Readers of these pages know the critique: rising tuition that prices out the middle class; an explosion in bureaucracy that steals resources from instruction; runaway grade inflation; an opaque admissions process that prizes race, gender and identity over achievement; disdain for America’s founding and its abiding principles; and a largely left-wing monoculture that discourages honest (or any) debate, among other sins.
Here’s the news: Yale’s report by an internal Committee on Trust in Higher Education treats those criticisms with respect and in many cases agrees with them. The report by 10 faculty members was commissioned by Yale President Maurie McInnis, and it’s hard to believe it came from the same school that not long ago thought wearing an ethnic costume to a Halloween party was an academic felony.
“Today, universities nationwide are facing a historic wave of calls for change,” writes Ms. McInnis in her letter responding to the report. “Trust in institutions is waning, and that’s not a problem we can brush aside. For higher education to serve the public good, we need the public’s trust.” The report offers the bracing numbers: Public confidence in higher education in 2024 was 36%, down from 57% in a decade.