NEW HAVEN, CT — Hundreds of Yale students rallied on Beinecke Plaza on Friday afternoon, Oct. 2, urging the university not to settle with the Trump administration over its admissions policies and protesting recent campus rules that limit demonstrations, the New Haven Independent reported. Mayor Justin Elicker, Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Rep. Rosa DeLauro joined them, along with faculty and alumni, many from a group called Democratize Yale.
The students built a cardboard copy of Claes Oldenburg's "Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks," which they called "a symbol of student dissent on campus." Oldenburg's original went up in a college courtyard in 1969, during the antiwar protests and against university rules; it was moved to the Yale University Art Gallery last year.
The Independent called Friday's rally the best-attended protest on the plaza since 2024 and said it broke Yale's rules, which require students to register demonstrations on campus and to get permission before putting up any structure outdoors on university property. Yale adopted those rules after the 2024 pro-Palestinian protests, when Yale police arrested dozens of students. Organizers called them "restrictive and arbitrarily enforced." It was Democratize Yale's second unregistered demonstration since a September teach-in, the Independent reported.
What officials said
“Yale represents everything this administration resents. Freedom of thought, diversity being our strength, innovative solutions to improve the human condition,” DeLauro said at a press conference outside Yale Law School as the replica went up.
Blumenthal said he and DeLauro have been in contact with Yale administrators about the talks. “The response that I’ve received, in a letter back to me, was essentially, trust us,” he said. “Trust us. I’m not willing to trust the administration in Yale with our freedom.” The two also wrote to the city's alders in late September urging them to adopt a resolution opposing any settlement, according to the Independent.
Amy Kapczynski, a Yale law professor and a founder of the university's chapter of the American Association of University Professors, told the crowd: “All is not well in our classrooms today.”
Among Democratize Yale's demands, the Independent reported, is an end to Yale's "trustee successor system" and a vote on trustees for more of the Yale community. “We will continue to mobilize until our demands are met,” Andrew Storino, a senior in the group, wrote in a press release.