Is Yale about to Repeat Harvard's Mistakes?
Many concerned about the current state of higher education cheered the resignations of Claudine Gay of Harvard and Liz Magill of the University of Pennsylvania. To be sure, the leadership vacancies at numerous elite universities – not only Harvard and Penn, but also Stanford and Yale – present an exciting opportunity for reformers. Having launched its presidential search in late August, well before recent controversies elsewhere, Yale could be one of the first to find its new leader. And yet, if the progress of Yale’s search is any indication, the higher education reformers of the world ought not to celebrate too soon.
One reason is the Washington Free Beacon’s January report that Yale Law School Dean Heather Gerken was a contender for the Yale presidency. As the Beacon thoroughly documents, throughout Gerken’s tenure, the Yale Law School has been at the center of numerous free speech controversies. With Yale’s reputation having declined in recent years, in part, owing to these incidents, her appointment would signal the Yale Corporation’s commitment to doubling down on that negative trend.
Another issue is that the Yale Corporation seems to be overlooking growing concerns about free speech voiced by faculty, students, and alumni throughout the search process. The search committee may be holding “listening sessions,” but are they really listening?
Yale Corporation Senior Trustee Josh Bekenstein’s January 29th update on the process suggests perhaps not. Bekenstein summarized various themes his committee heard, yet neglected to mention freedom of speech even once, in spite of the search committee student advisory committee’s survey of students clearly showing this is an area of concern for students. This sentiment is further confirmed by a Buckley Institute survey of 500 Yale undergraduates in which 65% agreed that the search committee should prioritize candidates committed to strengthening free speech on campus. Bekenstein’s update also conveniently ignored a petition signed by over 800 Yale alumni, students, and faculty calling on the university to prioritize free speech in the search.
And then there’s departing President Peter Salovey’s recent remark to the Yale Daily News that “[a] big theme in the search for my successor is continuing the course we’re on.”
If the governing boards and search committees at elite universities have learned the lessons of the last few months, they should broadcast that they are looking for leaders who understand that universities cannot continue on their current course. Instead, they might look for candidates in the mold of Ben Sasse or Mitch Daniels to forge a new path.
In the aftermath of the Hamas attack, Sasse, the president of the University of Florida, offered a widely praised statement of moral clarity. He also admonished other leaders for their selective silence.
Sasse has only served in his current position for one year, but Daniels’ tenure at the helm of Purdue demonstrates how leadership can make all the difference.
At Purdue, Daniels froze tuition at $10,000 for over a decade. During the same time period, Yale increased tuition by 47%, from $44,000 to $64,700, probably driven by the 30% increase in administrative staff. After COVID hit, Daniels quickly reopened Purdue for in-person learning. Ivy League campuses maintained remote instruction long after in-person instruction had proven feasible.
During Daniels’ presidency, Purdue adopted the Chicago principles and implemented a free speech component to student orientation. In his last year in office, Purdue was a top performer in the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s annual review, placing 3rd nationwide for free speech.
In contrast, Yale ranked 234 out of 248 schools in the 2024 rankings and won FIRE's Lifetime Censorship Award in 2022. Harvard ranked dead last with an “abysmal” free speech rating. The University of Pennsylvania was in the bottom five. Columbia, dead last in the 2023 rankings, still settled at a paltry 214 out of 248.
In 2021, upon learning that a Chinese student at Purdue had been harassed by other students for exercising his freedom of speech, Daniels noted that “joining the Purdue community requires acceptance of its rules and values, and no value is more central to our institution or to higher education generally than the freedom of inquiry and expression.” He continued, “Those seeking to deny those rights to others, let alone to collude with foreign governments in repressing them, will need to pursue their education elsewhere.”
It's difficult to imagine Ivy leadership taking a similar stand. Today, as Jewish students face antisemitism on campus, top college presidents do not seem able to condemn antisemitism without caveats about Islamophobia. Instead, they expand and empower their DEI efforts.
What university campuses need are presidents who understand that it’s past time for universities to renew their commitments to their core missions. Faculty for Yale, a new group of over 100 faculty members at Yale, characterizes that mission as one “to preserve, produce, and transmit knowledge.” Whether university governing boards agree is a vital question. Let’s hope they seize the opportunity.
