AAUP Yale in the News

Hundreds of Yale students rallied around a cardboard Lipstick replica to oppose a Trump settlement over Yale’s admissions policies and protest restrictions on campus gatherings.

Protesters urged Yale to follow Harvard’s example and fight back against Trump. Cornell, Columbia and Brown have settled, agreeing to pay millions and change policies.

Faculty and students at Yale said they want university leaders to end settlement discussions with the Trump administration over allegations of discrimination in the admissions process.

Students from both schools have in recent months signed letters demanding that Yale not settle with the federal government over investigations into admissions practices. Only the investigation into the School of Medicine has been concluded, however.

In the Yale Corporation’s first in-person meeting of the academic year, trustees met with faculty and student representatives and also spoke with international students. Banners calling for reform of the board’s structure hung across campus.

Three dozen Yale students, professors, and New Haven community members testified before the aldermanic Health & Human Services Committee Thursday evening — and called on Yale to uphold its institutional independence, contribute more to its host city, and reject a potential settlement with the Trump administration over the university’s admissions policies.

A host of Yale faculty, alumni, students, and local politicians came out in support of a resolution by Downtown Alder and Yale College senior Elias Theodore, which passed unanimously at Thursday’s committee meeting. The resolution urges the New Haven Board of Alders to oppose any settlement deal between Yale and the federal government and encourages Yale’s Board of Trustees to throw its full weight behind fighting the Department of Justice (DOJ) in court.

It appears to be a moment of introspection for some of the country’s best-known colleges. On Tuesday, Cornell University published a report “on the future of the American university,” with diagnoses for the “unprecedented” “crisis” that the sector finds itself in. The report joins other self-studies published in the last few months, commissioned by the leaders of Yale University and Vanderbilt University and Washington University in St. Louis.

Members of a group of Yale Law School graduates cite the July letter by the Sher Tremonte law firm retained by the Yale chapter of the AAUP in explaining their grave concerns about any Yale agreement with the Department of Justice.

Yale epidemiologist and AAUP member Gregg Gonsalves writes about witnessing the crackdown on free speech at Yale over the past two years—and why he nevertheless finds hope in the students, faculty and alumni organizing to defend democracy and academic freedom.

National Book Award-winning author and Yale alum Susan Choi writes that Yale President Maurie D. McInnis has the power to stand up to the Trump administration. Instead, she’s caving.

Yale law professor and AAUP member Robert Post reviews Brian Soucek’s The Opinionated University, exploring how academic freedom, shared governance, and universities’ educational missions should guide their responses to controversy and demands for institutional neutrality.

Nine students interviewed by the News on the first day of classes shared a variety of views on how Yale should handle its talks with the Trump administration, but none of them said they wanted to see the University settle with the Justice Department.

A large crowd of blue-shirted students, faculty and alumni gathered at Yale University’s Cross Campus to protest what they described as the erosion of the elite school’s democratic values under the second Trump administration.

Yale students are headed back to school amid an atmosphere of tension. The Trump administration has been investigating the school over its admissions practices. Activists are rallying to tell Yale not to settle with the administration.

The 2026-27 school year is beginning amid a period of uncertainty for Yale as it continues negotiating with the Trump administration over its investigations into the University’s admissions practices. Here’s what happened over the summer.

New students attended a mandatory conversation regarding the role of a university in a democratic society, led by former Committee on Trust in Higher Education co-chair Beverly Gage ’94 and Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis.

Students, faculty, alumni and New Haven residents demanded four reforms to University governance and administration at a Tuesday protest on Cross Campus. The event marked the semester's first major campus gathering and followed widespread pushback against Yale's talks with the Trump administration.

A large crowd of blue-shirted students, faculty and alumni gathered at Yale University’s Cross Campus to protest what they described as the erosion of the elite school’s democratic values under the second Trump administration.

Yale University students, faculty members, and alumni defied Yale protest rules to hold an unauthorized demonstration against the university’s potential signing of a deal with the Trump administration, and against the protest rules themselves.

