News

The YPU hosted former DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to debate Resolved: America Needs Deportation. Student speakers on both sides challenged him. Mayorkas addresses the YPU in Sterling-Sheffield-Strathcona Hall. (Credit: Michelle Zheng) Michelle ZhengManaging Editor, The Buckley Beacon Former Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told the Yale Political Union that the United States must keep the power to deport, even as he conceded that “there are unjust deportations.” “To be clear,” Mayorkas told the Union, “today I advocate in support of the proposition that the United States must have the legal authority to deport an individual.”  The resolution before the Union was Resolved: America Needs Deportation. Mayorkas opened in the affirmative by calling it amb...

Yale's $21,600 per year residential colleges force students into uncomfortable, unwanted situations. A gender neutral bathroom in Benjamin Franklin College. (Credit: Michelle Zheng) Michelle ZhengManaging Editor, The Buckley Beacon Yale's housing policy is, on paper, neutral. The lottery is random. The bathroom alternation applies everywhere. Nobody is officially being singled out. This is the story Yale tells itself. It is not the whole story. Eva Rosenberg, a sophomore in Benjamin Franklin College studying electrical engineering and computer science, was strongly opposed to living on a gender-inclusive floor, but a late lottery number left her on one. Eva claims that on the housing form, she set her preference to a women’s only bathroom floor. However, she received a ...

The non-registered activist group consistently violates university policies and has built ties to Yale’s student government. Questions remain about its funding, outside affiliations and accountability. Students protest in front of the cardboard sculpture in Beinecke Plaza. (Credit: Jack Olson) Hannah Owens PierreOpinions Editor, The Buckley Beacon On October 1, 2026, hundreds of Yale students gathered for a protest in direct violation of Yale University policies. Planned by the Endowment Justice Collective (EJC), a non-registered organization led by Yale students, the protest featured a broad left-wing coalition of complaints.  One protester accused Yale of “profiting from the genocide in Gaza” and rallied against the free expression policy instituted by Yale. Another d...

At the Buckley Institute’s annual Supreme Court Review, AEI scholar Adam J. White and SCOTUSblog’s Amy Howe review the Court in the age of Trump. Adam White of the American Enterprise Institute addresses the crowd. (Credit: Buckley Institute) Michelle ZhengManaging Editor, The Buckley Beacon The Supreme Court’s emergency docket, once a sideline of its work, now shapes nearly everything the justices do, SCOTUSblog Co-Founder Amy Howe said during the Buckley Institute's annual Supreme Court Review Thursday evening.  “I think it’s really hard to overstate how much the emergency docket pervades the court’s work right now,” she told the roughly 60-person audience. Howe was joined by Adam J. White, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Rosenfeld Hal...

The 14-place demotion comes after Yale climbed 97 spots last year. The Schwarzman Center at Yale University. (Credit: Owen Tilman) Ethan SavageStaff Writer, The Buckley Beacon On September 9, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) released its seventh annual College Free Speech Rankings, in which Yale placed 72nd out of 261 schools, down 14 places from its 58th-place finish in 2025. That finish followed a 97-spot climb the year before, leaving Yale well above where it stood two years ago despite the downgrade. FIRE's profile of Yale lists an overall score of 64.1 out of 100, down 0.1 points from last year, and a "D" speech climate grade, unchanged from 2025. Yale's Spotlight rating, which FIRE bases on the restrictiveness of its written speec...

The Buckley Institute awarded current deputy dean and Robert R. Slaughter Professor of Law Justin Driver the Lux et Veritas Faculty Prize for his commitment to promoting disagreement and critical examination in and beyond his classrooms.  Kevin Xiao YLS '27 and Professor Justin Driver during the event. (Credit: Buckley Institute) Emily AkbarCampus Reporting Editor, The Buckley Beacon On Thursday, current deputy dean and Robert R. Slaughter Professor of Law Justin Driver received the Buckley Institute’s Lux et Veritas Faculty Prize. The prize awards a Yale faculty member who promotes intellectual diversity within and beyond the classroom. After having been chosen from among 115 nominations and a favorable vote from a panel of judges, Driver received $10,000 for h...

Timothy Cardinal Dolan, the Archbishop Emeritus of New York, delivered a talk on the life and legacy of the American Catholic evangelist Archbishop Fulton Sheen. Cardinal Dolan speaks at Buckley Institute event. (Credit: Buckley Institute) Jack EhlertStaff Writer, The Buckley Beacon On September 17, the Buckley Institute hosted Timothy Cardinal Dolan, the former Archbishop of New York and a member of the College of Cardinals, to give a talk titled “Keeping the Faith: Religion in Modern American Life.” Speaking on the theme of religion and public life, the Cardinal examined the sometimes fraught relationship between Catholicism and mainstream American society. The Cardinal, who holds a doctorate in American Church History from The Catholic University of America, ...

Yale’s Turning Point USA chapter hosted Nick Shirley, a self-described independent journalist best known for exposing fraud in Somali-run daycares in Minnesota.  Nick Shirley speaks at Sterling-Sheffield-Strathcona Hall. (Credit: Emily Akbar) Emily AkbarCampus Reporting Editor, The Buckley Beacon On Thursday evening, Turning Point USA (TPUSA) at Yale invited independent journalist Nick Shirley for an off-the-record event, the organization’s first since becoming a registered Yale student group last spring.  Shirley’s appearance fell on the first anniversary of the death of Charlie Kirk— the deceased founder of Turning Point USA known for his right-wing political activism on college campuses. Carlos Perez ‘29, the chapter’s president, said the date was not initial...

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 PierreStaff 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 dive...

Mariko Silver, the Yale Corporation’s newest alumni fellow, has publicly supported DEI initiatives, immigration protections, and other progressive causes in higher education. The Schwarzman Center at Yale. (Credit: The Buckley Institute) Hannah Owens PierreStaff Writer, The Buckley Beacon Last Monday, Yale Alumni Association Board of Governors Chair Jennifer Ebisemiju Madar announced that Mariko Silver won the alumni fellow election and will become Yale Corporation's newest alumni fellow trustee. The Yale Corporation is the governing body of Yale University, responsible for academic policy and Yale’s endowment. The Corporation makes decisions around appointing faculty and the president of Yale College, setting budgets for Yale Departments, and changing instit...