2024 Yale Undergraduate Survey: Yale Students More Open to Free Speech, Plurality Oppose Divestment

Support for Free Speech on Campus Jumped, Driven by Freshmen

60% Support Adopting Institutional Neutrality

Yale Students Sympathetic to Pro-Palestine Protesters and Oppose Israel-Hamas War, But Plurality Oppose Divestment

Contact:
Ari Schaffer
ari@buckleyinstitute.com
201-774-2800

NEW HAVEN, CT – The Buckley Institute is pleased to release our second annual Yale Undergraduate Student Survey, conducted by College Pulse, reflecting the views and perspectives of 502 Yale undergraduates. The fall 2024 survey found that the Yale undergraduate population has taken a significant turn in favor of free speech, driven largely by a freshman class that is supportive of free speech and attuned to the free speech policies on campus. 

“While there is always more work to do, it is encouraging to see that our efforts to support free speech on Yale’s campus are making a difference,” noted Buckley Institute Founder and Executive Director Lauren Noble ’11. “Yale students are more open to challenging ideas, more confident in sharing their own perspectives in class, and less tolerant of shout downs than in 2023. At the same time, it is concerning that so many Yalies still support censoring their peers, a shockingly low 30% of whom are aware of their Woodward Report free speech rights.”

Overall, the Yale student body significantly improved on free speech—both in their support of free speech on campus and their awareness of free speech concerns on campus. Familiarity with the Woodward Report, Yale’s free speech principles, rose by 8 percentage points since the 2023 survey, though 69% still remain unfamiliar with the Woodward Report. The percentage of Yale students who believe the Woodward Report should be Yale’s official free policy rose from an already high 80% to 89% in 2024. The percentage of students who reported having heard Yale discuss the value of free speech often almost doubled, jumping from 28% in 2023 to half of the student body (50%) in 2024. Finally, Yale students overwhelmingly support Yale adopting a position of institutional neutrality (60%-40%).

Yale students also became less tolerant of speech disruptions, dropping from 33% in 2023 to 25% in 2024. Additionally, if Yalies do disrupt the sharing of opinions they don’t like, 67% of their peers now believe they should be disciplined, up from 50% in the last survey. The percentage of Yalies who believe their university should allow speakers with controversial views increased from 87% to 92% overall. 

While the percentage of Yalies who often self-censor dropped from 44% in 2023 to 39%, there remains a large disparity by political leaning. 75% of Republican students report self-censoring in class very or somewhat often, compared to just 26% of Democrats and 47% of independents. 

Yale’s freshman class stood out in the 2024 survey, largely driving the jump in support for free speech on campus. 69% of freshmen strongly agreed that Yale should respect First Amendment rights, the highest of any class year and well beyond seniors (52%) and juniors (47%). Freshmen were also the only class where an outright majority (59%) strongly agreed that the Woodward Report should be Yale’s free speech policy. Seniors were the next closest at 38%. The class of 2028 was also the most likely to strongly oppose shouting down speakers (38%), the most likely to support disciplining those who do disrupt speeches (76%), and the most supportive of allowing controversial views on campus (94%) in the first place. About half of Yale’s newest students oppose Yale administrators regulating speech (48%), while only around 30% of their older peers do. 

Buckley also looked into the questions on campus regarding Israel and its ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza. The plurality of Yale undergraduates oppose divestment from any countries (36%), though support for divestment from Israel is not far behind (31%). Notably, only Russia garners nearly as much opposition (27% support divestment), while Iran (20%) is the only other country that outstrips support for divestment from all other countries (16%). An outright majority (55%) of Yale undergraduates believe “Israel’s war in Gaza is morally wrong and genocidal, even if [they] think the October 7 terror attacks were wrong as well.” A third (34%) believe “Israel has the right to defend itself and its people from terror, even if [they] don’t agree with every action Israel has conducted in the war.” 8% believe October 7 was justified resistance. 

Students Comments From The Survey

As part of the survey, Yale students were asked to share their thoughts on the free speech environment at Yale. Below are some of their comments:

“I think that there have been really big and meaningful breakdowns in communication between different sides of charged political arguments, and it’s led to different groups interpreting some of the same terms (‘zionist,’ ‘intifada,’ etc.) in dramatically different ways. I don’t really know how to try to bridge these divides anymore, and to be honest, I don’t have a whole lot of faith that the Yale administration can do a better job than I could.”

