Commentary: Princetonians must invest in the marketplace of ideas

September 17, 2023 1 min read

1 Comment

Aidan Gouley
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: This year’s Pre-read, “How to Stand up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future,” by Maria Ressa ’86, argues that defending democracy requires no less than a transformation in how liberal societies engage in discourse — not simply specific policy prescriptions or direct action-based activism. Ressa’s call for open discourse should be resonant on a campus where free speech is considered core. Each of us must work to build such an environment. As Ressa says, effective activism can only be preserved in environments that catalyze rigorous discussion and critical thought.

Should free exchange erode, the University community does not merely risk losing the educational value of speech, but also threatens to concede a critical pillar of free society altogether. We have to reclaim the mantle of free speech from right-leaning groups and ensure that free speech isn’t harmed by either institutional overreach or communal neglect.

Click here for link to full article

1 Response

Mark Muenchow '76
Mark Muenchow '76

October 12, 2023

Mr. Gouley would do well to read and consider the observations contained in “Commentary: The Limits of Academic Freedom” by James Huffman, National Association of Scholars before implying or asserting a predominance or monopoly of attempted limitations on free speech by the right. The left also has many actors who attempt to limit free discourse, including institutions and their representatives. Princeton could and should improve the atmosphere on campus for truly free and open discourse and its free speech ranking by adopting the Kalven report and its principles.

Leave a comment


Also in Princeton Free Speech News & Commentary

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson reflects on path to the Supreme Court in campus lecture

September 11, 2025 1 min read

Isaac Bernstein and Justus Wilhoit 
Daily Princetonian 

Excerpt: Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Ketanji Brown Jackson sat down for an hour-long conversation with Professor Deborah Pearlstein in front of a full house at Richardson Auditorium on Wednesday. Nominated to the Supreme Court in 2022, she discussed her historic path to the nation’s highest court, the challenges of public life, and the lessons that have guided her career.

Read More
A Letter to the Class of ’29 from Princetonians for Free Speech

September 09, 2025 1 min read

Princetonians for Free Speech

Excerpt: Dear Princeton Class of ’29:

This letter comes to you from the alumni organization, Princetonians for Free Speech (PFS). We have existed since you started high school four years ago. We were founded in response to a growing concern that Princeton has drifted from its core mission of the pursuit of knowledge and truth, and towards a narrow activism that threatens free speech, academic freedom, and viewpoint diversity.

Read More
Commentary: Christopher Eisgruber’s Moronic Inferno

September 08, 2025 1 min read

Paul Du Quenoy 
Tablet Magazine

Excerpt: Endlessly self-congratulatory, insufferably pedantic, irritatingly repetitive, and self-referential nearly to the point of parody, Eisgruber argues that our system of higher education is, with rare and regrettable exceptions, successfully fulfilling its primary functions. In his opinion, his industry deserves “high marks” for protecting free speech rather than criticism for devaluing it. Academia’s travails indicate that our campuses are merely hapless victims of a larger “civic crisis” besetting American society, not a cause of it.

Endowed with a strong tradition of free expression, in Eisgruber’s strikingly ahistorical view, America has only recently succumbed to political divisions exacerbated by rampant partisanship and pernicious social media use. 

Read More