John D. Sailer Yale Professors Call Out University’s Bureaucracy A new open letter denounces administrative bloat and stresses the importance of focusing on the academic mission.

https://www.city-journal.org/article/yale-professors-open-letter-faculty-hiring

Nearly 100 Yale professors have signed a letter calling for the university to “freeze new administrative hires” and conduct a “faculty-led audit” of its sprawling bureaucracy. The missive, sent to Yale’s president and provost last month, proposes an audit aimed at “cutting or restructuring administrative roles” and aligning the university’s “resources . . . with its core academic mission.”

While faculty have long complained about administrative growth and overreach, the Yale letter is a rare example of organized pushback. Its publication could inspire faculty at other schools to follow suit and potentially provide a roadmap for a tacit alliance between reform-minded liberal professors and the Trump administration.

Like other elite universities, Yale’s bureaucracy has grown much faster than its professoriate. The signatories note that “over the last two decades, faculty hiring has stagnated while administrative ranks have by some estimates more than doubled—outpacing peer institutions and leaving Yale with five times as many administrators as tenured faculty.”

This out-of-control growth, the professors argue, clashes with the university’s mission. They call for a “top-to-bottom audit of non-academic positions,” which “would not only generate immediate savings—potentially in the hundreds of millions—but would send a resounding message: Yale prioritizes intellectual vitality over bureaucratic inertia.”