FIX EXCLUSIVES
Yale’s political donations showed 50-to-1 ratio in favor of Democrats over Republicans
Ivy League governing boards are overwhelmingly Democratic, with about seven out of ten trustees registered as Democrats and only one in ten as a Republican, according to a recent report by the Buckley Institute, a conservative academic center.
Yale University stood out with no registered Republicans on its governing body.
Further, Yale’s political donations showed a 50-to-1 ratio in favor of Democrats over Republicans. Trustees donated more than $5 million to Democrats and only $100,000 to Republicans.
Only Cornell University trustees donated more to Republicans than to Democrats.
Lauren Noble, founder and executive director at the Buckley Institute, told The College Fix, “As the governing body of Yale, the Yale Corporation shapes the direction of the university.”
“When Yale creates an ideological bubble among its leadership, it sends the message to the student body that diverse perspectives aren’t welcome,” Noble added.
She cited Yale’s own Committee on Trust in Higher Education, which wrote a report on trust in higher education that states, “Echo chambers do not produce the best teaching, research, or scholarship.”
“The same principle applies to the university’s governance,” Noble said.
Commenting on the political leanings of professors, she said 27 of Yale’s 43 undergraduate degree-granting departments have zero registered Republicans.
“The reality is that both trustees and faculty have significant influence on university life. While faculty shape the individual classroom environment, trustees shape the direction of the university as a whole,” Noble said.
She added that past research from Buckley found a 36-to-1 ratio of Democrats to Republicans in the faculty lounge.
“Though that compares favorably with the total absence of Republicans on the Yale Corporation, a Yale faculty that is only 2.3% Republican isn’t much of an improvement,” Noble said.
When asked what universities should do to ensure viewpoint diversity, Noble said they “should honestly assess whether they are imposing ideological filters during [the trustee selection process].”
“Yale appears to have done so five years ago by canceling the petition process for the annual Alumni Fellow Election,” Noble added.
This petition process allowed Yale alumni to select one member of the Yale Corporation. Noble said the removal of that process “eliminated the path for independent voices to get onto the ballot.”
“Now alumni have only the illusion of choice, with all candidates being hand-picked by Yale and prohibited from answering any questions,” Noble said.
Another higher education expert told The College Fix that the governing boards would be more effective with diverse viewpoints.
Steve McGuire, a Campus Freedom Initiative fellow at the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, said that “the ideological insularity of the university is a real problem for its educational and research missions.”
“A more ideologically diverse board could enhance the work of the Yale Corporation and help to address suspicions that the university is too partisan,” McGuire said.
When asked how ideologically unified boards could affect university governance, McGuire said that “including trustees with diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and areas of expertise helps ensure effective oversight.”
“Boards that are too ideologically monotone, by contrast, might fail to recognize deficient ideological diversity on their campuses as a problem, let alone act to correct it,” he said.
McGuire said that because Republicans have grown more critical of universities, Yale would be wise to add some Republican voices to its board.
ACTA’s Campus Freedom Initiative advocates for institutional neutrality, reporting that it allows students and faculty to remain intellectually curious, develop their own ideas, and articulate their own opinions.
The College Fix reached out to Yale Corporation, Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, Harvard College, Brown University, and Dartmouth College. The Fix received no responses.
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