Commentary: We are a republic — but it’s up to young people to keep it

November 06, 2024 1 min read

Isaac Barsoum
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: Trump’s second rise represents a dramatic and pointed failure of American institutions — with universities among them — to stand against fascism. And now, we are left to deal with the fallout.

In the coming days, we — as an institution and as individuals — must drastically rethink our role in American society. Get ready, Princeton: in a nation backsliding toward authoritarianism, universities like ours must stand as bastions of democracy. Silence in the face of fascism is not neutrality, it is acquiescence. So, what should we do? How do we become that bastion of democracy?

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Also in Princeton Free Speech News & Commentary

Thai pro-democracy leaders headline U.S. premiere of “Breaking the Cycle” at Princeton

October 30, 2025 1 min read

Teresa Chen and Oliver Wu
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: Thai pro-democracy figures Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut and Kunthida Rungruengkiat GS spoke on Wednesday at the U.S. premiere of “Breaking the Cycle,” a documentary on the rise and suppression of Thailand’s modern reform movement.

The event was hosted by Thaigers, the Thai Students’ Association on campus and sponsored by the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination. Directed by Aekaphong Saransate and Thankrit Duangmaneeporn, “Breaking the Cycle” traces the ascent of the pro-democracy Future Forward Party (FFP) and its founder Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit from the 2019 Thailand election through subsequent court-ordered dissolutions of both FFP and its successor, Move Forward.

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The Ideal of the University

October 29, 2025 2 min read

Annabel Green '26

Philosophy Professor Jennifer A. Frey of the University of Tulsa delivered a lecture on October 21, 2025 titled “What is a University and How Can We Recover It?” as part of the James Madison Program’s Stuart Lecture Series on Institutional Corruption in America. Professor Frey explored the historical vocation of the university and the crisis facing the contemporary academy.

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2025 College Rankings

October 23, 2025 1 min read

City Journal

Excerpt: 
Princeton University, like all Ivy League schools, has sunk more deeply into administrative activism over recent years. The school maintains a robust Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) bureaucracy, with more than six DEI employees per 1,000 students. The school also displays several other activist commitments that distract it from its educational mission—most notably, Princeton’s decision to intervene in the Students for Fair Admissions case at the Supreme Court in favor of affirmative action. 

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