Dear Members of the Yale Community,
Earlier today, the U.S. Department of Education issued a call to action to all university presidents and governing boards, inviting responses to a series of questions by the end of this calendar year. I encourage you to read the document.
The questions posed by the Department of Education touch on topics that our faculty, staff, students, and alumni have discussed and assessed over recent years. Through the Committee on Trust in Higher Education, for example, Yale has engaged in careful reflection on the current state of universities, the decline of public confidence in higher education, and how Yale can do our part to rebuild trust. This effort is part of a university-wide focus on deepening our university’s intellectual life, from establishing centers and programs that cultivate respectful but rigorous debate to the work of ongoing faculty-led committees, such as the Committee on the Principles of Academic Freedom. As these undertakings demonstrate, Yale is committed to drawing on internal and external expertise to ensure that our teaching, research, and scholarship are rooted in our institutional commitment to academic freedom, open inquiry, and free expression.
I will convene with my fellow university leaders to carefully review the questions that were included in the DoEd’s letter, and we hope you will review them as well. We encourage you to send us your suggestions on how we can describe the work we do on campus: how the tangible ways our pursuit of knowledge serves the nation and the world, and how our ability to excel in teaching and research while sustaining a climate of open inquiry depends on academic freedom, independent academic judgment, and self-governance. Please share your thoughts through this webform.
Once we have had a chance to consider these questions alongside your input, we will update you about next steps.
Sincerely,
Maurie
Maurie McInnis
President
Professor of the History of Art