Campus Clips

Shepley Bulfinch

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Yale New Haven Hospital broke ground in August on a new $838 million neurosciences center. Located on the former campus of the Hospital of Saint Raphael, which Yale New Haven acquired in 2012, the center (left) will include 201 inpatient beds for treating Parkinson’s disease, strokes, and other disorders. Part of the new building will be named the Adams Neurosciences Center in honor of Stephen Adams ’59 and Denise Adams, who made a major donation to the project.

What a difference a year makes. Yale announced in October that its endowment return for 2021–22 was 0.8 percent, a sharp contrast with the 40.2 percent return for 2020–21. After spending, the value of the endowment on June 30 was $41.4 billion, down from $42.3 billion the year before. Peers of Yale that reported their returns by press time also had flat or negative returns in a volatile year for financial markets.

The university is restructuring its Carbon Charge program, which charges or pays administrative units depending on their success in reducing energy use. The new program will require all such units to contribute to a fund that supports conversion of the campus to clean energy. The cost will be based on each unit’s carbon emissions, using a figure thought to be the “social cost” of carbon.

A lawsuit against Yale by a psychiatrist who had taught at the School of Medicine was dismissed by a federal judge in August. Bandy X. Lee ’94MD, ’95MDiv, had sued for wrongful termination, alleging that Yale had declined to renew her annual appointment as an unpaid voluntary faculty member because of her public statements about the mental health of attorney Alan Dershowitz ’62LLB and supporters of Donald Trump. Yale denied that her political opinions were part of the decision. Lee says she will likely appeal.  

Two federal judges say they will stop hiring clerks from Yale Law School. As reported by National Review, James C. Ho of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Dallas told a Federalist Society gathering on September 29 that “starting today, I will no longer hire law clerks from Yale Law School.” He cited recent incidents at the school that he says demonstrate that the school “not only tolerates the cancellation of views—it actively practices it.” A week later, Elizabeth Branch of the 11th Circuit in Atlanta told National Review she would do the same.