The College Fix

Despite recognizing other alumni achievements, Yale Law withholds congrats for VP-elect JD Vance

Yale Law School, JD Vance’s alma mater, won’t congratulate the vice president-elect due to its institutional neutrality policy, despite recently celebrating other alumni serving in public roles.

Yale Chief of Staff Debra Kroszner told the Washington Free Beacon that the “news” of Vance’s election would be featured in the school’s biannual alumni magazine. But Yale’s institutional neutrality policy prevents it from congratulating him publicly.

Kroszner “declined to direct the Free Beacon to the text of that policy or explain why congratulating alumni would violate it.”

“In just the past 10 days, the law school has publicly recognized three alumni, including federal judges from both parties, for their accomplishments, and promoted the work of a student group devoted to ‘immigrant justice,’” the Free Beacon reported.

The law school also celebrated Hilary Clinton’s “historic nomination for President of the United States” in 2016.

On the other hand, Ohio State University, where Vance completed his undergraduate degree, congratulated the vice president-elect on X immediately following the election.

Yale has previously congratulated conservative alumni such as Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. However, it received significant backlash from students and staff for doing so, The New York Times reported.

Further, the Free Beacon states that a “double standard has manifested” at Yale as the school displays portraits of some alumni and not others.

While the school has a portrait of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, which was funded by a billionaire in Texas, it is not on display. The university previously refused to allow a College Fix editor to try to find the painting in the library.

Meanwhile, Yale prominently displays portraits of President Obama’s first Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, Democratic lawmaker Stacey Abrams, and former Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas.

Campus student groups, including Yale Law Republicans and the Yale Federalist Society, wrote a letter to the school asking it to also hang a painting of Vance.

“Vice President-elect Vance has distinguished himself as a Yale Law alumnus and exemplifies the best of the next generation of conservatives,” the groups state in the letter.

“We hope the Yale Law School administration will join us in congratulating Vice President-elect Vance and honor this extraordinary achievement by commissioning a portrait at the law school, as it has done for many distinguished alumni,” they state.

Yale adopted institutional neutrality last month, The College Fix previously reported.

The school receives guidance from the Committee on Institutional Voice, which found that university leaders “should refrain from issuing statements concerning matters of public, social, or political significance, except in rare cases.”

MORE: Yale students push back on institutional neutrality proposal

IMAGE: The Times and The Sunday Times/Youtube

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