“As a student who identifies as Republican, I constantly feel attacked, disregarded, and hated as a student whenever sharing my thoughts or opinions as I am such a small part of the minority on campus…”

“…[S]tudents should have the right to diverse opinions and attempting to censor all student opinions, especially those that might be upsetting or controversial, is not right. However, saying that being far left is equivalent to being far right assumes that both sides are equally valid and equally morally correct or morally neutral.”

“Yale has more outspoken liberal extremists, whereas even moderate conservatives on campus seem far less comfortable expressing their views. This is not a problem for the administration to solve; it is a problem with the student body’s unwillingness to accept that people outside of the political majority have different opinion.”

“People are afraid to say what they think and the policy is more ‘Free speech for me and not for thee’ rather than a general protection of free speech.”

Read more student comments on the free speech environment at Yale and on Yale students’ top campus concerns in the full survey.

Other Results

Free Speech

• 45% of Yale students believe Yale would defend their Woodward Report rights if they said something deemed offensive, down from 48% the previous year
• 79% believe the use of violence to stop hate speech isn’t justified
• 38% believe administrators shouldn’t regulate student speech
• 42% believe Yale should promote political diversity among its faculty, down from 56% in 2023
  • Half of Republicans (50%) and independents (49%) support diversifying Yale’s faculty politically-speaking, versus 35% of Democrats
• Majorities of Democrats (56%), Republicans (61%), and independents (64%) support institutional neutrality 

Censorship

• 91% of Yale students report not having been treated unfairly by educators or administrators as a result of their political opinions or beliefs
  • 36% of Republicans report having been treated unfairly (17% frequently), compared to 5% of Democrats (0% frequently) and 10% of independents
• 50% feel comfortable disagreeing with a professor on a controversial topic on a written assignment, down from 54% in the previous year
  • Republicans were the least comfortable at 44% versus 46% of independents and 55% of Democrats
  • Majorities of liberal students (slightly, somewhat, and very) felt comfortable

Campus Environment

• 59% of Yale students report having people of a different political ideology among their close friends at Yale
  • Independents were the most likely (69%) versus Republicans at 54% and Democrats at 49%
  • Slightly conservative students (97%) were the most likely to have an intellectually diverse group of close friends while very liberal students were least likely (31%)
• A third (32%) believe that “faculty sometimes try to indoctrinate students with their personal political beliefs rather than teach just the facts or acknowledge that there are different valid perspectives”
  • The class of 2027 (46%) is most likely to believe faculty indoctrinate students
  • 62% of Republicans and 53% of ideological moderates believe faculty indoctrinate students while only 21% of Democrats do

• 89% believe Yale is a liberal campus (41% very liberal, 48% somewhat liberal), an increase from 80% in the previous survey

  • There is a cross-aisle consensus on the campus’s liberal bent, though Republicans are the most likely to characterize Yale as very liberal (72%)

• 55% believe Yale offers a welcoming environment “to students who hold political opinions that are unpopular on campus,” an increase from 50% in the 2023 survey
• 44% would like to see Yale’s president “host and moderate debates on contentious topics,” similar to the 46% who said the same in 2023

Israel/Gaza

• 41% of Yale students believe “arresting and charging the students who refused to end the [Pro-Palestine] protest on Yale’s campus was the correct decision,” versus 59% who believe Yale should have let the protest continue on “as long as the students wanted without interference”
• On the morality of Israel’s war in Gaza, 54% of males supported the war (50% with caveats) while 67% of females called it “morally wrong and genocidal” and 9% said the October 7 terror attacks were justified
  • 85% of Republicans support the war (0% thought October 7 was justified) while 60% of independents and 74% of Democrats oppose it (9% of both groups believe October 7 was justified)

Access the survey, including the downloadable survey report, electronic report, full interactive results, and full crosstabs. This survey was designed by the Buckley Institute and conducted by College Pulse between September 27, 2024, and October 21, 2024. The survey captures the views of 502 Yale undergraduates.