Yale Faculty Resign From Silliman College Amid Halloween Costume Controversy Email

Two Yale University educators who found themselves at the center of controversy over an email regarding appropriate Halloween costumes have stepped down from their posts at the school’s Silliman College.

Nicholas and Erika Christakis, the head and associate head of the college at Yale released a statement that said the two will return full-time to the fields of public health and early childhood education.

Nicholas Christakis will continue in his tenured faculty position and Erika gave up teaching at Yale last semester and recently published a book about early childhood education, according to the Atlantic.

“While we cherish the years we have spent living among undergraduates, both at Harvard and Yale, and while we remain faithful to our confidence in Yale students, we have decided that it is time to return full-time to our respective fields…” they said in the statement shared on Twitter.

Last year the university's Intercultural Affairs Committee sent out an email to students cautioning the use of costumes that could be construed as racially-offensive, according to the New Haven Register.

Erika Christakis sent an email to Silliman College residents questioning the need for caution.

An excerpt from the email posted to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education:

I don’t wish to trivialize genuine concerns about cultural and personal representation, and other challenges to our lived experience in a plural community. I know that many decent people have proposed guidelines on Halloween costumes from a spirit of avoiding hurt and offense. I laud those goals, in theory, as most of us do. But in practice, I wonder if we should reflect more transparently, as a community, on the consequences of an institutional (which is to say: bureaucratic and administrative) exercise of implied control over college students.

The email sparked debate and large rallies at Yale’s campus over topics such as safe spaces at colleges.

Some students refused to accept their diplomas from Nicholas Christakis, according to the New York Times. It's customary for the head of each college at Yale to hand out diplomas to graduating seniors.

Many called that the two professors be removed from their posts at Silliman.

Another topic that came up in the controversy is freedom of academic speech and whether colleges should serve as safe homes or be closer to a public space.

Image via Steve Jurvetson/Flickr Commons