Sean O’Brien, head of the Privacy Lab at Yale Law School, agreed, saying that satisfying alumni can mean a “close clinging” to traditions that he said are not beneficial to Yale’s current students. O’Brien cited secret societies, which are not equitable or inclusive but exist as part of longstanding University tradition, as an example. Yale alumni have gone on to powerful roles in the government and corporate world, and the University is rewarded by placating them, he said.
The University also relies on its alumni for donations to support current students. Yale is trying to raise $6 billion over the coming years to keep up with demands for increased student financial aid, science infrastructure and a new theater for the drama school.
By contrast, others have called for modernizing Yale to better serve the current cohort of students and faculty. Many people at Yale do not see a problem, said Enrique De La Cruz, professor and chair of molecular biophysics and biochemistry. But the data on the number of faculty of color is “horrific, terrifying and shameful,” he said. In the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, only 69 out of 683 ladder faculty are from an underrepresented minority. Underrepresented minority refers specifically to African American or Black, Hispanic or Latinx, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander or Indigenous people, per federal categorizations.
“The very first thing we have to do is admit that we have a problem,” De La Cruz added. “Then, diversity needs to be woven into the fabric of admissions, hiring searches, course curriculums and how people educate. The initiatives offer an opportunity to improve, but the follow through will demand more than the gesture of enacting the initiatives did.”
Salovey expressed that the University can chart a course between the opposing viewpoints, and that even “traditionalists” tell him they would love to attend the University today.
“We can enjoy our traditions … [but we] can have a far broader group of people enjoying them,” Salovey said. “We can be a socially responsible university that interacts with our host city in an enlightened way, that creates a pathway for historically discriminated groups to transcend that discrimination.”
Where things stand
In balancing the opposing views, the initiatives have so far have meant little more than administrative pronouncements and anti-racism training, Eire said.
Jaelen King ’22, who has led calls to dismantle Yale’s police force, said he sees potential for good to come from the initiatives, but that the administration’s track record leaves him concerned that efforts will fizzle out over the next few years.
Gladney noted that initiatives with admirable aims can have unintended consequences and need continued monitoring and revision to ensure they are working as they are supposed to. The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences recently surveyed faculty members about whether they supported including a diversity statement on graduate student applications across all departments. For many departments, it is already mandatory. But there is some question as to whether the statements do what they are supposed to. People argue that applicants are savvy and know how to sound committed even if they truly are not, Jacobson said.
Realizing this and seeking to avoid the unintended consequences, Gladney said applicants could include what is important to them. If that is diversity, equity and inclusion, the student will talk about it and the admissions readers can note that.
According to Jeffrey Brock, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the administrators receive central resources to recruit diverse faculty from the Faculty Excellence and Diversity Initiative. He has not yet been told whether he will receive additional central resources to aggressively recruit diverse faculty. With centrally-supported schools, such as Yale College and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, people higher up in the hierarchy can veto initiatives that cost money, Brock said. Goff-Crews said that diversity and belonging are top priorities for the University, but schools are strongly encouraged to fund related initiatives within their existing budgets.
Some changes would be relatively inexpensive, Brock said. For instance, chairs of the science and engineering departments have proposed a postdoctoral fellows program to increase diversity, and the central administration could contribute some funds for postdoctoral appointments.
As of now, Brock is working with the Provost’s Office to support diversity with existing postdoctoral resources.
“There’s sort of a tone of frustration around it,” Brock said, as the science chairs cannot take initiative without administrative approval. “And yet I do think we are making progress.”
This year, the Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry Department enacted reforms in its search for an assistant professor on the tenure track that aimed to bring in a more diverse applicant pool. The search committee, with the support of the department chair, asked candidates to submit application materials without the names of schools they’ve attended or journals they’ve published in. Initial screenings were also conducted anonymously.
Jack Callahan, senior vice president of Operations, said that the administration is currently debating what resources each unit will get, but that he is sure there will be extra money put towards the initiatives. Still, the initiatives should largely be funded by reallocating existing resources, he added. He wants to embed the changes in Yale’s normal operations and fit them into the yearly budget, to make a lasting change to how Yale operates.
Though many people think Yale has been too slow to change, it takes time for people to on their own decide to act, Gladney said. He used the example of hiring more diverse faculty. Yale must account for upwards of $20 million when it decides to guarantee a professor tenure, Gladney said. Though Yale’s resources might seem infinite, there is not enough money to immediately hire a number of diverse faculty, he added. Additionally, faculty searches take significant effort and time for interviews and reading resumes, and Yale needs to commit time to supporting the faculty it does recruit.
Changing the search and tenure processes would likely recruit more talented and diverse faculty than immediately trying to make astronomical offers, he said.
Nolan, who helped draft the initiatives, said people need to “experience” injustice themselves through training and roleplay scenarios, which she said have been helpful for her as she comes from a theater background. Yale should require training on this topic, she said. She recalled a speech the anti-racism scholar Ibram X. Kendi delivered at Yale, in which he recounted experiencing three microaggressions within 15 minutes, including a police officer stopping him on the street and asking for identification.
“To hear something like that and know that in my life that doesn’t happen to me, that helps me to understand,” Nolan said. “It doesn’t necessarily get me to the place where I can do something about it, but to at least viscerally understand it or believe it or, as I think about, have seen it, that is when I start to realize that I too am a racist and I have been complicit.”
Frederick said that mandating antiracism training conveys a strong signal that it is important to the University and gives people a common vocabulary and understanding of the meaning of equity and inclusion.
Gladney said he does not personally support anti-bias training, as people can resist mandatory meetings or think they are “cured” of prejudice by attending.
The committee ultimately required unit plans to have professional anti-racism training and development, but left the form that such training would take to the leaders’ discretion. For example, Frederick’s unit — the global division — has people choosing from a litany of options including independently reading books on justice or attending expert-led workshops.
Another of the belonging initiatives is to diversify Yale’s academic offerings, including adding more courses on race.
Gladney said that a statement on the principles of increasing curriculum diversity gained near-perfect consensus. But people can be hesitant to make those changes themselves, Gladney said. Often, faculty want evidence as to why they, in departments that do not teach about diversity, should be changing their teaching style or content. People particularly fear the term “curricular change,” Gladney said, and he understands the hesitation.
According to Frederick, it will be up to the faculty to decide whether they change their courses. Gaddis, for one, said he has not felt pressure to change his syllabi. But Frederick said that many, including the English Department, have been leaders on spearheading increasingly diverse course offerings.
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