New Haven is turning up the pressure on Yale President Maurie McInnis and the University’s Board of Trustees to ditch its settlement negotiations with the Trump Administration.
A host of Yale faculty, alumni, students, and local politicians came out in support of a resolution by Downtown Alder and Yale College senior Elias Theodore, which passed unanimously at Thursday’s committee meeting. The resolution urges the New Haven Board of Alders to oppose any settlement deal between Yale and the federal government and encourages Yale’s Board of Trustees to throw its full weight behind fighting the Department of Justice (DOJ) in court.
Unlike most Ivy League schools, Yale had avoided the ire of the Trump administration and was exempt from having its funds frozen – that is, until May, when the DOJ launched an investigative probe into Yale’s admissions practices, alleging that it was in violation of the 2024 Supreme Court decision that killed affirmative action.
Since the probe went public, Yale offered the federal government two settlement deals, one was rejected in July and the other is still pending.
By contrast, New Haven has sported an unfaltering legal offense against the federal government, joining other blue cities in going to bat with the Trump administration on everything from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) cuts to immigration policy.
“Throughout this second Trump term, New Haven has protected our most vulnerable residents and our city’s values, even when doing so came with significant financial or political risks,” Theodore said.
At Thursday night’s meeting, Theodore also voiced concerns that if Yale were to enter into a settlement deal, it would subject the university to “ideological litmus tests” by the Trump Administration, putting Yale jobs held by New Haveners on the chopping block.
State lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle have also criticized Yale and have threatened to revoke its tax exempt status should it enter into a settlement.
Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal said in an email statement prior to the hearing that he was “alarmed and surprised” that Yale would not fight “obviously weak” accusations from the DOJ.
Fatima El-Tayeb, Chair of Yale’s Ethnicity, Race, and Migration program, said President McInnis was sporting a “losing strategy” and that the universities that have already entered into settlement agreements with the federal government have been subject to “continued financial extortion.”
El-Tayeb drew attention to McGuire Woods, the private law firm that McInnis hired to negotiate Yale’s settlement and who also secured the University of Virginia’s (UVA) agreement with the Trump administration last October. Per its settlement deal, UVA now sends self-audited data to the federal government and has terminated its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
Other universities, such as Brown, Northwestern, and Columbia have clinched financial settlements with the Trump administration ranging from $50 to $200 million, Yale junior Connor Webb said that it’s “not hard to imagine a Yale settlement in this range.”
Meeting attendees, most of whom were Yale students or faculty, also took aim at the University’s voluntary contribution to New Haven and its role as the city’s largest landlord and employer.
Taran Samarth, a Yale graduate student, said that Yale’s endowment “far outpaces” the university’s 8% endowment tax and its contribution to the city. Yale is set to pay $230 million to the city of New Haven over the next seven years per a March voluntary contribution deal. The university’s endowment saw returns of $4.5 billion for the 2026 fiscal year.
“Yale has changed course only when others have exposed its hypocrisy,” said Sheryl Bergman, founding member of Local 34, Yale’s clerical and technical workers union, “Yale acts only when a bright spotlight puts its name at risk.”
Yale did not immediately respond to Connecticut Public’s request for comment but told the New Haven Independent that “It is Yale’s longstanding practice not to discuss the specifics of any ongoing legal matter.”
