Maurie McInnis has acted in the interests of Yale at every turn, yet still receives unfounded attacks from the left.
President Maurie McInnis outside the Schwarzman Center. (Credit: Yale Office of the President)
Hannah Owens Pierre
Opinions Editor, The Buckley Beacon
Over the weekend, Yale’s President Maurie McInnis was taking photographs with parents arriving at Yale for Family Weekend when she was ambushed by a member of the Endowment Justice Collective (EJC), who pretended to take a photo with her before grilling her on her negotiation strategies with the Trump administration.
The next day before a morning panel event, McInnis was caught on a hot mic telling Dean of Yale College Pericles Lewis that she was ambushed by a student who appeared “pissed off,” which to me reads as a fair characterization of the interaction. She also briefly vented about the demands of meeting with the Board of Trustees, which she called “exhausting”— a reaction that we can all appreciate as a perfectly normal human response to the pressures of one’s job.
Students are now apparently up in arms, outraged at McInnis’s refusal to capitulate to the demands of a student group which is not even registered with the University and represents the far-left end of the political spectrum
I, for one, am not one of them. I would like to take this moment to say a sincere thank you to President McInnis, and reflect on all of the tangible good that she has done for Yale in the short two years she has been here, which her critics refuse to acknowledge.
In 2024, McInnis was announced as the 24th president of Yale, and the first woman to serve as a non-interim president of the university, in a moment which should have been a cause for celebration for all students, especially female students. Instead, during her inauguration, McInnis was immediately protested by pro-Palestine activists, who denounced McInnis’ “undemocratic appointment.” It is important to note that many of McInnis’s critics have objected to her from this moment, the very start, before she had made a single decision as president.
Since her inauguration, McInnis has done well on the most important issues facing Yale, namely protecting Yale’s funding and keeping the university out of crisis. Regarding funding, Yale has largely avoided cuts to federal funding from the Trump administration. Regarding avoiding crisis, McInnis’ incredibly strategic and skillful stance as president has kept Yale out of the negative press, unlike Harvard and Columbia. While the Yale Daily News lambasts the president for “lack[ing] [a] unique academic vision,” McInnis knows that her job as president is to make sure that Yale functions smoothly, not to make the radical changes that a vocal minority of students wish to see.
In addition to preventing harm, McInnis has done a lot of good. Under her leadership, Yale is now tuition free for those earning under $200,000, which covers 80% of Americans, and has eliminated all costs of attendance for students from families with annual incomes below $100,000. She issued the Committee on Trust in Higher Education to diagnose the sources of declining public trust in higher education, and immediately began adopting many of their recommendations, which dramatically increased Yale’s free speech score according to FIRE. And liberal students will be happy to hear that McInnis dramatically increased Yale’s funding for New Haven, one of the very demands of the left-wing groups that constantly criticize her.
What is it, then, that Yale students are so upset about? It likely has to do with President McInnis’s handling of the recent Yale settlement talks, which started over claims of racial discrimination in Yale Medical School. If you were to listen to the left-wing groups at Yale, you would assume that McInnis instantly capitulated to all of President Trump’s demands.
Instead, what McInnis has actually done is what she has done her entire time as Yale president: Put Yale first. According to these detractors, McInnis’ great sin so far has been the crime of merely engaging in negotiations in the first place.
Consider for a moment what would come of their ideal handling of the situation. Is it not obvious that the Trump administration would immediately retaliate against Yale, just as it did when Harvard refused to negotiate? For those who argue that Yale should simply battle the Trump administration in court, ask yourself how well that has gone down for Harvard: After Harvard won a case against the Trump administration for freezing $2 billion in 2025, the federal judge suggested that there were legal means to cut Harvard’s funding. Harvard’s funding is now being cut through these legal means.
Consider further that McInnis hasn’t even agreed to any of the Trump administration’s demands which, according to the report released by the Department of Justice, are merely that Yale comply with federal law and not allow race-based discrimination in admissions. Apparently the mere act of negotiation, which is certainly being done for the benefit of Yale, is itself indefensible. It is one thing to criticize Yale for cutting a bad deal. It is another thing entirely to criticize McInnis for being willing to consider a deal, when the alternative is certain devastation for Yale.
Nevermind the arguments that McInnis hasn’t been “transparent” enough. Perhaps the greatest evidence that Yale students do not deserve a say in who should be on the Board of Trustees is the sheer ignorance surrounding these conversations. It should be no surprise that President McInnis does not share every detail of her discussions on an ongoing legal matter. Even still, McInnis has taken every effort to inform students of the details of these talks, going so far as to create a webpage dedicated to dispelling the misinformation spread among students (unfortunately, it hasn’t succeeded).
McInnis has by no means done a perfect job. It’d be great if she’d respond to a few more student emails and fire a few more administrators. But she has done something for everyone: For the left wing students, she ought to be celebrated for slashing tuition for the working class and investing money in the city of New Haven. For the right wing students, of which there are a handful, she ought to be celebrated for her efforts to expand intellectual diversity, such as through her creation of the Center for Civic Thought.
But for all students, regardless of political commitment, she should be celebrated for her undying devotion to Yale. Let me lead us all in saying: Thank you, president McInnis.