Adrian Kulesza, Senior Photographer

In September, the Yale College Council, Graduate Student Assembly and Graduate and Professional Student Senate sent a letter to the Yale Corporation urging formal student representation on the Board of Trustees.

With the next Board of Trustees meeting set for Dec. 14, leaders of the YCC, GSA and GPSS are optimistic that the meeting could lead to additional representation of the student body’s voice as the Board’s Student Liaisons will be meeting with them.

The Board of Trustees, known formally as the Yale Corporation, is composed of the University president and 16 trustees who are Yale alumni. The Yale Corporation oversees University-wide policy and decisions, influencing many facets of campus life. 

In January 2023, the YCC held a referendum that found that a wide majority of Yale undergraduates believe that students should have direct input on the selection of trustees. Since then, student groups, including the YCC, GSA and GPSS, have advocated for increased student input on the Yale Corporation.

“The productive dialogue we have had so far gives us hope, but we understand that institutional changes – particularly those involving governance – require time and deliberation,” GPSS President Alex Rich GRD ’27 and Vice President Sam Haddad LAW ’26 wrote in a joint statement to the News. “The upcoming December Board meeting is a pivotal moment, and we are eager to see how our proposal will be received and whether the Trustees will affirm their commitment to inclusive governance.”

In their September letter, the leaders outlined a proposal to include one non-voting undergraduate student and one non-voting graduate or professional student in the Yale Board of Trustees general body or as a committee member of the Yale Board of Trustees.

While prior efforts for direct student representation have fallen short, YCC, GSA and GPSS leaders expressed optimism that their upcoming meeting with the Yale Corporation could lead to a policy increasing student input on the board. 

As outlined in the letter, the non-voting student member would not be given full voting rights as per the origin and nature of the Yale Corporation’s Charter. The letter requests that student representatives be allowed to listen to board members’ deliberations and provide their perspectives when “appropriate and helpful.”

“Our proposal seeks to address fundamental gaps in communication and understanding between students and Yale’s leadership,” said Rich. “Adding student representation could improve campus climate and decision-making by giving the Board a fuller sense of student concerns.”

Per YCC President Mimi Papathanasopoulos ’26, 73 percent of respondents to the YCC’s Fall Survey — which had 3,300 responses — expressed strong support for increasing student representation and input in decision-making processes at Yale. 

Papathanasopoulos and YCC Vice President Esha Garg ’26 emphasized that the proposal to add student representation to the Yale Board is a straightforward method of increasing student input and representation.

Despite the calls for direct student representation and input on the Board, the Yale Corporation ultimately established a Student Advisory Council as part of the search for the University’s 24th president, the first of its kind in a Yale presidential search. Council members were tasked with gathering information from across the University and then sharing that information with the search committee.

The Governor of Connecticut, Ned Lamont, is an ex-officio member of the Yale Corporation.

Correction, Dec. 7: A previous version of the article misspelled Papathanasopoulos’ last name.