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Some Democrats want to tax Yale to punish it for settling discrimination claims
The Democratic governor of Connecticut shot down the idea of taxing Yale University as a sanction for working with the Trump administration to settle discrimination plans.
Yale officials are currently negotiating with the Trump administration to settle claims it discriminated against white and Asian medical school applicants. “Yale’s admissions data demonstrate that Black and Hispanic students have a much higher chance of admission to Yale than White or Asian students with the same test scores,” the Department of Justice alleged this spring. The undergraduate school, Yale College, and the law school are currently under investigation for discrimination as well.
In response to the negotiations, some Connecticut legislators, almost all alumni of the school, urged Yale not to work with the Trump administration to cut a deal.
“If Yale demonstrates that it will not use its wealth, standing, and legal strength to defend the very freedoms its charter and tax privileges were granted to protect, the General Assembly could revisit that bargain in earnest, and potentially with our support,” the letter to school officials this summer stated.
But fellow Governor Ned Lamont is not on board with taxing his alma mater.
“Lamont said he is not opposed to Yale’s ongoing settlement negotiations with the Trump administration, provided that the University does not compromise certain principles,” the student newspaper reported on Oct. 7. “Yale should do ‘nothing to compromise academic integrity’ and should not allow the federal government ‘say’ over its admissions policy,” the student newspaper reported, quoting Lamont.
“I’m trying my best to keep our colleges afloat,” Gov. Lamont told the Yale Daily News.
The negotiations have drawn criticism from faculty and students on campus, with 300 affiliates protesting in early October against a potential deal.
“Yale is a leader in America, which makes its potential appeasement all the more despicable,” Senator Richard Blumenthal said at a rally. “Yale should know that appeasement is not a strategy, that acquiescing to a bully just emboldens and encourages him. And here, the ‘him’ is Donald Trump.”
Blumenthal’s son, state representative Matt Blumenthal, is among the Democrats currently trying to bully Yale into not working with Trump at the risk of losing their tax privileges.
The Trump administration also announced it is investigating Yale for potential visa fraud, along with eight other universities.
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