New Op-Ed: RealClearEducation: Yale’s President Is Lucky He Didn’t Testify Before Congress
Buckley Institute Founder and Executive Director Lauren Noble ’11 published a new op-ed in RealClearEducation titled, “Yale’s President Is Lucky He Didn’t Testify Before Congress.” The op-ed highlights how Yale President Peter Salovey made many of the same mistakes the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and University of Pennsylvania did, but it went largely unnoticed. The op-ed points out that though misguided Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts exacerbate antisemitism on campus, Salovey is doubling down on DEI as a solution to the campus antisemitism problem anyway.
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But instead of turning its back on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) concepts that drive division on campus, Yale joined its peer institutions in doubling down, committing more resources to promote the DEI ideology that undermines free speech and bolsters antisemitism.
It is not surprising then that Yale President Peter Salovey made the same blunder as his DEI-supporting colleagues, though without the prime-time media attention.
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Had he been in front of a Congressional committee, Salovey would likely be facing the same calls to resign as the presidents of Harvard, Penn, and MIT have faced.
What put Yale and other top-tier institutions in this position was not their stated support for free speech on campus. Free speech should be respected even if the speech in question is disgusting. Rather, these universities’ years-long dedication to DEI at the expense of free speech undermined any credibility they had.
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Cleaning up after his misstep on the Jewish genocide question, Salovey has gone full steam ahead on DEI. In a statement to the Yale community, he committed to including Jewish students as part of the “Belonging at Yale” effort, “the university’s activities to enhance diversity, support equity, and promote an environment of welcome, inclusion, and respect.”
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But not all is truly about belonging for everyone. In April, the Belonging Initiative promoted an event with a speaker who cheered the murder of Jews and Israelis, celebrated “homophobia” as an act of “fierce resistance,” and said, “ideology that supports mixed race couples is rotten.” In September, Belonging invited Yalies to “celebrate the paperback release” of a book called “White Malice.” The Belonging effort also provides a monthly focus calendar that neglects Jewish American Heritage Month in favor of multiple months for other minority groups. Trusting Yale’s DEI administrators to combat antisemitism is like trusting arsonists to fight fires.
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