The Buckley Institute published a report on Friday, which reveals that 0 trustees of the Yale Corporation are registered Republicans, and trustees have donated 50 times as much to Democratic causes as to Republican ones.
Silliman College at Yale. (Credit: The Buckley Institute)
Hannah Owens Pierre
Staff Writer, The Buckley Beacon
Last Friday, the Buckley Institute published a new report on the political ideology and donations of the Yale Corporation, the governing body of the university. The report follows a February Buckley Institute study that raised concerns about the board’s political composition. The most recent report reveals that Yale has the most partisan governing body of the eight Ivy League universities, all of which face issues with ideological diversity on their governing boards.
The report found that among the eight Ivy League schools as a whole, Democrats outnumber Republicans 6 to 1 on the boards of trustees. Yale is the only Ivy League university with zero Republicans on its governing board. Last month, Mariko Silver, an outspoken Democrat, was elected as the newest alumni fellow trustee on the governing body, cementing the lack of conservative voices.
In 2021, the Yale Corporation eliminated the petition process for selecting alumni fellow candidates, and replaced it with the Alumni Fellow Nominating Committee, which critics say discourages intellectual diversity by allowing the nominating committee to handpick candidates. This change was challenged by Yale alumni in a case which was rejected by the Connecticut Supreme Court this past year. A petition to restore the petition process started by the Buckley Institute describes the 2021 decision as signaling “a fear of dissenting viewpoints.”
Regarding political donations, Yale’s board of trustees gave 50 times as much money to Democratic causes as to Republican causes. This is a sharp outlier compared to other Ivy League universities, which still give Democratic causes 4 times as much money on average as Republican causes.
“Yale is a leader in many things, but ideological homogeneity shouldn’t be one of them,” Buckley Institute Founder and Executive Director Lauren Noble ’11 said regarding the report. “Looking at the dramatic ideological imbalance across Ivy League governing bodies, it’s little surprise that so much has gone awry on campus.”
In April, Yale’s Committee on Trust in Higher Education, convened by President Maurie McInnis, released a report partially criticizing Yale’s lack of political diversity. The committee cited a report by the Buckley Institute that found that, among Yale faculty, registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 36 to 1 across 43 departments.
“While such issues remain contested, nearly everyone we spoke to agreed on one thing: Echo chambers do not produce the best teaching, research, or scholarship,” the committee’s report reads. The report did not include political diversity on the Yale Corporation in its official list of recommendations.
In light of the Buckley Institute’s most recent report on the governing body, Noble noted: “If America’s top universities truly want to fix the echo chamber in the classroom, they will need to address the echo chamber among their own leadership.”
President McInnis’ office did not respond to the Beacon‘s request for comment.