Throughout Yale’s history the President has appointed committees to explore important topics, and the recommendations of those committees shaped and influenced Yale’s governance and administration.
In 1974 President Kingman Brewster, Jr. was charged “to appoint a faculty commission to examine the condition of free expression, peaceful dissent, mutual respect and tolerance at Yale, to draft recommendations for any measures it may deem necessary for the maintenance of those principles, and to report to the faculties of the University early next term.” The committee’s recommendations are known as the “Woodward Report.”
In 2016 President Peter Salovey charged the Committee to Establish Principles on Renaming “to articulate a set of principles that can guide Yale in decisions about whether to remove a historical name from a building or other prominent structure or space on campus —principles that are enduring rather than specific to particular controversies.” The committee’s recommendations are known as the “Witt Report.”