Yale University President Maurie McInnis formed a committee of Yale faculty members to "undertake a project of thorough self-examination." She wanted to know: Why is the public losing trust in higher education institutions like Yale? The report identified several reasons Yale has lost public favor, including grade inflation, bureaucratic bloat, rising tuition costs, and controversial admissions practices. Notably, the report details at length Yale's shortcomings regarding "matters of free speech, political bias, and self-censorship." "The campus has not been immune from pressures toward conformity, intimidation, and social shaming that have affected the rest of higher education and, indeed, the rest of American society. Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that a great deal of campus life is now lived online." The report, citing a 2025 university survey, says that nearly a third of undergraduate respondents said they did not feel free to express their political beliefs on campus. The figure is "up from 17 percent in 2015." The report also says, "post-doctoral fellows and international students at Yale report that they now hesitate to speak out, even about their own research, for fear of government retaliation." No subject was "more contested" than the issue of ideological conformity. Among Yale faculty in 2025, "registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 36 to 1 across the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Law School, and the School of Management."