Buckley Institute Board Sends Letter Recommending Adding Buckley Founder Lauren Noble ’11 to Committee on Trust in Higher Education

Last week, the Buckley Institute Board of Directors sent a letter to Yale President Maurie McInnis on the Committee on Trust in Higher Education she announced in April: 

We, the members of the Buckley Institute Board of Directors, write to recommend that you add Buckley Institute founder and executive director Lauren Noble ’11 as a member of the Committee on Trust in Higher Education.

First and foremost, we commend you for calling this committee together. Almost a year after your appointment was announced, you have taken steps and made commitments that have the potential to put Yale back on the right track. Yale’s move toward institutional neutrality, its new protest policies, and your decisions to work behind the scenes rather than comment publicly on political issues are crucial steps for restoring trust.

Nonetheless, as you acknowledge, Yale has a long way to go to restore the faith of the public.

Undoubtedly, one of the chief complaints against higher education, and the Ivy League in particular, is that it is an ideological echo chamber where non-progressive views are not only not represented, but are alienated from campus life. The Buckley Institute’s own research attests to the ideological imbalance on campus and on the committee itself. This gives credence to claims that Yale is out of touch with the significantly more ideologically diverse American public.

The announcement creating the committee indicates Yale’s interest in tackling that perception of campus and acknowledges that criticisms of higher education “cross partisan divides.” It argues that universities “cannot operate sealed off from the society in which they are embedded” and that “[t]he future of American higher education depends on a restoration of public trust and legitimacy.” A committee of Yale faculty, which Buckley’s research shows is ideologically homogenous, could struggle to establish credibility beyond the borders of the Yale campus.

As it stands, the committee is comprised exclusively of Yale faculty. The truth is, faculty members cannot solve this problem alone. Indeed, Ivy League faculty life is dramatically different from that of the average American. And while the faculty perspective is critical for any discussion involving campus life, as head of the Buckley Institute for over a decade, Ms. Noble can bring the perspective of someone with a long-term commitment to Yale’s betterment combined with an outsider’s vantage point. That cannot help but enhance the potential for meaningful insights on both the sources and solutions to Yale’s problems.

Further, the Institute has created an infrastructure which makes the campus a better place for diverse voices. Non-progressive students who otherwise feel out of place on Yale’s campus can come to Buckley and find an intellectual home, at no extra cost to Yale. Indeed, students across the political spectrum flock to Buckley, as evidenced by its over 800 student members.

Conservative leaders who visit campus at Buckley’s invitation and have a positive experience leave with a better impression of Yale than what they see in the news. After joining a boycott of Yale Law students over the law school’s free speech culture, for example, Judge Elizabeth Branch spoke at a Buckley event on campus and said she left more optimistic about Yale.

During Buckley’s most recent Disinvitation Dinner, Vice President Mike Pence said the presence of Buckley on campus “may well account for why other universities…have created greater concern among the American people and the new administration than Yale has.”

Buckley is clearly helping Yale avoid the political challenges its peers are facing.

Since founding Buckley as an undergraduate, Ms. Noble has worked to reverse the loss of trust in Yale that spurred the creation of this committee in the first place, even if she has publicly called out Yale’s mistakes as well. She has spent most of her career dedicated to Yale and fostering a climate that can earn the trust Yale is trying to reestablish. More specifically, she can provide an alternative voice that would add credibility to the committee’s efforts and provide an understanding of university critiques that could lead to ideas the committee might not otherwise consider.

One final note, Ms. Noble and the Buckley Institute have already given considerable thought to ways to restore Yale’s reputation among the public. Buckley has sent several petitions to past Yale President Peter Salovey and the Yale Corporation suggesting reforms. She has galvanized alumni to call for change by directly communicating with Yale leadership.

Ms. Noble has demonstrated her commitment to reviving Light and Truth at Yale, through years of dedication and service, and by trying to fill the gap that has, in many ways, caused this loss of public trust in the first place. A sincere effort to rebuild that trust would be well-served by the addition of Ms. Noble to the Committee on Trust in Higher Education.

Please join the Buckley board in urging President McInnis to add Lauren Noble to the committee by emailing her at president@yale.edu.