Brown University pledged to invest in the state’s workforce. The University of Pennsylvania restricted transgender students’ participation in sports. Columbia University agreed to pay a $200 million fine and adopt a new definition of antisemitism.
Until recently, Yale University has been spared from the level of scrutiny the Trump administration has imposed on its Ivy League peers. Still, the administration has accused the Yale Medical School of discriminating against white and Asian students in admissions decisions and has additional investigations of Yale’s law school and undergraduate college.
Yale’s leaders have defended its admissions process but are currently negotiating behind closed doors to reach a voluntary resolution over all of the administration’s investigations.
A coalition of students, faculty, and alumni wants the school to fight President Trump rather than capitulate. They urge the university’s president, Maurie McInnis, to reject a settlement agreement from Trump and, if necessary, take the dispute to court.
“Her opportunity here is to defend the rule of law, to defend democratic values, and it’s not just on behalf of the Yale community or higher education in general, but actually on behalf of the entire country,” Susan Choi, a Yale alumna, said at the recent press conference.
The Trump administration’s high-stakes war on higher educational institutions, in recent months, has increasingly focused on rooting out any remaining vestiges of affirmative action in admissions. In 2023, the US Supreme Court ruled the consideration of race in college admissions unconstitutional, but the White House is not convinced schools are complying with the law.
At Harvard University, leaders have engaged in settlement talks with the administration over the last year, but have yet to reach an agreement. In fact the school sued the government, arguing it is using coercive tactics to get the school to agree to extreme demands.
Over the last year, three additional schools — Northwestern University, the University of Virginia, and Cornell University — also reached settlement agreements with the administration.
At times, Yale has sat on a pedestal among other elite institutions.
The university was praised by the Trump administration after it released a report on trust in higher education in April that critiqued elite universities like itself. Linda McMahon, the secretary of education, visited campus for a presentation the next day entitled “The Roadmap for Restoring American Education,” where she said she had met with McInnis beforehand. And in June, during a congressional hearing, McMahon said, “I’d like to see Harvard take more of the Yale example.”
To Alex Chen, a rising junior and the president of the Yale College Council, the accolades from the Trump administration are not welcome.
“I don’t know if many students, including me, would find that to be a point of pride,” Chen said.
Students, faculty members, and alumni worry that a settlement would go beyond admissions policies, censoring public discourse on campus, and compromising the university’s independence.
They’d like to see Yale, like Harvard, fight any disputes in court. If the school acquiesces to Trump in the form of a deal, faculty members have said they will file lawsuits themselves.
“The government should not be allowed to make unproven allegations and then use those allegations to pressure our institutions into private settlements,” said Daniel HoSang, the president of Yale’s American Association of University Professors.
In May, Yale’s medical school received a letter from the Trump administration that said the school’s admissions policy intentionally discriminates against white and Asian applicants in favor of Black and Hispanic students. The inquiry concluded Yale’s process violates the Supreme Court’s ban on considering race as an admissions factor.
In a statement, a university spokesperson said it is “longstanding practice to not discuss the specifics of any ongoing legal matter.”
“That said, we stand firm in the university’s commitment to students’ free expression, academic freedom, and Yale’s ability to determine who is admitted in accordance with the law,” the statement continued.
This week, McInnis spoke up, writing to the Yale community to address “speculation and misinformation.” She also confirmed that two more investigations into the undergraduate college and the law school are pending.
“I want you to hear the facts directly from me,” she wrote.
In speaking with the Trump administration, Yale has emphasized five values, McInnis said: to safeguard academic freedom; to maintain control over admissions and hiring decisions; to protect free expression; to advance education, research and scholarship; and to prioritize students, faculty, staff, and patients at the university.
For some Yale faculty, including Muneer Ahmad, a professor at Yale Law School, the justice department’s findings are “incredibly weak and insubstantial.” He worries that any talk of a settlement is premature.
A letter from the Justice Department concluded that Yale had attempted to circumvent the affirmative action ruling and that admissions officers gave verbal instructions “encouraging the use of race/ethnicity in admissions, and such instructions are not put in writing,” based on presentations from the admissions department.
The Justice Department presented its own analysis of admissions data across racial demographics, which revealed no statistically significant changes before and after the Supreme Court ruling. The Trump administration presented this as evidence of “a willful failure to comply with that decision.”
The findings letter is the first step in a longer process if the administration wants to revoke funding from Yale or bring forth other penalties, Ahmad said. The Justice Department would be required to file a written report to justify terminating funds, conduct a hearing before an independent judge, and wait 30 days to take any further action.
“The government has yet to prove any fact that it is alleged,” Ahmad said. “It has yet to put its case before a neutral adjudicator, much less prove its case, and nor would it succeed if it did so.”
The Justice Department declined to comment on the investigation and ongoing negotiations.
To Brian Soucek, a constitutional law professor at UC Davis, a settlement from Yale would have larger implications beyond campus in New Haven. A resolution with the Justice Department would signal Yale is validating the administration’s narrow view, he said.
If the school were to follow a similar approach to Harvard, it would force the Trump administration to reevaluate its attack, he said.
“When you resist, the administration steps back and has to try new tactics,” Soucek said. “That’s important when a school as rich and powerful and well reported on as Yale or Harvard makes that kind of move.”
McInnis has offered to meet with students in response to their concerns, according to Chen, the council president.
Campus activists have also joined forces with their peers at Harvard. Members of Crimson Courage, Harvard’s alumni group, were also active in New Haven, supporting their counterparts at Stand Up for Yale.
Miles Rapoport, a cochair of Crimson Courage and member of the class of 1971, spoke to the Yale coalition about Harvard’s alumni efforts. He said that as Harvard has pushed back, the sense of unity he has found among alumni has only grown.
“Yale has a lot to gain by not settling and a lot to lose by settling,” he said.
This was not the first time Rapoport has been with the Crimson Courage on Yale’s campus. At the Harvard-Yale football game last November, the two alumni groups held a joint tailgate, passing out flyers. A banner summed up their new relationship.
“Rivals on the field, allies for academic freedom.”
Michaela Towfighi can be reached at michaela.towfighi@globe.com. Follow her on X @michaelatowfghi.