Buckley Institute Releases 2025 Yale Undergraduate Survey
More than 1/3 of Yale students self-censor in class, including 79% of Republicans
One in four students support shouting down speakers and using violence to stop hate speech
Over half of Yale students support a tax on Yale’s endowment
Contact:
Ari Schaffer
ari@buckleyinstitute.com
201-774-2800
(New Haven)-The Buckley Institute is pleased to release the 2025 Yale Undergraduate Survey. The survey was conducted by College Pulse between September 11, 2025, and September 29, 2025, and included the opinions of 517 Yale undergraduates.
“To its credit, Yale has made progress in dialing back the censorious culture that has dominated campus for years,” said Buckley Institute Founder and Executive Director Lauren Noble ’11. “Nonetheless, it is still too early to celebrate as a sizable contingent still supports shouting down and even acts of violence against those who share opinions they disagree with.”
Yale’s Commitment to Free Speech
Perhaps the most significant and consistent throughline of improvement is in the Yale undergraduate perception of the administration’s commitment to free speech.
This year, 51% of students reported familiarity (12% very familiar, 39% somewhat familiar) with the Woodward Report, Yale’s free speech principles. This is a marked jump from 2024 when only 30% were aware and 2023 when only 22% were. Familiarity with the Woodward Report was around or above 50% for almost all ideological and political groups. In a similar vein, 61% of Yale undergraduates reported often hearing faculty, administrators, or first-year counselors discuss the value of free speech, a jump from 50% last year and only 28% the year before.
This has translated into greater trust that Yale will actually abide by the Woodward Report’s promises, with 55% expressing confidence that Yale would stand by them if they said something deemed offensive. While Democrats were the most confident (59%), about half of Republicans (49%) also felt Yale would support them in case of a free speech controversy.
Ways Yale Can Improve Its Free Speech Policies
Yale student support for free speech policies, while still somewhat self-contradictory, is trending toward greater support for free speech.
A record 94% of Yale students believe the Woodward Report’s call for “unfettered freedom, the right to think the unthinkable, discuss the unmentionable, and challenge the unchallengeable” should be Yale’s free speech policy. Republicans are much more likely to strongly agree (77%) than independents (50%) or Democrats (46%), but the contingent that agrees is above 90% for all three groups. A new high of 94% believe Yale should respect First Amendment rights even though it is a private university, a modest but notable increase from previous years. 70% believe Yale should discipline students who disrupt speakers, roughly unchanged from last year but still significantly higher than the 50% who agreed in 2023.
Contradictorily, only 42% of Yale students believe students should just ignore speech they find offensive or counter it with more speech, while 58% believe administrators should regulate student speech. Republicans were the only political group where a majority (83%) opposed speech regulation by Yale administrators.
Shout Downs, Violence, Self-Censorship, and Politics
Despite these improvements, there is an unmistakable constituency at Yale pushing for censorship over open debate.
27% believe it is acceptable to shout down a speaker (down from the 2023 high of 33%) and 23% believe violence is justified to stop hate speech. The political divide is significant on both questions, with Republicans less supportive of shout downs (5%) or physical violence (14%) than independents (24% and 23%) or Democrats (32% and 24%). Additionally, Republicans were the only political group where a majority strongly opposed either shout downs (68%) or violence (72%) to stop hate speech.
While the numbers are alarming, Yale students outperformed their peers nationally, 48% of whom supported shout downs and 39% of whom felt violence is justified to stop hate speech.
The Yale numbers track closely with the trends on student self-censorship. Overall, 39% of Yale students reported self-censoring in class often, unchanged from 2024. By contrast, 79% of Republican students reported self-censoring in class often versus just 29% of Democrats and 42% of independents. Republicans were also significantly more likely to report having been treated unfairly by professors, teaching fellows, or administrators because of their political opinions (28% versus 9% of independents and 7% of Democrats).
The divide extended to comfort disagreeing with professors on politics in written assignments as well. 69% of Republican students reported feeling uncomfortable doing so while only 36% of both independent and Democrat students did.
Antisemitism, Endowments, and DEI
The survey also raised several questions on contemporary political issues.
Looking at campus antisemitism, 42% of students, the plurality, believe that though antisemitism exists on campus, the federal government shouldn’t be getting involved. By contrast, 29% believe campus antisemitism isn’t a problem while a similar 29% believe it is a problem and the government should do something about it. Nationally, America’s undergraduates were more concerned about campus antisemitism than their Yale counterparts, with 47% believing government involvement is warranted. Yale undergraduates were 13 percentage points more likely than students nationally to deny that campus antisemitism is even a problem.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Jewish Yale students were much more likely to support government intervention (70%) than Yale students in general and were the only religious group where a plurality supported government involvement.
The 2025 survey also asked Yale students to weigh in on the tax on Yale’s endowment earnings. 51% support taxing Yale’s endowment earnings, with women much more likely to support the tax (57%) than men (45%), and political independents leading the pack in support (54%) on the political side.
On diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), less than half (42%) of Yale students believe that Yale is ending DEI programs in line with current federal policy. That skepticism extended across political divides.
Crime in New Haven
74% of Yale students believe crime is a serious issue in New Haven. Men (80%) are more likely than women (74%) to agree, while more than 70% of Democrats, independents, and Republicans agree as well.
Other Notes
- 88% of Yale students believe controversial speakers should be allowed on campus, a slight drop from 2024 but similar to 2023
- 31% believe faculty try to indoctrinate students with their personal beliefs
- 67% of Republicans believe faculty try to indoctrinate students versus 36% of independents and 22% of Democrats
- 63% claim close friends with different political opinions
- Men (74%) are much more likely than women (54%) to have close friends with a different political ideology
- Republicans (86%) were the most likely political group to have close friends of a different political ideology versus 74% of independents and 50% of Democrats
- 71% believe that Yale has ended affirmative action in admissions in accordance with the Supreme Court ruling outlawing the practice
- 64% believe the June 2025 strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities “did more harm than good” and would have preferred diplomacy to handle Iran’s nuclear program while only 19% support the strikes
- 18% are not concerned about an Iranian nuclear weapons program
- Republicans (55%) were the most supportive of the strikes while Democrats (11%) were the least, though there was little difference among the political groups over whether Iran’s nuclear weapons program was a threat
- Jewish students (55%) were the most likely to support the strikes and the most likely overall (98%) to view an Iranian nuclear weapons program as a threat, though around 80% of the other religious groups agreed that Iran’s nuclear program is a threat
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 11, 2025, and September 29, 2025. The survey included the opinions of 517 Yale undergraduates.