The Board of Alders voted Monday night to urge Yale not to settle with the Trump administration over the Department of Justice’s investigation into the university’s admission practices.
The resolution, “Urging Yale University to Defend Its Institutional Autonomy,” passed on a voice vote by all 21 board members present at City Hall.
The now-approved resolution is nonbinding, meaning it cannot require Yale to do anything, but it puts the city legislature on record against the potential deal.
The alders’ vote comes after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) released findings in May accusing the Yale School of Medicine of discriminating against white and Asian American applicants in favor of Black and Hispanic applicants. Weeks later, reports emerged that Yale was negotiating a voluntary agreement with the feds and that the investigation has extended into Yale Law School and Yale College.
In the subsequent months, Yale students, staff, and alumni have joined with elected officials in protesting the potential deal, calling on the university to protect its institutional autonomy in the face of federal pressure. Yale President Maurie McInnis confirmed in July that the university was in talks with the DOJ; she has committed to “safeguarding academic freedom” amid the negotiations.
Theodore, a Yale College senior who represents Ward 1 on the Board of Alders, authored the proposal that passed Monday night. He said that a deal with the Trump administration would jeopardize the university’s institutional autonomy, change admission policies, and embolden political attacks on Yale, other universities, and other democratic institutions.
The board’s Health and Human Services Committee unanimously endorsed the resolution on Sept. 24, after roughly three dozen people testified in favor, including Yale students, faculty, and staff; members of the Local 33 and Local 34 unions; New Haven Rising; Indivisible Connecticut; students from Southern Connecticut State University; and residents with no Yale affiliation. No one testified against it.
“The message from our constituents and our city is resounding: Yale, don’t cut a deal with Trump,” Theodore said Monday.
Westville Alder Amy Marx said that as she considered the resolution, she asked herself, “Who are we to tell Yale what to do?”
Her answer: “Yale is so many of us — we are its students, its alumni, its faculty, its employees, its parents, its neighbors.” She urged the university to “stay true to its core values.”
After Monday’s vote, Theodore said he was “really excited and grateful to my colleagues for engaging with the issue and listening to what we heard from the public.”
He said Yale’s admissions decisions shape who lives and works in New Haven, including doctors who train at Yale’s medical school and often stay to care for patients in the city.
“For Yale to cut a deal voluntarily — this isn’t a lawsuit — I think is really disheartening and reflects a real disconnect from the community in which it’s embedded,” he said.
Theodore said he invited Yale President Maurie McInnis and Alexandra Daum, Yale’s associate vice president for New Haven affairs and university properties, to the committee hearing. They did not attend but met with him privately a few days later, when he summarized the testimony.
Yale has previously declined to comment on the negotiations while reaffirming its commitment to academic freedom and lawful admissions.
Theodore said that if Yale does settle, he expects organizing and pushback from students, faculty, staff, and alumni. His bigger worry, he said, is what might come after.
“You give [Trump] one thing, you give him a little bit of autonomy, and he keeps pushing the universities to change their policies to his liking,” Theodore said. “I worry that this agreement will not be the end.”
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