Ellie Park, Multimedia Managing Editor

As the Trump administration spews new policies that threaten higher education funding and programs, University President Maurie McInnis cautioned against assuming the directives will take effect. She said that some overstep the boundaries of presidential power and are thus facing challenges in court, where the attempted changes could die.

Yale therefore has its hands in politics at two levels, she said. First, the University is monitoring the lawsuits that counter executive orders, and simultaneously, is lobbying Congress, which makes decisions on budget appropriations beyond the authority of the executive branch.

“Some executive orders have the force of law. And some of them, we and others might argue, are instead something that should be reserved for Congress,” McInnis said in an interview with the News on Tuesday. “Knowing that one likely outcome of the lawsuits will be a statement from a judge that says, ‘No, this has to go back to Congress,’ we want to already be working Congress in case that is the outcome.”

One example is a Dear Colleague letter that instructed schools to suspend race-conscious programs or lose federal funding. The Department of Education’s letter says that it “does not have the force and effect of law.”

The letter lays out an expansive interpretation of the Supreme Court ruling that struck down race-based affirmative action in college admissions, applying the decision to race-conscious programs in universities much more broadly. It was authored by Craig Trainor, the acting assistant secretary for civil rights for the Department of Education, who does not have power to change the law. Yale administrators told the News that all University programs are reviewed for legality when they are created, so they feel confident that established programs will not be affected.

“We don’t anticipate any major changes,” McInnis said, echoing comments Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis previously made.

The Dear Colleague letter challenges “nebulous concepts like racial balancing and diversity.” McInnis said that Yale’s version of diversity programs have been phrased in terms of the word “belonging” because the word “diversity” can be loaded, meaning different things to different people.

“While [diversity] is a word, and we could look it up in a dictionary and find its definition, I think right now it is a word where people are tugging on, what does diversity mean?”

“Diversity at Yale has always emphasized a broad range of diversities,” she continued. “At Yale, diversity has always meant that we are looking for excellence. We are looking for talent.”

In addition to the Dear Colleague letter, other Trump administration moves have been blocked by court injunctions. One is a Feb. 7 plan announced by the National Institutes of Health to dramatically slash the funding it provides for indirect research costs, which are the administrative and facility expenses incurred by places like Yale to conduct scientific research.

22 attorneys general sued the Trump administration in response, and Yale made a public declaration in support of the lawsuit. A federal judge granted a temporary restraining order on the cuts before it took effect and on Feb. 21 extended the TRO. The block may extend further into a preliminary injunction.

McInnis said she supported the lawsuit because Yale “did not believe that the NIH had the ability, the legal standing, on a Friday night to tell you that on Monday morning, your contracts that are in place can be changed overnight.”

The NIH’s cost cap plan has thrust indirect costs into the center of conversation. While a judge may block the Trump administration’s cut to overhead research funding, Congress could take up the issue and change appropriations accordingly. As a result, Yale’s lobbying efforts in Congress have emphasized the importance of indirect costs to Yale’s research, McInnis said.

Yale works most closely with the Association of American Universities, or AAU, to accomplish its goals in Congress, McInnis said. The AAU groups 71 research universities to collaborate, and McInnis is one of twelve university leaders on the board.

“This work has to be sometimes very tactical in understanding what issues are likely to be in front of what committees in Congress, who then are the lawmakers on those committees, what bills have been drafted or are currently being drafted, and who therefore has the best relationship with the people who are on those various committees,” she said.

When the AAU wants to target a particular congressional committee, it turns to the president of a member university in a state with a representative on that committee. Since Connecticut is a small state and therefore does not have lawmakers on many committees, McInnis said that she is often not the point of contact.

Still, McInnis travels frequently to Washington and to other parts of the country to meet with legislators, lawyers and policy analysts to promote Yale’s interests.

American competitiveness is the message of her pitch to lawmakers. She said that discussing scientific research on its own can sound “somewhat esoteric,” and pointing out its impact on the country can be more persuasive.

To make this argument to lawmakers, she explains that the federal government’s system of providing grants for research creates a competitive process. Whereas many European countries mainly finance government institutions for scientific research, the U.S. creates competition by making outside organizations, such as universities, apply for the NIH’s robust grants. 

This system “means that your best scientists are the ones who are getting the grant money and moving the scientific investment forward,” McInnis said.

In his first month in office, President Donald Trump has signed 73 executive orders.

Correction, Feb. 26: This story has been updated to reflect that Department of Education wrote that the Dear Colleague letter did not have the force and effect of law, not President McInnis.