Over 80% of Yale faculty are registered Democrats: REPORT
A Buckley Institute analysis raises concerns about political imbalance and academic diversity at Yale University.
The report links faculty ideology to student self-censorship and declining campus debate.
27academic departments at Yale University have zero Republican faculty, a new report has found.
The Buckley Institute’s 2025 Faculty Political Diversity Report examines 1,666 faculty members across all 43 undergraduate departments, the law school, and the School of Management.
The report, published on Dec. 1, found that 82.3 percent of faculty are registered Democrats. 15.4 percent are registered as independent, and only 2.3 percent as Republicans. The report notes that the general electorate is much more balanced.
Of Yale’s 43 undergraduate academic departments, 27 have no registered Republicans.
According to the Buckley Institute’s report, “Yale’s principles on free speech, as encapsulated in the Woodward Report, recognize that for Yale to fulfill its core function, the ‘free interchange of ideas is necessary not only within its walls but with the world beyond as well.’”
In comments to Campus Reform on Monday, Buckley Institute Founder and Executive Director Lauren Noble criticized the university for failing to pursue academic diversity.
“Yale remains an ideologically monolithic campus with an intellectual orthodoxy that makes expressing even mainstream alternative viewpoints challenging,” Noble said.
“Yale has taken positive steps to mitigate campus censoriousness, like adopting institutional neutrality and making civil dialogue training a part of new student orientation,” Noble continued. “However, the university has a long way to go to build a campus where civil debate is encouraged, especially in light of the dramatic political imbalance in the faculty lounge.”
[RELATED: Faculty unions rarely defend professors targeted for speech: SURVEY]
Noble cited another Buckley Institute report from this year that 79 percent of Republicans report self-censorship, connecting the issue to the overwhelming liberal presence on campus. “A sizable contingent still supports shouting down and even acts of violence against those who share opinions they disagree with,” the director says in the report.
“When students feel they can’t speak up to challenge ideas, the pursuit of truth suffers and with it the university’s fundamental purpose,” Noble told Campus Reform.
Concerns about self-censorship also appear at other Ivy League schools. A Dec. 3 report on Brown University found that 72 percent of conservative students (who comprise 7 percent of the student body) self-censor their political beliefs. 37 percent to 40 percent of liberal students report self-censorship.
In the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE)’s annual free speech report, Yale University ranked 58 out of 257 schools. Two years before, the school placed 234.
Campus Reform contacted Yale University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
