Tim Tai

Nearly 900 faculty signed a letter calling on University President Maurie McInnis and Provost Scott Strobel to protect academic freedom at Yale.

Members of the faculty senate and Yale’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, or AAUP, delivered the letter to McInnis and Strobel on April 11. In response, McInnis’ office has reached out to schedule a meeting among the two administrators and the faculty who delivered the letter, per Strobel. 

“American universities are facing extraordinary attacks that threaten the bedrock principles of a democratic society, including rights of free expression, association, and academic freedom,” the letter reads. “We write as one faculty, to ask you to stand with us now.”

In the letter, faculty call on McInnis and Strobel to legally challenge “unlawful demands that threaten academic freedom and university self-governance” and to commit that the University will not reorganize or remove any departments or programs in response to political threats. The letter also asks the University to provide support in forms such as immigration assistance to individuals who have experienced government infringement on their freedom of speech. 

Strobel expressed gratitude for the faculty letter and wrote to the News that he and McInnis will continue to discuss concerns about academic freedom with faculty members.

“The university remains unwavering in its commitment to realizing Yale’s mission; enabling academic freedom, deep intellectual inquiry, and the free exchange of ideas; and supporting our community,” Strobel wrote to the News. 

Professor Daniel HoSang, president of Yale’s AAUP chapter, highlighted how faculty from all 14 graduate and professional schools have signed the letter. For HoSang, the wide breadth of the signatories reflects the “majority sentiment on campus” that the Yale community is ready to defend its scholarship in the face of unlawful orders from the federal government. 

HoSang also told the News that the University must take both public stances and substantive action to resist political pressures such as threatened cuts to research funding. 

McInnis previously told the News that she is prioritizing behind-the-scenes lobbying over public statements, though she issued a statement in February denouncing President Donald Trump’s cuts to funding cuts in the National Institutes of Health. 

HoSang said that the University’s public statements are complementary to its behind-the-scenes lobbying.

“If behind the scenes, what we’re saying is, ‘here’s the critical research that’s done on our campus and why it needs to be protected,’ why would we not say that publicly?” HoSang said. 

According to HoSang, McInnis has continued to hold listening sessions and meetings with faculty to discuss concerns about political attacks on academic freedom. After Yale’s AAUP chapter sent a letter to McInnis in February asking her to vocally resist federal policies that threaten the University’s mission, McInnis had a “productive and respectful” conversation with HoSang and other letter writers, per HoSang.

“We understand the deep, dangerous waters that universities and higher ed are navigating now, and we know the difficult decisions that face administrators,” HoSang said. “The administrators are listening to faculty, and they value what faculty have to say.”

However, Professor Naftali Kaminski, a faculty signatory of the letter, wrote to the News that faculty “undoubtedly” do not have enough input in the University’s responses to political threats.

The letter was sent shortly before McInnis announced a new president’s committee to address declining trust in higher education.

Kaminski wrote that while he is glad the committee was formed, he is “not really” reassured that the Yale administration will address the calls in the faculty letter.

“I think Yale faculty need to be reassured that Yale will not capitulate to the [Trump] administration’s request,” Kaminski wrote. “If Yale and other top Universities unite, they will be able to prevail this unprecedented attack and save U.S. education and science.”

Kaminski also emphasized that his identity as a Jewish Israeli was important to his signing the letter. According to Kaminski, antisemitism has been “weaponized to attack U.S. higher education and research,” and he is worried that new developments such as Yale’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s contested definition of antisemitism will further enable this weaponization.

As of Fall 2024, Yale has 5,744 faculty members.