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Ryne Weiss
FIRE
Excerpt: The first step to solving a problem is admitting you have one. In his new book Terms of Respect: How Colleges Get Free Speech Right, Princeton University President Christopher L. Eisgruber reports on FIRE’s data on free speech and First Amendment norms on campus while making no effort to understand it and misusing the data of others. In other words, he’s skipped that first step — and now Princeton is tumbling down the staircase.
IMHO, what is so striking is the alternative universe in which Eisgruber resides. It is one in which, for some time now, he fails to see the damage he is doing to Princeton’s and the university’s reputation, combined with the alienation of other university presidents. Seemingly, the environment in which Eisgruber resides contains an oxygen level similar to that at 15,000 feet. Eisgruber appears to be balancing himself at the top of a sharply pointed obelisk, alone and vulnerable to prevailing winds.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-princeton-presidents-evasions
https://www.aei.org/op-eds/princeton-president-melts-down-rejects-responsibility-for-campus-anti-semitism/
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/08/trump-university-presidents/683803/
https://www.nationalreview.com/2025/03/the-disqualifying-hypocrisy-of-princetons-president/
https://reason.com/volokh/2025/08/11/the-university-presidents-who-want-to-fix-universities-before-they-get-fixed/
https://www.city-journal.org/article/princeton-university-president-christopher-eisgruber-anti-semitism-racial-discrimination
FIRE was founded by two of my Princeton ’64 classmates who went on to Harvard, where one received a law degree (Harvey Silverglate) and the other a history PhD (Alan Kors). I am proud to call them friends.
Free speech and open inquiry are not abstract ideals – they are the lifeblood of a healthy university community. At Princetonians for Free Speech (PFS), we strive to advance those principles through practical, tangible support for students and faculty who put them into action.
As such, we are pleased to tell you about two recent events at Princeton, supported by PFS that reflect this mission in powerful ways.
RocaNews is one of those new platforms growing by the seemingly simple acts of building trust and conducting on-the-ground reporting in the places the New York Times promised to do. They believe their readers are smart enough to form their own opinions. At least that was being claimed on February 19th in McCosh Hall at an event entitled RocaNews, Non-Partisan Reporting, and the Fight against Legacy Media organized by the Princeton Open Campus Coalition (POCC). RocaNews currently has 2 million instagram followers, 651,000 YouTube subscribers, and a daily newsletter sent to over 200,000 subscribers. If that growth is not enough to convince you that they are doing something right, you can see for yourself through a myriad of ways, all focused on ease of access and user experience. Roca uses Instagram and newsletters to build a go-to news community based on factual, on-the-ground reporting.
On Friday, January 23, 2026, several students from Princeton University marched to the top of Capitol Hill, joining tens of thousands of Americans in the National March for Life. Originating just months after the legalization of abortion in Roe v. Wade (1973), the National March for Life inaugurated the first major public conversation on the sanctity of life and a constitutional protection of the unborn. Today, four years after the overturn of Roe in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022), the march still serves as a platform for individuals to express their hopes and visions for the future of the Pro-Life movement.
Having experienced the tangible and transformative power of free speech evident in the march, four Princeton students have graciously agreed to share thoughts both about their participation in the march and also about the overall experience with pro-life dialogue on campus.
Doug Hensler '69
November 05, 2025
Corrected:
IMHO, what is so striking is the alternative universe in which Eisgruber resides. It is one in which, for some time now, he fails to see the damage he is doing to Princeton and the university’s reputation, combined with the alienation of other university presidents. Seemingly, the environment in which Eisgruber resides contains an oxygen level similar to that at 15,000 feet. Eisgruber appears to be balancing himself at the top of a sharply pointed obelisk, alone and vulnerable to prevailing winds.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-princeton-presidents-evasions
https://www.aei.org/op-eds/princeton-president-melts-down-rejects-responsibility-for-campus-anti-semitism/
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/08/trump-university-presidents/683803/
https://www.nationalreview.com/2025/03/the-disqualifying-hypocrisy-of-princetons-president/
https://reason.com/volokh/2025/08/11/the-university-presidents-who-want-to-fix-universities-before-they-get-fixed/
https://www.city-journal.org/article/princeton-university-president-christopher-eisgruber-anti-semitism-racial-discrimination