The Committee on Trust in Higher Education submitted its findings and recommendations, which committee members supported unanimously, on April 10. The committee’s report declared that “the issue of declining trust is real, urgent and must be addressed” and identified several reasons for the decline at Yale and other universities. The reasons will not come as a surprise to careful observers of these institutions: the cost of higher education, generally but particularly at Ivy League and private schools, is widely seen as too high; admissions without transparency and often driven by non-academic criteria (read identity, athleticism, family connections and money); pressures toward conformity, intimidation and social shaming; self-censorship; and ideological echo chambers resulting from homogeneity — on the left — in the professoriate. Smart phones and social media contribute to the problems, devaluing the classroom.








