Yale University Statement Regarding Alleged Remarks Made by Former Yale President
Published: September 29, 2009
New Haven, Conn. — Yale University has been contacted regarding rumors that Benno C. Schmidt Jr., former president of Yale University, criticized Chinese universities and the country’s higher education system in general. These alleged disparaging remarks purportedly appeared in a Yale publication.
Yale University has contacted Mr. Schmidt concerning these rumors. "I have never said anything about Chinese universities that has appeared in a Yale publication," Mr. Schmidt told Yale. “Most importantly, those quotes are not my comments and they do not reflect my views."
Benno C. Schmidt, Jr. is a former president of Yale University, where he served from 1986 to 1992 as the university's sixteenth president. He was Dean, Columbia Law School immediately before leading Yale, and its Harlan Fiske Stone Professor of Constitutional Law. He is a noted scholar of the First Amendment, the history of the United States Supreme Court and the history of race relations in American law. He clerked for Earl Warren, Chief Justice, United States Supreme Court.