Commentary: Deceitful Statistics Prop up the Princeton Free Speech Panic

January 18, 2023 1 min read

Commentary: Deceitful Statistics Prop up the Princeton Free Speech Panic

by Eleanor Clemans-Cope, The Daily Princetonian

George F. Will GS ’68 recently took to the pages of the Washington Post, where he is a regular columnist, to announce to the world that wokeness at Princeton is destroying free speech. Liberal censorship on college campuses has become an obsession on the political right, a pillar of their case that conservatives are under attack. It’s absurd — and reminiscent of the Red Scare — to declare a national slide into progressive tyranny due to “wokeness” at elite universities. But beyond that, the foundational argument that Princeton is “too woke” and therefore intolerant is a lie.

Read more >>>


Leave a comment


Also in Princeton Free Speech News & Commentary

‘Universities have to be bold’: Director of ACLU-NJ urges Princeton community to take action post-election

December 18, 2024 1 min read

Abby Leibowitz
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: A month after Donald Trump’s reelection and the red wave that swept down-ballot elections in New Jersey and across the United States, public policy lecturer Lynda Dodd joined Amol Sinha, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Jersey, for a private presentation held at the Princeton Public Library on Dec. 15. They discussed New Jersey’s potential to build “firewalls of freedom” — safeguards based on actions that governors, attorney generals, and statewide officials can take locally to protect communities made vulnerable by potential Trump policies.

Indivisible Princeton, a local chapter of the organization Indivisible formed by Ezra Levin GS ’13 in 2017 in response to Trump’s first election, hosted the event as its ”relaunch meeting.”
Read More
Commentary: Setting the record straight on our fight for Kamala Harris

December 16, 2024 1 min read

Michelle Miao and Nate Howard
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: Since Nov. 5, Princeton commentators from across the political spectrum have misrepresented progressive Kamala Harris supporters.

On one hand, columnist Julianna Lee ’25 wrote a well-intentioned but misinformed op-ed characterizing left-leaning students at Princeton in broad strokes as stuck inside the Orange Bubble and unwilling to engage with other perspectives. On the other hand, certain members of the leftist community have spent more time denigrating Democrats than working to fight fascism. On both of these counts, we would like to set the record straight.
Read More
Commentary: Government Should Not Legitimate Systemic-Racism Confessions

December 15, 2024 1 min read 1 Comment

Peter Berkowitz
RealClear Politics

Excerpt: Most selective colleges and universities receive substantial federal funds – tens and even hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars a year for student aid and faculty research. Since Title VI contains no exceptions to its prohibition on raced-based discrimination, it also bars racism that is systemic. Thinking along these lines, in 2020, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos attempted to hold Princeton University accountable for the systemic racism it claimed was lodged there.

Entertaining and instructive as was her gambit, the Trump administration should not repeat it. That’s because systemic racism does not plague the nation’s colleges and universities, and government should not legitimize frivolous claims that it does.
Read More