Alexis Lam, Contributing Photographer

In September, the Yale Women’s Center received a directive from the Yale College Dean’s Office to institute a policy of “broad neutrality” in their operations and initiatives. 

The directive explained the “status, privileges and expectations” of the Women’s Center. Among other expectations, the Dean’s Office outlined that the Center and its board would “maintain broad neutrality” in their programming and actions to “ensure that all students feel welcome.”

The News spoke to three Women’s Center board members about the “broad neutrality” directive. The students were granted anonymity for fear of losing their jobs as board members are employed by Yale College. 

The three board members all emphasized that a policy of “broad neutrality” would be a drastic change from the Women’s Center’s feminist mission since its founding. 

“The Yale Women’s Center was founded in 1970 when a group of the first women undergraduates staged a sit-in, occupying a space of their own. At the time, their feminist demands were divisive. What is divisive changes over time, and through the decades, the Women’s Center has continued to be a feminist space on campus, working towards collective liberation,” one board member wrote to the News. “Neutrality would contradict our purpose and compromise our daily functions.” 

Unlike other student groups, the Women’s Center is student-run but receives funding from an endowment that Yale holds for the YWC as well as the general Yale College appropriations budget. The Center is also one of few student organizations to hold a designated space on campus. 

All three board members interviewed by the News brought up their concern that their usual abortion-related work and outreach could be compromised by a policy of “broad neutrality” as abortion rights and access is not a neutral issue. 

The Women’s Center has not officially reopened for the 2024-25 school year — as employees had to wait for one month after first inquiring with administrators to be rehired and granted swipe access — but a board member told the News that they plan to continue offering all of their usual resources, including Plan B. 

The News asked Yale College Dean of Student Affairs Melanie Boyd specifically about what maintaining “broad neutrality” would mean for the Women’s Center in regards to their abortion-related work and outreach. Boyd did not directly answer this question. 

“The Center itself, as an institution, and the students when they are working as paid employees, have a responsibility to the whole community. This responsibility does not prevent the Center staff from offering programming and resources that may be controversial,” Boyd wrote. “It does require that they work with their Yale College advisers to carefully consider the campus impact of their work, and that they consistently take steps to ensure that their activities expand, rather than contract, the Center’s capacity to be open to and welcoming of all students.”

Board members also emphasized that the “broad neutrality” directive would affect the Women’s Center’s ability to host political speakers and events, which has been a consistent feature of the Center.

Last year, an annual event planned by the Women’s Center titled “Pink-washing and feminism(s) in Gaza” was indefinitely postponed by the board amid threats of disciplinary action from administrators, following their failure to respond to a Jewish student leader seeking to “meet with a representative from the Women’s Center to talk about how Jewish women can feel included and represented in our Yale community,” per the student’s email. 

Two board members speculated that the controversy surrounding last year’s conference could have inspired the “broad neutrality” directive as the conference generated national media attention and incited many alumni to email administrators with their concerns or outrage over the conference’s contents. 

The News asked Boyd specifically about how the neutrality requirements would impact the ability of the Women’s Center to hold a conference similar to last year’s planned “Pinkwashing and Feminism(s) in Gaza,” but Boyd did not directly answer this question. 

Boyd acknowledged that Women’s Center board members raised concerns surrounding the phrase “broad neutrality” as outlined in the administration’s expectations for the Center. 

She emphasized that she and other administrators are engaged in ongoing conversations with Women’s Center Board members to “clarify the intent [of the directive] and revise the language accordingly.”  

“The fundamental goal is that the Center’s programming, taken cumulatively, should not leave groups of students feeling unwelcome in the space,” Boyd wrote. 

Board members confirmed that the Women’s Center board is in ongoing conversations with administrators to clarify the effect of the “broad neutrality” guidelines.

One board member drew a connection between the “broad neutrality” guidelines and the administration’s active consideration of institutional neutrality.

The University is currently considering “institutional voice” and collecting student input surrounding the potential implementation of institutional neutrality. At a September listening session surrounding institutional voice, one Women’s Center board member delivered a statement calling the University’s listening sessions a “sham” as the neutrality directive sent to the Women’s Center indicated that “institutional neutrality is already rolling out on campus.” 

Boyd wrote to the News that current conversations surrounding neutrality at the Women’s Center “predates, and is distinct from, the work of the Committee on Institutional Voice.” 

The Women’s Center is officially reopening after Fall Break. 

Karla Cortes contributed reporting.