As Yale University's newest students headed to an orientation event about democracy, more than 100 students, faculty and alumni wanted to show them a lesson of their own.

Around 250 Yale professors, students, alumni and faculty gathered on Cross Campus Tuesday afternoon for a teach-in and rally demanding administrators “democratize Yale,” as university President Maurie McInnis continues settlement talks with the Trump administration over the university’s admissions policies.

A Yale alumnus calls on the university to resist Trump administration pressure, highlighting how students, faculty, and alumni are organizing to defend academic freedom and democracy.

Hundreds of members of the Yale University community gathered on campus in New Haven on Tuesday to demand administrators stop negotiating a settlement with the Trump administration over admissions policies.

The Legal Defense Fund (LDF) sent a letter to Yale University urging it to reject a settlement with the Department of Justice (DOJ), after the agency accused the school of racial discrimination in a May 14, 2026, Letter of Findings.

Indivisible, a national advocacy group that frequently opposes the Trump administration’s agenda, sponsored two digital billboards along highways in New Haven criticizing Yale’s negotiations with Trump — just weeks before students return to campus.

Yale Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and American Studies and AAUP member Roderick A. Ferguson critiques the Vanderbilt Report, arguing that its claims of academic neutrality reinforce political attacks on critical scholarship and marginalized communities.

As Yale University negotiates with the Trump administration over the Department of Justice’s investigations into the university’s admissions practices, Indivisible Civics launched a new billboard campaign urging Yale President Maurie McInnis and university leadership not to cave to political pressure from the Trump administration.

Yale University retained a “Yellow” rating and a “D-” Speech Climate Grade from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) in the organization’s newly released 2026 data.

In this interview, former Yale philosophy professor and AAUP member Jason Stanley highlights Yale faculty and student efforts to defend academic freedom and raises concerns about the use of Yale’s Committee on Trust in Higher Education report to justify federal attacks on universities.

Former U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman urge Yale’s trustees to reject Trump administration pressure, warning that their individual decisions will shape the future of academic freedom and democratic institutions.

As Yale weighs a deal with the Trump administration, faculty, students, and alumni mobilize to defend academic freedom and the university’s independence.

Yale has hired the law firm McGuireWoods as it negotiates with the Trump administration — the same firm that helped the University of Virginia settle last fall. Legal scholars serving as counsel for a Yale faculty activism group questioned Yale’s hiring decision.

Yale students, faculty and alumni are fighting the university’s efforts to reach a settlement with the Trump Administration. Yale Student Body President Alex Chen and Yale AAUP chapter president Daniel Martinez HoSang joined Jacob Soboroff to discuss.

The University’s initial proposal to settle with the Trump administration over investigations into Yale’s admissions practices was rejected by the federal government, prompting the University to offer a second deal, Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Friday.

A growing contingent of students, faculty and alumni are demanding Yale University refuse to settle with the Trump administration, which is investigating the university’s admissions policies to determine whether it unlawfully discriminated against white and Asian students.

After the news broke that Yale University is considering a settlement with the federal government — over claims that it discriminated against Asian and white applicants in admissions — the Yale chapter of the American Association of University Professors lawyered up.

Discontent is growing after The New York Times reported in late June that Yale University may settle with the U.S. Department of Justice in a dispute over the Ivy League school’s admissions process. Student, faculty and alumni groups are mobilizing to oppose a potential settlement.

Yale School of Public Health associate professor and AAUP member Gregg Gonsalves argues that democratizing university governance is essential to defending academic freedom against political pressure.

Yale is among the first universities targeted over medical school admissions as the Trump administration invokes the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ban to challenge efforts addressing historical inequities.

Following reports that Yale University leadership has been negotiating a possible settlement with the Trump administration over federal allegations of admissions discrimination, members of the Yale community are urging the institution to reject a deal.

Shortly after the New York Times reported that Yale had proposed a deal to end a broadening federal investigation into its admissions practices, hundreds of alumni signed a letter demanding that administrators not endanger the University’s values.

