AAUP Yale

Real Academic Freedom for All Faculty

Are you a researcher or teacher at Yale? Are you concerned about assaults on academic freedom, or unsure what protections you have here? What does meaningful academic freedom protection even mean in today’s context? We’re bringing together experts on these questions with Yale faculty, clinicians, and researchers across schools, ranks, and divisions.

We’ll describe what protections you have, why Yale falls short, what we plan to do (at Yale and in the state legislature) about it, and how you can help. Register here

Panelists:

James Bhandary-Alexander (Yale Law School), Deborah Coen (FAS, History of Science and Medicine), Joe Cohn (Yale Center for Academic Freedom and Free Speech, formerly FIRE), Rod Ferguson (FAS, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies), Annie Harper (Yale School of Medicine), Robert Post (Yale Law School), Adam Waters (President Local 33, Graduate Researchers & Teachers Union)

Academic freedom at Yale is not as secure as many assume. Although the Faculty Handbook references the Woodward Report, Yale recently argued in federal court that these references are not legally binding—and the court agreed. This interpretation leaves Yale faculty without clear, enforceable protections for academic freedom at a moment when such protections are under increasing national strain. In response, more than 500 Yale faculty signed open letters in 2024 and 2025 calling on the University to strengthen its commitments.

To address this vulnerability, the AAUP Yale Chapter convened a cross-school working group of ladder and non-ladder faculty from FAS, SEAS, and the professional schools. After extensive review of Yale’s Faculty Handbook, peer institutions’ policies, and consultation with Yale Law faculty, the group developed proposed revisions to make academic freedom and shared governance explicit, durable, and binding.

What We Are Calling For

The AAUP Yale Chapter is urging Yale to adopt targeted revisions to the Faculty Handbook that would:

• Guarantee faculty participation in all future Handbook revisions through representative faculty bodies
• Clearly define academic freedom, including freedom of research and publication, teaching, participation in governance, and public speech as citizens and public intellectuals
• Affirm shared responsibility between faculty and the University to sustain conditions for academic freedom
• Clarify faculty contracts as being with Yale University—not individual departments or programs
• Protect schools, departments, and programs from closure without robust and meaningful faculty consultation

Why This Matters Now

Across the country, academic freedom is being undermined through faculty terminations, government investigations, and institutional cooperation with vague or politicized allegations. When protections are treated as merely aspirational, they fail precisely when they are most needed. Making academic freedom binding at Yale is essential to safeguarding free inquiry, strong faculty governance, and the University’s core mission.
Together, we can ensure that academic freedom at Yale is not just a value — but a right.