Author: Grant Shanklin

At a tabling event held on September 23rd, Choose Life at Yale garnered both inquisitive looks and hostile glares as they promoted life-affirming alternatives to Planned Parenthood. The reactions and conversations at this event illustrate both the progress CLAY is making and the challenges they face, highlighting the resistance many students have to engaging with pro-life arguments in good faith. Grant ShanklinAssistant Editor, The BeaconAt a tabling event held on September 23rd, Choose Life at Yale garnered both inquisitive looks and hostile glares as they promoted life-affirming alternatives to Planned Parenthood. The reactions and conversations at this event illustrate both the progress CLAY is making and the challenges they face...

Yale’s rise in the free speech rankings highlights significant progress in fostering tolerance for diverse speakers and openness on campus. However, challenges remain with administrative support and student attitudes toward protest, showing that while improvements have been made, there's still work to be done. Grant ShanklinAssistant Editor, The BeaconOn September 5th, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) released their annual College Free Speech Rankings. These rankings are based on a survey of undergraduates from 257 schools regarding their perceptions and experiences with free speech on campus. Yale not only made one of the largest jumps in the rankings, moving from 234th to 155th, but also outperformed its ...

On February 26th, Karl Rove, former Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush, addressed Yale students, hosted by the William F. Buckley Jr. Program. He discussed historical challenges within American politics, comparing past adversities to current political discord, and emphasized resilience and the possibility of overcoming current issues. Grant ShanklinAssociate Editor, The BeaconOn February 26th, Karl Rove, Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush, spoke to a room of roughly 50 students at Yale University as a guest of the William F. Buckley Jr. Program. Drawing on his historical knowledge and experience under the Bush administration, his talk, “If You Think It’s Bad Today, It’s Been Worse Befor...

Robert P. George, Conservative intellectual and professor at Princeton, came to speak to the Buckley Program the necessity of breaking out of “groupthink” in order to achieve a true liberal arts education and overcome the budding challenge of campus illiberalism. Grant Shanklin and Sabrina GuoAssociate Editors, The BeaconElite colleges and universities, especially those among the Ivy League schools, lean noticeably left on the political spectrum, and Yale is no exception. In 2023, 98.4 percent of political contributions by Yale professors went to Democratic-affiliated groups, and in a survey of Princeton’s incoming class of 2026, only about 11.4% would describe themselves as “either somewhat or very right-...