Salovey’s Same-Old, Same-Old

(Opinion)— On Tuesday, Yale University President Peter Salovey published a​response​ to Mayor Justin Elicker​’s recent​statement​asking Yale and Yale New Haven Hospital to fulfill their ethical responsibility to New Haven by increasing the amount of their voluntary financial contributions. This exchange followed the release of Mayor Elicker’s first city budget proposal, which included a 3.5 percent tax increase and cutbacks on personnel and city programs.

This is not the first time​ the city has demanded that Yale do its part for New Haven. But once again, Yale leadership fails to acknowledge that the city’s most pressing need is for unrestricted revenue, given the extent of non-taxable, Yale-owned property.

As a self-proclaimed New Havener for nearly 40 years, Salovey has seen tensions escalate over this issue on numerous occasions. Yet, his op-ed demonstrates that he has never truly listened to the concerns repeatedly raised by New Haven residents. Instead of acknowledging that Yale could do much more for the city, Salovey defends the university’s role in the city. He outlines a laundry list of volunteer programs, investments and charitable contributions that the university makes beyond its annual voluntary $12 million contribution paid to the city, valuing them together at more than $30 million. Yet this figure still falls woefully short of the $146 million that Yale would pay in taxes if it were not tax-exempt.

In 2018, Yale paid around $4.5 million in taxes, which constituted less than 0.2 percent of its operating budget of $3.8 billion. Elicker asked Yale to contribute substantially more, identifying $50 million as a target during his campaign. Elicker’s proposal attempts to address the city’s most urgent and basic needs — needs that can only be met with additional revenue. Is it so ridiculous to reach out to the city’s number one employer and number one land holder to help enable the provision of these services?

By remaining in the framework of voluntary contributions and charitable donations, Yale is able to preserve a violent power dynamic between itself and the city. Yale’s “​expertise​,” touted by Salovey in his piece, translates into condescension and often results in the university strong-arming the city into adhering to the Yale​agenda​. If Salovey viewed Yale as a true partner with the City, he would work hand in hand with the Mayor to help ensure adequate funding for education and safety services, among other core needs, as a first order of business.

President Salovey also states that Yale paid $5 million dollars in property taxes on commercial buildings to the city, boasting of Yale’s status as the​third-highest taxpayer in New Haven. Considering that Yale is both the largest employer and largest landowner in the city, it should be expected that the university would be the number one taxpayer. Yet, this is not the case because the university has consciously chosen to not follow the model of Dartmouth and Stanford, both of which pay taxes on dormitories and dining halls. Two of those dormitories, Benjamin Franklin and Pauli Murray Colleges, constitute second-most valued property in the city, and are​completely non-taxable​. The university is taking up more and more land that could be a source of taxable revenue for the city, usually branding expansion as a mechanism for​providing short-term financial assistance​to the city in times of budgetary stress.

President Salovey also touts Yale’s commitment to employing New Haveners, which we have seen time and again is a false promise. At the Feb. 21, 2019 Board of Alders meeting, union organizers and​hundreds of New Haveners​raised concerns about the university’s failure to follow through on its 2015 pledge to hire a thousand New Haveners in full-time jobs. Salovey also mentions the economic stimulation that the city receives as a result of Yale faculty moving into New Haven. In reality, wealthy academics are more likely to​displace city residents​, accelerate gentrification and lead to the loss of affordable housing units.

In his statement, Salovey references university, faculty, and student-sponsored programs and donations meant to benefit the residents of New Haven. We are both Yale students who choose to spend much of our time in New Haven. Between the two of us, we have participated in and led a number of Yale’s service- and politically- oriented programs, including the FOCUS on New Haven pre-orientation program, Dwight Hall’s First Years in Service program, the Public School Intern program, Y2Y New Haven’s Winthrop shelter pilot program, Yale Community Kitchen and the Yale College Democrats City Engagement team. If we have learned anything from these experiences, it is that Yale does not do enough for this city, and it certainly does not take 40 years of living here to see that.

Yale undergraduate students are not and will not ever be the answer to the city’s plea for an equitable stake from its community partners. While many programs exist to connect undergraduates to New Haven, university students are generally unreliable due to our busy and unpredictable schedules and short-term residence, severely limiting our ability to engage meaningfully in the city. To pretend that the relationship between New Haven residents and Yale undergraduates is a relationship of mutual understanding and respect because of the existence of these programs demonstrates a blatant lack of awareness.

Salovey’s vision for Yale’s partnership with New Haven and the new mayoral administration is a continuation of the status quo. He claims that Yale is willing to support ​“novel, bold measures” and become an ​“enthusiastic partner” to the city. Yet Yale has rarely if ever been an enthusiastic partner to New Haven. Progress has been achieved only when community organizers, New Haven residents, and the Yale community — students, faculty, staff and alumni — wrestle the administration to meet their demands.

This dynamic needs to change, and there is no excuse for Yale not to start now. The city faces a budget crisis. With the current deficit, New Haven public schools, homelessness services, and other crucial social programs will lose funding. Additionally, city residents will have to pay higher taxes to make up for the revenue deficiency. A substantial, increased financial commitment to address the urgent needs of city residents would begin mending the fraught relationship between Yale and New Haven. Students are paying attention. Salovey, it’s your move.