigation, federal law provides a process for the parties to engage in seeking a voluntary resolution. It is a standard and important practice that lawyers for the involved parties and the government participate in conversation and exchange of information to determine whether they can resolve the matter without further legal action. Yale is currently engaged in this process of talking and listening. It is a required and reasonable step, and we are participating in good faith.  

We are approaching these matters with five fundamental principles. First, we are wholeheartedly committed to safeguarding academic freedom. Our students and faculty have the intellectual freedom to study, teach, and publish according to their scholarly interests in keeping with the standards of their discipline. Second, Yale must maintain the right to decide who we admit and hire in accordance with the law. Third, we hold dear our university’s tradition of protecting free expression on our campus. Fourth, we are determined to continue advancing Yale’s mission of education, research, and scholarship. And fifth, we make all our decisions by prioritizing our responsibilities to our students, faculty, staff, and patients, as well as the university as a whole.

These are the principles that guide us in how we engage in any legal inquiry, but they are not the whole of what we ask of ourselves. We are also guided by the long-time efforts of our faculty, students, staff, and alumni who help us engage in a process of continual self-assessment. The most recent examples of such reflection relevant to admissions culminated this past spring, with the Presidential Council on Yale College Admissions and the Committee on Trust in Higher Education.

Guided by their recommendations, we began refining our admissions processes based on a high standard of candor and on an unambiguous fact: We are proud of our students, who come from across the country and around the world and bring a multitude of talents, experiences, and ideas. For example, we have further clarified on Yale College’s admissions website the magnitude of academic achievement of our current students, so applicants are aware of what they need to accomplish. We now state explicitly that academic strength has long been the predominant criterion in our holistic evaluation of applicants, and the overwhelming majority of admitted students score in the ninety-fifth percentile or higher on the SAT or ACT. Throughout the university, we have bolstered our training so that readers and decision-makers understand the law and federal guidelines for admissions, and our faculty and staff in admissions will keep studying how to continually enhance the admissions process based on our own high standards and the requirements of the law.

I know there are divergent views about admissions policy in general and these investigations in particular. I very much want to hear those views and welcome your reply to this message. And I am so grateful to everyone who has already sent me their thoughtful questions and advice.

I will update you when I have more news to share. In the meantime, I will continue to draw on my experience as a student, professor, and university leader to navigate the present moment. Amid this uncertainty, you can be certain of my promise to the entire Yale community: my decisions will be guided by what I believe is in the best interests of our university.

Sincerely,

Maurie McInnis

President

Professor of the History of Art

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Source: https://president.yale.edu/posts/2026-07-13-message-from-the-president.

Yale Deal - Part 4 (If at first, you don't succeed...)

From the Yale Daily News: Yale proposed a second settlement offer to the Trump administration after the first was rejected, Sen. Richard Blumenthal LAW ’73 said at a Friday town hall on Yale’s campus. “I’ve been told very reliably that Yale has made an offer of settlement, which was rejected, and then made a second offer of settlement, which may still be pending, with a document that could be taken as an agreement for settlement,” the senator said. Blumenthal has spoken with Yale President Maurie McInnis twice, he said. 

A Yale professor briefed on the negotiations told the News ahead of the conference that the first proposal had been rejected, and that Yale had submitted a second proposal, in accordance with Blumenthal’s remarks.

...The senator added on Friday that Yale offered both settlements to the Trump administration without demand. Blumenthal said that from what he has been told, “Yale has twice made offers without any demand, in other words, negotiating against itself, which is rule number one of litigation: do not negotiate against yourself.” University spokesperson Karen Peart wrote in an email to the News on Tuesday that “it is Yale’s longstanding practice not to discuss the specifics of any ongoing legal matter.” When asked following the Friday press conference to confirm that the first proposal was rejected and a second one was submitted, Peart wrote, “we have nothing further to add to our statement.” ...

