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NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2022 · VOL. CXLIV, NO. 23 · yaledailynews.com · @yaledailynews
Yale files affirmative action defense U. joins amicus brief ahead of Supreme Court Decision BY JORDAN FITZGERALD STAFF REPORTER Yale recently took steps to defend raceconscious admissions ahead of a Supreme Court decision that could determine the fate of affirmative action. The University and other peer institutions submitted an amicus curiae brief in August, lending support to affirmative action in a pair of cases that will be argued in the Supreme Court next term. The cases, which are likely to be decided in May or June 2023, will determine whether or not universities may continue to consider race in admissions. Parties who are not directly involved in a case — but have a special interest in its outcome — may write an amicus, or “friend of the court” brief, to present new knowledge and arguments to the court. While a single brief may not alter a ruling, precedent shows that a collective may have sway. In Grutter v. Bollinger, a 2003 case that upheld affirmative action at the University of Michigan, the Supreme Court seemed to be influenced by briefs filed by military and business interests in support of the practice. “Diversity fosters a more robust spirit of free inquiry and encourages dialogue that sparks new insights,” the Yale joint brief reads. “Diversity encourages students to question their own assumptions, to test received truths, and to appreciate the complexity of the modern world.” In the brief, Yale joined 14 other schools — Brown University, The California Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Duke University, Emory University, Johns Hopkins University, Princeton University, the University of Chicago, the University of Pennsylvania, Vanderbilt
BANDY LEE
Wrongful firing suit dismissed Psychiatrist says she will appeal BY ISAAC YU STAFF REPORTER
in an email to the News. “But we are being prudent and planning for possible limitations on our ability to consider race and ethnicity as part of our holistic review of each applicant.” The plaintiff in the ongoing Supreme Court cases is Students for Fair Admissions, a group that opposes the use of race in admissions. The group first sued Harvard University and the University of North Carolina in 2014, claiming that Harvard was discriminating against Asian American students and that the University of North Carolina was discriminating against Asian American and white students in admissions. The outcome of the case could undermine the legal basis for affirmative action, which some legal experts argue was SFFA’s motive for bringing the suits.
A judge has dismissed a high-profile lawsuit against the University in which former professor Bandy Lee alleged that she was wrongfully fired over public statements criticizing former President Donald Trump and his lawyer. Lee, a psychiatrist formerly affiliated with the Yale School of Medicine, first filed her complaint against the University in March 2021, arguing that her contract had been terminated unlawfully in violation of her freedom of speech. Lee’s case first came into the public eye when she filed a complaint arguing that her termination was tied to January 2020 tweets in Courtesy of Yale University which she said she believed that lawyer Alan Dershowitz LAW ’62 and supporters of former president Donald Trump experienced “shared psychosis” — though Dershowitz has repeated stated that he does not support the former president.
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Yale filed an amicus brief in support of Harvard and the University of North Carolina / Wikimedia Commons University and Washington University in St. Louis — to affirm the importance of diversity and the right of colleges and universities to consider race in admissions. The pair of Supreme Court cases implicate Harvard University and the University of North Carolina specifically for their admissions practices but have the potential to affect schools across the country. The first Yale class that could be affected by an anti-affirmative action ruling would be the class of 2028, set to first matriculate in fall 2024, said Jeremiah Quinlan, dean of undergraduate admissions and financial aid. But if affirmative action does fall, Quinlan and Moira Poe, senior associate director of admissions for strategic priorities, said that Yale will pursue other paths to cultivate a diverse student body. “We are not making any assumptions about the Court’s ruling,” Quinlan wrote
Antitrust suit lives on Endowment rank sinks BY JORDAN FITZGERALD STAFF REPORTER Yale and its peer universities faced multiple setbacks in recent weeks regarding an ongoing lawsuit that challenges the universities’ claims that they employ need-blind admissions. The 568 Presidents group is a collective of 17 elite universities, including Yale, who use the same financial aid formulas. In January, 16 of the universities in the group faced a lawsuit alleging that they violated antitrust law by factoring financial need into admissions decisions. In February, the plaintiffs filed an amended complaint that accused every member of the group of examining need during their admissions processes. In July, the Department of Justice filed a motion in support of the plaintiffs’ case and testified in the case’s early proceedings.
Just weeks later, on Aug. 15, an Illinois judge rejected three motions to dismiss the lawsuit — one joined by all defendants, one filed by Yale and a joint motion signed by four other defendants. The universities’ arguments included that their actions are justified under Section 568 of the 1994 Improving America's Schools Act and that the plaintiffs failed to prove that the universities violated the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. “The Court finds that … the plaintiffs have sufficiently alleged that the defendants are not covered by the 568 Exemption and thus denies the defendants' motion on this basis,” the Judge’s opinion states. The 568 exemption itself — which enables the schools to collaborate as long as they do not consider need when admitting students — is set to expire at the end of September. This SEE ANTITRUST PAGE 5
BY SARAH COOK AND CHARLOTTE HUGHES STAFF REPORTERS The University of Texas usurped Yale as the university with the second largest endowment in the world — though both still fall short of Harvard’s top spot. The University of Texas System’s endowment totals $42.9 billion compared to Yale’s $42.3 billion in 2021. It is now expected to possibly top Harvard University’s $53.2 billion endowment with its 2022 fiscal year results — generating discussion over endowment sources related to fossil fuels. “It’s a game with who has the biggest endowment, who has the second biggest,” said James Choi, a professor of finance at the Yale School of Management. “It’s a little bit silly because in terms of the resources of the endowment, you really
care about the endowment dollars per student. The Yale endowment is covering a lot less students than the Texas endowment.” While donations and long-term operating funds account for approximately half of the UT System’s endowment, the other half comes from the Permanent University Fund, or PUF, which is a special fund that supports both the UT and Texas A&M Systems, according to a document provided by the UT System. The fund receives oil and gas revenues generated from 2.1 million acres of land in the Permian Basin in West Texas. While the UT System’s endowment grows to potentially top Harvard’s with the help of these oil and gas revenues, Harvard recently divested from fossil fuels and Yale has taken some steps towards divestment SEE ENDOWMENT PAGE 5
FOCUS draws criticism for clearing local homeless encampment BY LUCY HODGMAN STAFF REPORTER Yale’s FOCUS orientation program is changing its New Haven partnerships after a local site leader instructed students to remove people’s belongings from a recently-cleared homeless encampment. FOCUS on New Haven, one of the University’s five “Camp Yale” orientation programs for incoming first-year students, is centered around community service and
activism in the New Haven community. On Aug. 24, a group of FOCUS leaders and first-year students took part in a volunteer project with the New Haven Department of Parks and Trees, focused on collecting litter around the city’s West River. An external project supervisor at the site instructed students to throw away clothing and tents belonging to people living in a homeless encampment, which police had SEE FOCUS PAGE 4
CROSS CAMPUS
INSIDE THE NEWS
THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY, 1990.
YSPH IDENTIFIES DETENTION CAMPS IN UKRAINE
Mike Carass '94 invites 100 first years from Morse and Berkeley to a Camp Yale bash. The spontaneous four-hour party inlcudes bassoon, bongo drum and saxophone performances from the first years.
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Directors of the program said they would separate from the Department of Parks and Trees / Wikimedia Commons
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SOVETOV The University held a memorial service this summer where colleagues, friends and family reflected on Anton Sovetov’s life. PAGE 7 CITY LOCAL 33 Graduate students began the process of forming a union by collecting signed cards signifying the intent to unionize. PAGE 9 CITY