To the Office of the Provost and the Promotion Committee at the Yale School of Management:

We, Yale School of Management students and alumni, have always prided ourselves on attending a business school whose mission is “to educate leaders for business and society”. Many of us made the decision to attend SOM precisely because of this, which is why the decision to reject Dr. Michael W. Kraus’s bid for tenure on February 14th has left us bewildered and disillusioned. We call upon Yale to reconsider its recent decision and promote Michael W. Kraus to a tenured faculty position.

Dr. Kraus’s research, teaching, and mentorship far exceed the standard for tenure in the field. He is a prolific and impactful researcher with an h-index of 39 – well above the benchmark SOM has set with its two most recent tenure appointments in Organizational Behavior (h-indexes of 33 and 19, respectively). He is an exceptional teacher, and his class “Power & Politics” is vital to SOM’s pedagogy. His mentoring – particularly to marginalized students – is unmatched, as evidenced by his status as the first professor at Yale SOM honored with Yale’s annual award for mentorship. Given his impeccable credentials, we must ask why Yale has chosen to dismiss this particular scholar and to devalue his work on racial and economic inequality.

Since SOM’s inception, no faculty of color have been promoted internally to the rank of full professor with tenure within the Organizational Behavior group – a department where researchers study practices that make workplaces more equitable to challenge the current inequitable systems of management. Of the faculty members with tenure at SOM, 69% are White. 83% are male. These figures beg the question: How does Yale intend to educate leaders for business and society when the professors tasked with doing so do not reflect the society in which we live?

Dr. Kraus’s vast body of research has been instrumental in unpacking how and why institutions that profess to have anti-racist values, such as our own, often fail to live up to those ideals. He is not only one of the leading social scientists of his generation but also one of the most impactful scholars to have ever worked in this space, a fact underlined by SOM’s decision to feature his work on Yale Insights no less than 22 times, on average twice as many articles as his colleagues. It is the height of institutional hypocrisy, then, that the same institution that purports to care about racial injustice and inequity in article after article featuring his work should, behind closed doors, double down on the ​​deeply flawed structural mechanisms that allow these problems to persist. The arcane and strategically opaque tenure process here has once again reinforced existing inequalities, dismissing an exceptional scholar and a person of color at the top of his field.

At a time when George Floyd’s murder – not two years ago – mobilized corporate America to prioritize diverse, equitable, and inclusive environments, SOM’s decision to deprioritize research and curricula that trains students to lead DEI efforts undermines its commitment to promoting “purpose-driven and inclusive business leaders”. The decision to deny Dr. Kraus tenure leaves students and the Yale community to inquire: What does it take for Yale’s words to match its actions when excellent candidates who meet – and indeed far exceed – all of the academic requirements of tenure are not granted that recognition? What message does the administration send to current and aspiring scholars of color when it declines to promote a leading scholar on racial inequality? What does this decision say about the type of knowledge that SOM values? The balance of power it seeks to maintain?

Students of color and those from other marginalized groups have long been aware of their conditional position in powerful institutions like Yale SOM. Dr. Kraus’s work and mentorship make many of these students feel seen. Additionally, there are virtually no other tenured faculty at SOM with the expertise area he has which students across the university sought him out for - power and inequality. His research experience, coupled with lived experience, makes him an invaluable resource for historically marginalized MBA and Ph.D. students. This ability to create space in academia for those it so often marginalizes is invaluable to SOM and to Yale.

Despite his service to the mission of SOM, seven years of teaching excellence at Yale, and commitment to advancing innovative and impactful research for society, the senior faculty voted against recognizing Dr. Kraus and awarding him the honor he so clearly deserves. Though Yale claims to be committed to institutional change in the face of 2020’s events, it has repeatedly failed to create an inclusive environment for those who need it most.

A way forward to restore Yale on the right path is as follows:

• Transparency and accountability in the Tenure and Promotion procedures and an investigation of the biases in the processes to date

• A qualified tenure committee who possess the expertise to assess Dr. Kraus’s contribution to the fields of psychology and organizational behavior on the topic of racial inequality.

• A qualified committee to review Dr. Kraus's tenure case, with the mandate to report their conclusions publicly

• Place a qualified alumna on the review committee for tenure appointments to ensure accountability and minimize subjectivity in the process

• A mandate to incorporate “increase the number of BIPOC tenured faculty” / “increase the diversity of tenured faculty” to the “Representation” Action of SOM’s anti-racism plan

• Publish summary data annually on the demographic representation of Yale SOM faculty, staff, and students to enable public accountability

To quote James Baldwin: “I can’t believe what you say, because I see what you do.” Institutions like Yale are rarely afforded the opportunity to defend their mission and values. Now lies such an opportunity. We urge you to reconsider Michael W. Kraus’s bid for tenure and preserve the integrity of Yale, a university we alumni, students, and future candidates can continue to be proud of.

Sincerely,

Student Government at Yale SOM, the Association of Hispanic and Latin American Students, Black Business Alliance, Business Students for Racial Equity, Consortium at Yale SOM, Out of Office Leaders, the Asian American and Pacific Islander Association and the undersigned parties