Academic Freedom at Princeton

The Editorial Board
Wall Street Journal

Excerpt: Political speakers on campus often face protests from activists who say their presence makes students feel “unsafe.” No such worry for United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, who is going on something of an American campus grand tour with her anti-Israel message.

Hope Perry ’24
Princeton Alumni Weekly

Excerpt: Princeton students and community members engaged in heated arguments with Francesca Albanese, an Italian human rights expert, during an event hosted by the School of Public and International Affairs on Tuesday.

Albanese was appointed to her position, United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, in 2022. She has been criticized for attending a conference hosted by Hamas’ Council on International Relations in 2022 and was condemned by the United States, France, and Germany for a 2014 comment that resurfaced in 2022 in which she characterized the U.S. as “subjugated by the Jewish lobby,” playing into an antisemitic trope.

Kenneth Chan
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: In late September, Princeton Politics Professor Robert George published a column in the New York Times, in which he urged young conservatives to “exercise and … defend your right to think for yourself” in the face of a “hostile” campus community. Days before, my colleague, Head Opinion Editor Eleanor Clemans-Cope, published a column arguing that “to insist on the importance of liberals engaging with these debates is insisting on an ideological project that launders harmful, fringe opinions back into mainstream society.”

Yet both of these columns’ bellicose calls to opposite sides of the political spectrum neglect fundamental truths. Our pluralistic society only works if we are willing to engage with all sorts of opinions, no matter how repulsive. But we must also debate with intellectual responsibility: We need to scrutinize our own opinions as rigorously as possible in light of new information.

Ted Balaker
The Coddling of the American Mind, Substack

Excerpt: Every time I think the Ivies are completely doomed, a ray of sunshine pierces the darkness. There’s Steven Pinker at Harvard. Randy Wayne
at Cornell, and at Princeton, there’s Princetonians for Free Speech (PFS).

Each has done so much to advance free speech, open inquiry, and viewpoint diversity, and each has been instrumental in bringing The Coddling movie to campus. Pinker, as well as Harvard Undergraduates for Academic Freedom, made our first Ivy League special screening possible. Wayne, along with the Cornell chapter of Heterodox Academy, made our second Ivy League special screening possible. And, along with along with Whig Clio, we have PFS to thank for our third Ivy League special screening.

Stuart Taylor Jr. & Edward Yingling
National Review

Excerpt: Princeton University is tiptoeing toward canceling its greatest president and a founder of our nation in a process that its trustees and president Christopher Eisgruber accelerated on October 2 by announcing that they would leave the statue of John Witherspoon in its prominent place on Firestone Plaza — but probably only for now. The issue has been punted to the “Campus Art Steering Committee” to decide whether the statue should be moved, or removed.

Nikki Han
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: In a public lecture given on the evening of Tuesday, Oct. 22, Angela Davis reflected on the importance of voting in elections, solidarity and support for Palestine, and her end goal of revolution.

The 445 seats in McCosh Hall 50 were not enough to hold the large turnout, with dozens standing against the walls and lining the stairs to hear Davis in conversation with Professor of African American Studies Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. About 100 people also congregated in an overflow room down the hall to watch the event virtually.