Full story at https://yaledailynews.com/articles/yale-offers-trump-administration-second-proposal-after-first-is-rejected.

Straws in the Wind - Part 399

From the Yale Daily News: A report that Yale is seeking to settle with the federal government has drawn an array of calls, including from a Connecticut senator, for the University to resist the most direct political pressure it has yet received during President Donald Trump’s second term. The New York Times reported... that, according to anonymous sources, a Department of Justice investigation that deemed the Yale School of Medicine’s practices discriminatory against white and Asian applicants had expanded to probe undergraduate and law school admissions. The federal inquiry, which came in light of a 2023 Supreme Court decision banning race-conscious admissions, has prompted Yale to propose a settlement with the Trump administration and hire external counsel, according to the report...

Formed last spring, Stand Up For Yale emerged as Yale and its peer institutions navigated increased scrutiny under the second Trump administration. The group encouraged alumni to advocate against the endowment tax hike that ultimately passed last July and which will subject Yale’s endowment returns to an 8 percent tax rate beginning on Wednesday. The hike is estimated to cost the University around $300 million per year. The DOJ investigation marks the most intense individualized pressure that Yale has received amid the second Trump administration’s sweeping pressure campaign against elite institutions. The University has thus far been spared from the targeted funding freezes that have pushed many of its peer institutions to cut deals with the government...

Full story at https://yaledailynews.com/articles/blumenthal-among-alumni-urging-yale-to-resist-amid-reported-trump-talks.

Yale Deal - Part 3

From the Yale Daily News: University President Maurie McInnis has emailed top Yale College Council leaders in response to backlash against reported settlement negotiations between Yale and the Trump administration, YCC President Alex William Chen ’28 told the News on Tuesday. McInnis’ email to Chen and YCC Vice President Michelle Jimenez ’28 marks her first reported response to a series of public campaigns that have mounted after The New York Times reported last month that Yale is negotiating a settlement with the federal government. The negotiations come after the Justice Department expanded its investigation into Yale’s undergraduate and law school admissions, the Times reported. Chen declined to comment on the content of McInnis’ emailed message, citing that he needed to “look through it a little more carefully.”

...The alumni group Stand Up For Yale has created a petition urging McInnis, Provost Scott Strobel and the trustees to publicly commit that Yale will not enter into any deal with the federal government that compromises its diversity or independence. The group sent the administration a copy of the letter on Monday afternoon with about 2,770 signatories, organizer Jessica Marsden ’08 LAW ’14 wrote in an email to the News, but as of Tuesday evening, the group had not received a response. The petition remains open and had reached 3,790 signatures, including current students, as of Tuesday night.

...Yale spokesperson Karen Peart wrote in an email to the News that it is “Yale’s longstanding practice not to discuss the specifics of any ongoing legal matter.” The comment came in response to the News’ inquiry before the phone banking event on Tuesday about the pushback on the reported negotiations. Peart emphasized the University’s “commitment to students’ free expression, academic freedom, and Yale’s ability to determine who is admitted in accordance with the law,” and wrote that Yale is “committed to supporting the members of our community in their beliefs and values.” She did not confirm or deny Yale’s reported negotiations with the Trump administration...

Full story at https://yaledailynews.com/articles/mcinnis-emails-ycc-heads-chen-says-as-reported-trump-talks-face-backlash.

Another Milliken Interview

UC President Milliken did one of his interviews, this time with Yale historian Beverly Gage, on July 9. The rationales for the interview were a) the 250th anniversary of American independence and b) the Yale report on higher education's standing in public opinion that has garnered national attention.

Professor Gage discusses a roadtrip around the USA to visit sites of historical significance (including Disneyland) and the significance of the Yale report. You can find the one-hour conversation at:

https://ia902809.us.archive.org/1/items/newsom-7-1-2026-savings-accounts-for-kids/Milliken-Gage%20interview%207-9-2026.mp4. [Audio with still picture.]