Your Cart is Empty
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.
It’s not often that an “F” on an essay draws national headlines. But I guess that’s this week’s fixation.
When students assume that grading is ideologically motivated and in bad faith — and when they choose to take these concerns straight to reactionary publications that have it out for higher education instead of engaging in productive dialogue with the members of the University community — our ability to have academically fulfilling conversations begins to slip away.
In a recent Opinion piece, Contributing Opinion Writer Vitalia Spatola takes on one of the more important questions Princeton students face: Whom should I date? I wholeheartedly agree your potential boyfriend’s or girlfriend’s values are of the utmost importance in making that decision. However, Spatola endorses a type of thinking harmful both to our romantic and non-romantic relationships, with deep consequences for civil discourse more broadly.
Two-thirds of grades awarded in Princeton undergraduate coursework in the 2024–25 academic year were A-plus, A, or A-, according to a Monday report distributed to faculty, a dramatic increase over the past decade.
Dean of the College Michael Gordin briefly discussed the report at Monday’s faculty meeting, expressing concerns about grade inflation and the allocation of A-plus grades. However, Gordin noted that grading is under the jurisdiction of departments.
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