Board of Alders Presses Yale Not to Settle with Trump Administration
by Nellie Kenney, Oct. 20, 2026, Yale Daily News
City leaders voted to urge Yale not to settle with the Trump administration at a Monday evening meeting. Following impassioned public testimony at a committee meeting last month, the Board of Alders unanimously approved a resolution that calls on Yale to mirror New Haven’s more aggressive posture towards the Trump administration.
The University is engaged in negotiations with the federal government related to allegations that the Yale School of Medicine discriminates against white and Asian applicants. The Department of Justice is also investigating the admissions practices of Yale College and Yale Law School but has not released findings related to those investigations.
The resolution claims that Yale’s decisions have “significant consequences” for the city and asserts alders’ allegiance with “students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members who have called upon Yale University to reject a settlement with the federal government and defend its institutional autonomy.”
“The settlement could not only change Yale’s admissions policies, but further embolden political attacks on Yale, other universities and other democratic institutions,” Ward 1 Alder Elias Theodore ’27, who introduced the resolution, said in a speech at Monday’s meeting. Theodore’s ward includes much of Yale’s campus.
According to the resolution, a copy of its text is set to be shared with University President Maurie McInnis and the Yale Corporation. In a statement after the introduction of the resolution last month, University spokesperson Karen Peart said it is Yale’s “longstanding practice not to 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.”
Theodore called the resolution symbolic in a September interview. Still, it drew widespread enthusiasm at a public hearing before a Board of Alders committee last month. Around 40 students, professors, Yale union members and city residents decried what they described as opacity in Yale’s negotiating process and criticized Yale’s posture towards New Haven. Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Sen. Richard Blumenthal LAW ’73, both of whom have been outspoken against a potential settlement, submitted written testimony backing the resolution.
“The message for our constituents in our city is resounding: ‘Yale, don’t cut a deal with Trump,’” Theodore said.
In an interview with the News, Theodore called Yale’s position “tough” and said he hopes the University can “lean on this outpouring of community support as it makes its decision” regarding the federal government.
[Read the full Yale Daily News article here https://bit.ly/4yVMDFk.]