Commentary: Eisgruber’s empty defense of ‘academic freedom’

April 07, 2025 1 min read

1 Comment

Zach Gardner
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: In response to the Trump Administration’s recent efforts to suspend $400 million in federal grants to Columbia University and $210 million to Princeton University, professors and administrators have rushed to the defense of “academic freedom.” In a recent op-ed, University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 charged President Trump with launching “the greatest threat to American universities since the Red Scare of the 1950s.” 

What Eisgruber doesn’t consider, however, is that the threat to academic freedom comes not from the government but from the universities themselves. Rather than focusing on external threats, Princeton should turn the microscope inward and acknowledge the recurring problem of intellectual diversity in its ranks.

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1 Response

Jeff McCollum
Jeff McCollum

April 11, 2025

One of my first lessons as a freshman was in critical thinking after I had completely missed the point on a “compare and contrast” question on a history mid-term. Professor Craven called me to his office and told me that “although you have written a strong case [I had advocate for one side only], you don’t understand what we’re looking for. We want you to think and write critically.” Is critical thinking even emphasized today at Princeton. It seems missing in so much public discourse.

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