Yale junior Conor Webb spent half an hour Tuesday night making phone calls to Yale officials, urging them to reject a potential deal with the Trump administration over the university’s admissions policies.
Concerns Over Academic Freedom
Webb, the vice president of the Yale College Democrats, was one of roughly 60 people around the country to participate in Tuesday’s “emergency phone bank,” which was organized by the Yale College Democrats and the Yale College Council. The outreach effort took place on the same day that the New York Times reported about growing resistance at the university to a potential federal settlement.
The script that Webb and other phone bankers followed Tuesday night mentioned Yale’s mission and other settlements that “have resulted in schools like Columbia, Brown, UPenn, and Northwestern conceding their institutional autonomy, international student protections, respect for student identities, free speech protections, and self-governed academic departments.”
Response from Lawmakers
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro told the Independent in a statement Wednesday, “Private higher education institutions and their students should not be subject to the whims of a presidential administration or to political pressures. Making a deal with President Trump risks this independence. I urge Yale not to capitulate to the Trump Administration and instead stand strong against these bullying tactics and intimidation alongside their students, faculty, and alumni.”
A Yale alumni group — The Stand Up For Yale Coordinating Committee — sent an email on Monday asking Yale alumni to urge Yale trustees, administrators, donors and elected officials “to stand up and resist capitulation,” and sign a letter to McInnis, Strobel and Yale’s Board of Trustees. As of Wednesday afternoon, the letter had 3,975 signatories.
The Yale College Council posted a video to their YouTube page on Saturday, July 4 informing students and alumni of the potential deal and asking the administration to hear out students’ concerns about it.
Original reporting: New Haven Independent — read the source article.
