Yale University report on public trust in higher ed does not mention antisemitism

A Yale University report examining declining public trust in higher education did not list antisemitism among its primary concerns.

The “Report of the Yale Committee on Trust in Higher Education,” published on April 10, concluded that distrust in universities stems largely from rising costs; a difficult admissions process; and concerns about “political homogeneity, self-censorship and grade inflation.”

While the report mentioned antisemitism and Jewish quotas in the 1920s as a reference point for understanding the issue of prioritizing demographics in admissions, it does not mention hatred on campus as an issue.

The report said that Yale “navigated campus conflicts over the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel and the war in Gaza with less long-term friction than some of its peer institutions.”

English professor David Bromwich served on the committee of 10 faculty members that created the report over the course of a year. He told the student newspaper that the Trump administration’s accusations of antisemitism at Yale “were a pretty serious exaggeration,” adding that “to say there’s something like a crisis of antisemitism on campus just doesn’t seem accurate.”

The Anti-Defamation League gave Yale a “C” on its antisemitism report card for “campus conduct and climate concerns,” including “severe antisemitic and anti-Zionist incidents.”

Sarath Sanga, a law professor who served on the committee, told the student paper that “we did not try to adjudicate the events of the past two years. What we tried to do is strengthen the framework within which the university can meet such moments with clarity rather than with drift, rather than being dragged along by social forces.”

He stated that “the exclusion of a word or a person or an idea from the report should not be interpreted that that thing is not important.”