NEW: President McInnis Responds to Petition to Restore Transparency to the Yale Corporation
Over 1,100 alumni, students, and faculty signed the Buckley Institute’s petition calling on Yale to reform its Alumni Fellow Election, urging university leadership to restore the petition process, eliminate the gag rule imposed on candidates, and release the vote totals.
Yale President Maurie McInnis has responded, but her statement fails to address the petition’s primary concerns.
In her response below, McInnis noted that the committee that selects Alumni Fellow candidates “does not consider political affiliations, nor does it weigh a candidate’s viewpoints on societal or topical issues.” Issues such as freedom of speech and intellectual diversity, however, should not be dismissed as mere “societal or topical issues,” but issues central to the mission of a university. That is precisely why the thousands of alumni who are asked to vote in the Alumni Fellow Election each year have been seeking more information about candidate viewpoints for the past decade. If the Alumni Fellow Nominating Committee doesn’t examine candidate viewpoints on those sorts of fundamental issues, there is perhaps an even more significant structural problem.
Among the Ivy League, the Yale Corporation is the most ideologically imbalanced governing body. According to Buckley Institute research, the Yale Corporation has zero registered Republicans and a 50-to-1 Democrat-to-Republican political giving ratio. Whether or not it has an overt ideological filter for appointments or nominations, the lack of political diversity on the Yale Corporation is clear. As Yale’s Committee on Trust in Higher Education recently noted, “Echo chambers do not produce the best teaching, research, or scholarship.” The same could be said for Yale’s governance.
McInnis’ response also does not explain why candidates are forbidden from discussing their views or why Yale refuses to release Alumni Fellow Election vote totals. Either step would increase transparency, and Yale would sacrifice nothing in terms of control over the members of the Yale Corporation.
Read the full response below and share your thoughts by emailing President McInnis at president@yale.edu or the Yale Corporation at trustees@yale.edu.
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Dear Lauren,
Thank you for sending us the petition about the Alumni Fellow election process. I appreciate the seriousness with which you and fellow alumni approach the question of alumni participation in Yale’s governance.
Alumni play a central role in identifying prospective Alumni Fellows. All alumni may nominate candidates throughout the year using the Alumni Fellow Nomination form. The Yale Alumni Association also solicits nominations directly from our most engaged alumni, including the thousands of volunteer leaders and representatives of regional Yale clubs, Yale College classes, shared interest groups, graduate and professional school alumni associations, the Yale Alumni Fund, and others.
The responsibility for selecting the slate of candidates who stand for election rests with the Alumni Fellow Nominating Committee (AFNC) of the YAA Board of Governors. The AFNC is made up primarily of volunteer alumni leaders, most of whom serve on the YAA Board of Governors. The YAA Board of Governors is nominated by alumni and selected via an alumni nomination committee made up of alumni delegates. The AFNC also includes a current trustee and a member of the University Council, who are Yale alumni, and two Yale administrative leaders whose responsibilities include our alumni community and university life.
The AFNC reviews and discusses every nomination submitted by alumni, and considers the skills and experience already represented on the current Board of Trustees and looks for backgrounds that would complement the board in fulfilling its responsibilities as the university’s fiduciary body. The committee also considers the broad scope of Yale’s operations and the extent of interest or engagement in Yale that candidates have demonstrated. The AFNC seeks candidates who can represent the entire university rather than a particular constituency, interest, or issue, and who bring open minds, exceptional judgment, and capacity for thoughtful deliberation with fellow trustees. The committee does not consider political affiliations, nor does it weigh a candidate’s viewpoints on societal or topical issues.
I also want to emphasize that Yale benefits when alumni remain closely engaged with these processes—not only through nominations, but through sustained participation in the life of the university and in the alumni community. If you would find it helpful, Alison Cole, head of the YAA, would be glad to meet with you to discuss ways to strengthen alumni engagement with the alumni election process and to hear your suggestions directly. She is copied on this email and can be in touch.
Thank you again for writing and for your continued commitment to Yale.
Sincerely,
Maurie
Maurie McInnis
President and Professor of the History of Art
Yale University
P.O. Box 208229
New Haven, CT 06520-8229
Telephone: (203) 432-2550