Again and again, YCC has resigned itself to inaction.

It is time to dare to fight.

But don’t be fooled by mere promises to fight — take a look at how experienced fighters operate. Check out our “Dare to Leverage” tab to see our plan for how to actually maximize our capacity to deliver change and protect students.

  1. Vehemently Resist Attacks on Student Financial Support.

In this academic year alone, we have experienced the most drastic, ill-prioritized degradation of student life at Yale in recent memory.

Life-changing ISA/SEA opportunities — Cut. OCS professional grant — Cut. Food voucher eligibility — Cut. Summer storage — Cut.

When we dare, we will fight to restore the promised Yale experience we deserve.

Yale has invested enormously into a machinery of faux access. For while the recruitment trips, zero-tuition pledges, and marketing are critical for ensuring Yalies can come from all financial backgrounds, this year Yale has made it clear its priority is to drastically renege on its support for students the moment they step on campus, pulling the plug on resources needed for many to meaningfully thrive in their Yale experience. Yale students are not even paid adequately for the work they do to support campus life. It is time for an increase in the Yale minimum wage to $20/hr.

At the same time, Yale has engorged itself with exponential administrative bloat. Why must Yale’s most financially vulnerable students bear the costs of these budget cuts? We reject this assault on Yalies who deserve financial support.

As many Yalies from the New Haven area have generously offered to shoulder the burden of the summer storage cuts, housing dozens of their classmates’ boxes in their own homes this summer, we cannot be complacent amidst the most staggering irony: Yale administrators, would you be willing to do the same?

University leaders will never achieve the institutional trust they so desperately seek for Yale if they cannot even earn the trust of their own students. Perhaps we have some advice for the Yale College Dean’s Office: ‘Don’t Hire Too Many Administrators.’

2. The Yale Education Is Not for Sale.

Our academic freedom is not for sale. The University has repeatedly refused to outline explicit academic freedom protections in the Faculty Handbook. When professors can’t teach freely without fear of institutional repercussion, students are stripped of the fullness of a Yale education. We have worked to build coalitions with the Graduate and Professional School Senate (GPSS), American Association of University Professors, and the FAS-SEAS faculty senate to fight for academic freedom. Read our joint resolution here.

Our professors are not for sale. We tipped the YDN off to the ongoing contract non-renewals of key faculty members due to budget cuts. Beloved professors who teach irreplaceable classes have been cut. Yale’s financial priorities are now attacking the very foundation of higher education—its faculty. When Yale blindsides professors by cancelling summer programs and contracts, it doesn’t just cut costs; it cheapens the education we receive.

Our learning is not for sale. In the vain pursuit of maintaining the “value” of a Yale transcript, Dean Lewis has suggested capping grades—as if education were a commodity to be tightened, rationed, and priced in relation to our peer institutions. But grades are not a currency to be deflated. It is a reflection of learning, growth, and intellectual risk. A cap does nothing to earnestly restore meaning to grades. It only replaces meaning with manufactured scarcity. We come to Yale to think boldly, to collaborate freely, and to be evaluated honestly—not to compete in a zero-sum system engineered to be a marketplace of letter-grade prestige. If Yale wants grades to mean something, it should invest in the very teaching, transparency, and trust that it currently seeks to cut—not impose artificial limits that pit students against one another. Because the moment Yale starts treating grades like something to be managed for optics, rather than earned through learning, is the moment it puts our education up for sale.

3. We Will Fight to Uphold Our Responsibilities — to Student Life and Those Whose Labor Makes It Happen.

1. Bolstering Academic Resources at Yale

  • Following the passage of Yale College Council Senate proposals this academic year, we will oversee the submission and approval of proposals for a Black Studies Certificate, Entrepreneurship Certificate, and Public Policy Certificate through the Yale College Committee on Majors, with expected implementation during the 2027-2028 academic year. 

  • Following the passage of Yale College Council Senate proposals this academic year, we will oversee the submission and approval of proposals for Advanced Language Study Certificates in American Sign Language and Ukrainian through the Language Study Committee, with expected implementation during the 2027-2028 academic year.

  • The current system for first-year advising must be revamped to better account for students’ academic ambitions. Students are far too often paired with Yale faculty affiliated with their residential college that lack sufficient knowledge of undergraduate requirements and/or expertise in academic programs their advisee is interested in. For students pursuing rigorous courses of study (i.e. a double major or major with multiple certificate programs), this absence of formal advising strips them of resources for planning and academic preparedness. We will work with the Yale College Dean’s Office to restructure first-year academic advising under the following suggestions:

    • Require all first-year college advisers to undergo an online Canvas training each academic year that covers Yale’s undergraduate academic requirements, with a particular focus on distributional requirements that must be completed by the end of first year. 

    • Build the infrastructure within residential college advising to accommodate one-on-one meetings with each first-year student and their Residential College Dean before Fall semester classes begin. 

    • Expand the Summer Peer Advising program for incoming first-years by:

      • Growing the pool of advisors beyond former first-year counselors through participation from rising juniors and seniors, who are most familiar with Yale College distributional and major requirements. 

      • Prioritizing matches between Yale student advisers and incoming first-years that align with at least one of their listed academic interests. 

