Christina Lee, Head Photography Editor

Organizational efficiency was among the top concerns people shared with University President Maurie McInnis in her early months, she told the News.

In an interview with the News, McInnis named the top five common themes she has heard in over 60 meetings with faculty, students, staff, alumni and parents she’s held since her appointment in July. In addition to organizational efficiency, these include Yale’s partnerships with New Haven, the undergraduate experience, academic excellence and declining trust in higher education in the United States.

“In the coming months, I will provide ways for our community to sharpen our discussions in these areas,” she wrote to the News after the interview.

McInnis said she has heard complaints about inefficiencies in university processes “that may require more steps than seem necessary or take longer to enact than seem necessary.” These conversations, she said, raised the question of how many checks and balances are necessary in bureaucratic processes. 

She and her team are now working to improve systems and reduce the time Yale personnel spend on administrative matters. McInnis added that her team is unsure if increasing efficiency will entail “adding to the layers of bureaucracy or if it’s other things.”

She did not provide further specifics when asked to clarify which systems she meant, but she said she would share further information with the Yale community about these plans in the coming months.

“Maybe it isn’t visionary, it’s not strategic, but it can also answer things that can be frustrations about the way a place operates,” she said. 

When listing the common themes in her meetings, she first mentioned Yale’s relationship with its home city of New Haven. She said that she has heard calls for the University to build on its partnerships with the city to “create more opportunities for inclusive growth.”

As to improving the undergraduate experience, she said she has been hearing feedback that she should be “thinking very broadly about the undergraduate experience.” Specifically, she mentioned the classroom experience, the residential college system and extracurricular offerings, as well as how those three aspects intersect.

McInnis added that she is worried about declining trust in American universities and that she and other higher education leaders need to communicate the importance of these institutions to the public.

“Yale as a name brand obviously has a very important role to work on making sure that the public understands the really important things we do in service of this nation,” she said. “The research that we generate … the role we play in educating future leaders, the role we play in continually expanding access to a greater number of students … institutions like Yale are central to America’s economic vitality and to national security and to educating students.”

On the first day of classes this academic year, when the News asked McInnis about her initial priorities, she said she planned to continue Yale’s investments in science and engineering and student mental health.