Benjamin Hernandez, Contributing Photographer

Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis has advocated for open discourse on campus since starting the job in 2022. Now, he is continuing to stress free expression — mirroring calls by some critics of higher education.

Over the past four years, Lewis has driven forward a variety of initiatives intended to foster free expression among students — including the Dean’s Dialogue series, the Center for Civic Thought, the Perspectives training program and the Cultivating Conversation fellowship.

The measures have come at a time in which American universities have come under immense public scrutiny, not least from President Donald Trump. In an interview with the News last week,  Lewis emphasized the importance of taking “seriously criticisms of higher education that are out there in society and frankly here on campus too.”

“I do think the current political environment and how it’s affecting higher education is on a lot of people’s minds,” Lewis told the News. “Overall, we’re doing the right things, but obviously there’s certain areas of pressure politically, and we’re doing our best to, you know, keep the campus on course.”

Lewis is now well into his fourth year serving as dean, a tenure that he has thus far characterized as focused on educational opportunity and free expression on campus, among other things.

“It’s a tough job, but he’s brilliant,” psychology professor Marvin Chun, Lewis’ predecessor as dean, said in an interview. “He’s a real, experienced and wise administrator who cares about students and cares about learning. And I think we’re very fortunate to have such an outstanding dean in that position.”

Upon becoming dean in 2022, Lewis perceived an acute need for administrative support of free speech and open dialogue, he said.

According to Lewis, free expression was limited during the COVID-19 pandemic both because student interactions were limited to screens, making them easy to record, and as a result of the “outside political world.”

Now that the pandemic has receded, campus culture has become more amenable to a free exchange of ideas, Lewis said. He credited organizations such as the Buckley Institute and the Yale Political Union for maintaining a commitment to the cause.

Last fall, Lewis spoke at a Buckley Institute annual conference, defending the University’s response to pro-Palestinian protesters in the spring of 2024, including the arrests of students participating in a protest encampment on Beinecke Plaza.

At the event, Lewis affirmed students’ right to protest, as long as they act “within reason” and abide by the time, place and manner restrictions established by the University. He noted the importance of distinguishing between free expression and threatening behavior when deciding whether to pursue disciplinary action.

In his opening address to first-year students in the class of 2029, Lewis emphasized the role Yale plays in developing one’s character.

“I do think that the outside political world and its forces wax and wane in their impact on the university, but there’s also a question of the internal university culture,” Lewis said last week. “How do you support a culture of free expression and free exchange of ideas?”

Amidst today’s “culture wars,” the dean said, students should be able to engage in candid conversations with friends and families back home about the value of a Yale education.

He noted that the financial aid plans available to students are not often common knowledge outside of Yale.

“I mean, there’s no doubt in the world that Yale is worth it,” Lewis said. “I think a bigger problem socially and economically in society as a whole, is that if you look outside of the top tier universities, about 60 percent of graduates of high school go on to college, but almost a third of those don’t finish.”

He asserted that Yale’s financial aid planning is such that students never take on debt, so undergraduate students will at least not be financially worse off for having attended college.

“Obviously, not everybody gets the job of their dreams when they graduate from Yale, but there’s very few Yalies among the long-term unemployed,” Lewis said. “So it’s not like it’s a golden ticket that assures your future is going to be, you know, fantastic, but you’re in pretty good shape when you graduate from here.”

The Yale College Dean’s Office occupies offices at 1 Hillhouse Ave., 1 Prospect St. and 55 Whitney Ave.

Correction, Oct. 30: This article and its headline have been modified to correct the characterization of a statement by Pericles Lewis.