2. Supporting Financial Accessibility at Yale

  • Stipend programs have proven to be one of the most effective ways the Yale College Council can support students with financial need. However, the rollout of these initiatives this year was unstandardized and often inefficient, producing delays in reimbursement for students. Thus, we will restructure the system for developing and implementing stipend programs according to the following guidelines: 

    • Earmark funding for essential full-year stipend programs (Course Materials, Extracurricular Grant, Laundry, and Printing) in the 2026-2027 Yale College Council budget at the start of the year to ensure rollout and reimbursement efficiency. 

    • End the practice of selecting students for stipends on an entirely first-come, first-serve basis. Instead, implement a standardized review process for stipend applications that accounts for academic, extracurricular, and financial need.

    • Create a dedicated Yale College Council Stipends Office composed of elected and unelected members of the YCC that is responsible for: 1) reviewing stipend applications; 2) gathering input from FGLI student organizations; and 3) efficiently managing reimbursements. Then, advocating for Yale to pick up its slack and stop relying on YCC as a band-aid solution for its institutional cuts.

  • In line with our commitment to foster a campus culture of belonging for students from all backgrounds, we believe that Yale should divest from all companies complicit in ICE’s terror operations, notably Palantir and Target Hospitality. 

  • The Transfer Counselor (TroCo) payment structure should be adjusted to improve compensation and allow greater flexibility for working hours — stipends (rather than hourly payments) of $7,000 each for two head TroCos and $5,000 each for four additional TroCos. 

3. Expanding Dining Services at Yale

  • Understanding associated nutritional benefits and greater accessibility for students with vegetarian or vegan diets, we will negotiate with Yale Hospitality to expand fresh fruit options in the residential college dining halls, building off of the introduction of green grapes this year.

  • Many students with demanding academic and extracurricular schedules have expressed their frustration with early dining hall closing times for dinner. We will negotiate with Yale Hospitality to designate at least one centrally-located dining hall a “late-night dining hall,” with closing hours after 7:30pm on Fridays and weekends. 

  • Following the passage of a Yale College Council Senate proposal this academic year, we will finalize negotiations with Yale Hospitality administrators to include Greek yogurt on the Breakfast Express and/or Greens, Grains & Grill menu in residential college dining halls.

  • We call on Yale Hospitality to make dining services adopt and align with Fair Food Program standards regarding ethical food sourcing. 

  • We will work with Yale Hospitality leadership to return the Yale Hunger and Homelessness Action Project (YHHAP) Fast to its typical implementation schedule of twice per year (once per semester). 

  • Recognizing the value of student input in dining decisions, we will oversee the continued implementation of student body-wide polls to determine menu options in the Commons Dining Hall throughout the 2026-2027 school year.

  • We will work with Yale Hospitality’s culinary leadership to finalize plans for monthly chicken wing nights in the residential college dining halls.

  • In collaboration with Yale Hospitality, we will establish a timeline for extending the nutritional labeling system from the residential college dining halls to campus retail locations.

4. Safeguarding Community at Yale

  • We recognize that a diverse and inclusive campus environment is key to cultivating a student body equipped with skills that are essential to the globalized workplace, including cultural awareness, collaboration across differences, and innovation. 

  • In light of funding cuts from university-wide budgetary constraints and a domestic political climate tarnished by attacks against diversity, equity, and inclusion, we pledge an allocation of $1,000 for each cultural center (Afro-American Cultural Center, Asian American Cultural Center, La Casa Cultural, Middle Eastern and North African Cultural Community, Native American Cultural Center) and the Yale LGBTQ Center in the Yale College Council budget passed at the start of the 2026-2027 academic year.

  • Recognizing the holiday’s significance to Hindu and South Asian communities at Yale, we will continue collaborating with the Chaplain’s Office and Yale Hospitality culinary leaders to develop a Diwali-themed dinner for the residential college dining halls.

5. Promoting Health and Wellness at Yale

  • We believe that trained mental health professionals and/or social workers should perform student wellness checks related to mental health, rather than Yale Police Department officers. 

  • We recognize the need to improve menstrual equity and prioritize reproductive health on Yale’s campus, and will thus champion the following initiatives:

    • Expand the Yale College Council’s reproductive wellness kit program (which include, condoms, lube, Plan B, and pregnancy tests) with rollouts at least once per semester and greater YCC budget allocation. 

    • Meet with Yale Facilities to discuss the placement of an emergency contraception vending machine in a central location on campus. 

    • Work with Yale Facilities to ensure the regular maintenance of menstrual product dispensers across campus bathrooms. 

  • We will oversee the completion of water fountains in all residential colleges by the end of summer 2026.

  • Students with mobility impairments often face long wait times and inconsistent communication with Yale’s Accessible Transit services. We will work with Yale Student Accessibility Services to discuss solutions for decreasing wait times for Accessible Transit vans and proposals to allow for direct communication between the student and the driver (rather than a distant operator) via the Yale Accessible Transit app.

6. Forging a Sustainable Future at Yale

  • Building upon themes of food waste reduction from this year, we will collaborate with Yale’s Office of Sustainability, Yale Hospitality leadership, and environmentally-focused student organizations to develop an interactive Canvas course on composting (similar to Work Hard, Play Smart) that first-year students must complete before stepping on campus.

  • In line with dining standards at peer institutions like the University of Michigan and Pomona College, we support calls for an oat-milk default in campus retail locations that work to reduce Yale’s carbon and water footprint. 

  • In light of scientific reporting and the death of a former Yale employee from Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, we call on the university to end its usage of the harmful herbicide Roundup.

As we hear your stories, our responsibilities to defending our student life will grow. Share your policy concerns with us on the “Contact” tab.

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