Ariela Lopez, Contributing Photographer

Two Yale administrators invoked the possibility of federal cuts to the University’s budget in a Thursday bargaining session with Yale’s police union.

The Yale Police Benevolent Association, or YPBA, the union representing the Yale Police Department’s officers and detectives, has been negotiating a new contract for over two years. Before this week, the union last met with University negotiators in February, when no progress was made, according to Yale Senior Labor Relations Director Joe Sarno. 

According to Mike Hall, the YPBA’s president, two top Yale administrators — John Whelan, vice president and chief human resources officer, and John Barden, vice president for technology and campus services, who oversees Yale Police Department — joined the union and University negotiators at Thursday’s meeting. Hall told the News that Whelan and Barden spoke to the union about the possibility that the Trump administration’s threats to federal funding at American universities may soon affect Yale.

“They were describing the possibilities of what may happen at the university regarding funding,” Hall said. “They don’t know, it’s all uncertain times, but Yale appears to be nervous. You know, they claim all but two Ivy League universities have been affected so far by the Trump administration. Yale, somehow, as of right now, for the most part, is going unscathed, but they’re anticipating some issues there.”

Since President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, the federal government has frozen significant amounts of grant money to higher education institutions. Six of the eight Ivy League schools — Harvard University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania and Brown University — have all faced direct threats from the White House to halt their funding.

Sarno confirmed that Whelan and Barden attended Thursday’s meeting and spoke with the police union about potential federal policy-related budget cuts.

Before the Tuesday meeting, Hall told the News that he felt the union was “close” to securing a contract, and that only a few issues stood in the way of reaching an agreement. For Hall, those issues include a union proposal for a long-term disability benefit plan exempt from federal income taxes and continued demands for a higher wage increase package. Sarno, meanwhile, told the News in February that the key remaining issue for the University was a proposal to subject YPBA members to a comprehensive drug testing program, which the union vetoed.

Hall told the News on Thursday evening that he felt the University was invoking the possibility of budget cuts forced by federal policy as a means of “claiming broke.” He told the News that he responded by emphasizing how inflation across the country has affected union members and would continue to do so despite federal actions targeting Yale. He deems these targeted actions “hypothetical.”

“We understand, we follow the news,” Hall said. “We know what possibly is coming down the pike for Yale. But the issues of inflation have affected our members for years, so the feeling’s mutual on both sides here, everyone’s feeling the pinch.”

Sarno and Hall both told the News that no progress was made at Thursday’s bargaining session. Hall said that the University has not altered the offer it made to the YPBA in November, which Sarno termed Yale’s “last, best and final” offer.

Hall said that Thursday’s meeting lasted less than an hour.

During Yale’s Bulldog Days for admitted students earlier this week, the union held a rally, distributed leaflets and commissioned billboard trucks to advertise their stance on negotiations with visiting admitted students and their families.

The union’s last contract expired in June 2023.