Faculty members at Yale University reported that they have avoided potentially controversial topics in their teaching and that academic freedom has decreased under President Donald Trump’s second term, according to a recent survey by the Yale AAUP chapter.

A large number of Yale faculty in a recent survey “perceives a significant deterioration in their ability to teach, research and express ideas,” according to a Yale University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors report on academic freedom.

Bradford Vivian, professor of Communication Arts and Sciences at Pennsylvania State University, highlights AAUP Yale’s faculty survey as a vital contribution to understanding threats to academic freedom and calls on university leaders to better protect teaching, research, and open inquiry.

A new study by Yale University’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) found that almost one-fifth of professors who responded to a survey on academic freedom reported that they were “significantly concern[ed] about being arrested in connection with their teaching”.

A survey with 177 faculty respondents described decreased academic freedom since the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term, according to a Tuesday report by Yale’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors.

A majority of Yale University faculty members say their academic freedom has decreased in recent years, and half fear losing their jobs for teaching about controversial topics, according to a survey released by the Yale chapter of the American Association of University Professors.

The Yale University Chapter of the AAUP released a report on the state of academic freedom at the university, based on a faculty survey. The report reveals that a substantial portion of Yale faculty perceives a significant deterioration in their ability to teach, research, and express ideas amid a deeply politicized higher education environment since January 2025.

Yale AAUP Executive Committee members Daniel Martinez HoSang, professor of American Studies and Political Science, and Alessandro Gomez, professor of engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, urge Yale to prioritize undergraduate education by protecting instructional faculty and embracing shared sacrifice in budget decisions.

A joint resolution passed by the Yale College Council Senate and the Graduate & Professional Student Senate marked the first major student input on an ongoing faculty campaign for firmer academic freedom protections in the Faculty Handbook.

Yale’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors wrote postcards to University President Maurie McInnis in the first step in a new campaign advocating for the addition of academic freedom protections to the faculty handbook.

Tarren Andrews—assistant professor of Ethnicity, Race, and Migration, Medieval Studies faculty member, and secretary of the Yale AAUP Executive Committee—joins David Watts—Alison Richard Professor of Anthropology and AAUP member—in questioning whether Yale’s commitments to academic freedom offer sufficient protection for faculty and students amid escalating attacks on higher education.

Professors from colleges and universities across Connecticut called on state and higher education leaders to protect higher education from the Trump administration's agenda.

The Yale chapter of the American Association of University Professors held a virtual panel Thursday featuring six faculty members who have been affected by President Donald Trump’s cuts.

Yale AAUP chapter president and American Studies professor Daniel Martinez HoSang challenges Campus Reform’s portrayal of a chapter meeting, arguing that fabricated imagery and distorted reporting fuel attacks on higher education.

In an email addressed to the Yale community, Yale’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors urged faculty members to ask administrators to reject a possible compact from the Trump administration that they argued would limit the University’s autonomy.

On Monday afternoon, Yale’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors hosted faculty leaders from across the nation to discuss faculty organizing and negotiations with the federal government.

Yale’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, or AAUP, organized two faculty panels on “Academic Repression and How We Can Resist It” following last week’s “Hands off Higher Ed” rally on Cross Campus.

Students and faculty members in Connecticut spoke out Thursday in defense of higher education, joining nationwide protests against the Trump administration's efforts to reshape college campuses.

Hundreds of protestors at the University of Connecticut and Yale University gathered to oppose what they called an attack on higher education — including recent suspensions of research funding, cancellations of international student visas and what some see as a failure on the part of local officials to respond.

At least 400 faculty and community members protested on Cross Campus against Trump’s funding cuts and deportations as part of a national day of action for higher education groups.

Around 900 faculty signed a letter to President Maurie McInnis and Provost Scott Strobel calling for “courageous leadership” in the face of attacks on higher education.

Yale’s renewed American Association of University Professors advocacy chapter met for the first time on Tuesday, with faculty voicing concerns over their “eroding” role in University governance.