AAUP, AFT, Yale Leaders Urge University to Resist Trump Administration Settlement Demands

WASHINGTON-Today, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), AFT Connecticut, Yale AAUP and the national AFT sent a letter to the Yale University Board of Trustees, urging them to reject any negotiated, closed-door settlement with the Trump administration regarding its admissions practices. The coalition warns that making concessions under political pressure would compromise Yale's academic freedom, shared governance, and institutional independence.

The letter condemns any mooted agreement that gives federal officials continuing leverage over admissions, hiring, curriculum, research, medical practice, campus speech, student discipline, or faculty governance.

The Trump administration's far-reaching investigation now spans Yale's School of Medicine, undergraduate admissions, and law school. Rather than utilizing research-funding cutoffs, federal officials are leveraging the threat of litigation to secure an agreement. "Yale has the resources, stature, and responsibility to stand firm," the labor coalition states. "It should defend academic freedom in public in solidarity with the broader higher education community, and in accordance with the principles that make a university worthy of the name."

The full letter can be read here.

About the American Association of University Professors:

The mission of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is to advance academic freedom and shared governance; to define fundamental professional values and standards for higher education; to promote the economic security of faculty, academic professionals, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and all those engaged in teaching and research in higher education; to help the higher education community organize to make our goals a reality; and to ensure higher education's contribution to the common good. Founded in 1915, the AAUP has helped to shape American higher education by developing the standards and procedures that maintain quality in education and academic freedom in this country's colleges and universities.

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The AFT represents 1.8 million pre-K through 12th-grade teachers; paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel; higher education faculty and professional staff; federal, state and local government employees; nurses and healthcare workers; and early childhood educators.