Free Speech at Princeton University

Miriam Waldvogel
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: The 15 students and University community members arrested during pro-Palestine protests last spring will not have their cases dismissed following a hearing on Tuesday.

Aymen Aboushi, an attorney representing the 12 students and one postdoc arrested for occupying Clio Hall, motioned to dismiss the charges of defiant trespassing, which Judge John McCarthy III ’69 ultimately rejected to hear. Citing body camera footage, he argued that the students at Clio Hall did not receive notice from the officers who arrested them that they were trespassing. Under New Jersey law, defiant trespassing occurs when someone enters a space after “knowing that he is not licensed or privileged to do so.”

Miriam Waldvogel
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: The Department of Public Safety (PSAFE) is investigating small flyers found on campus reading “Nuke Gaza” and “Kill Roaches” as a bias incident, the University told The Daily Princetonian on Friday.

The pile of approximately 30 paper cutouts was first discovered by a fourth-year graduate student around noon on Friday outside entryway six of Spelman Hall. The individual gathered up the flyers and called PSAFE. Princeton’s daily crime log shows that PSAFE officers responded to the incident shortly after the call, and logged the interaction as a “harrassment/bias incident.” According to the graduate student, PSAFE collected the flyers from them at the scene.

Hope Perry ‘24
Princeton Alumni Weekly

Excerpt: Princeton Israeli Apartheid Divest (PIAD) returned this fall semester with an inaugural rally and a familiar message from last spring, calling for the University to divest and disassociate from Israel and Israeli companies, universities, and cultural institutions, and asking Princeton to drop charges against students who participated in an April sit-in.

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By Princetonians for Free Speech
PFS original content

President Eisgruber and his administration appear to have made a very good start on the new academic year. They conducted a first-year orientation that sent all the right messages on free speech, academic freedom, respect for diverse viewpoints, and the need for the university and its departments to avoid taking institutional positions on controversial public issues. They did the same in a new website on free speech which provides clarity on the free speech rules and where students should go with questions and concerns.

Olivia Sanchez
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: The first Princeton class admitted following the Supreme Court decision banning race-conscious affirmative action has experienced little change in racial diversity, according to enrollment statistics released by the University on Wednesday.

In an emailed statement to The Daily Princetonian regarding how the numbers managed to stay stable, University spokesperson Jennifer Morrill wrote, “We can’t speak to the admissions processes of other institutions, either before or after the Court’s ruling. At Princeton, we are adhering to the limits set by the ruling and continuing to use a holistic admission process that involves a highly individualized assessment of the applicant's talents, achievements and his or her potential to contribute to learning at Princeton.”

Christopher Bao and Miriam Waldvogel
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: Following the first day of classes, pro-Palestine organizers held the first protest of the academic year. Around 150 demonstrators attended, touring many of the major sites of Princeton’s “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” from the spring semester, starting the march on McCosh Courtyard before moving to the front of Clio Hall and Nassau Hall.

The protest comes amid a newly launched University website on protests addressing frequently asked questions regarding time, place, and manner restrictions, including tightened protest regulations. The newest rules introduced were a recurring topic of the protest, although administrators have asserted that the website introduces no significant changes to the University’s rules.