Oliver Wu and Vitus Larrieu
Daily Princetonian
Excerpt: In September, Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering rebranded its diversity, equity and inclusion committee as the “Office of Culture and Belonging,” while their School of Medicine abruptly shuttered its DEI program. Harvard has pared down its diversity offerings under direct pressure from the Trump administration, most recently canceling an over 50-year-old program that encouraged minority students to apply to the university.
Kian Petlin
Daily Princetonian
Excerpt: University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 spoke out against the Trump administration’s higher education compact in a LinkedIn post on Oct. 10, calling the proposed agreement on university funding “a dangerous step in the wrong direction.”
He also thanked the presidents of the Association of American Universities (AAU), and the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) for opposing the compact, which was sent to nine universities, including Brown, Dartmouth, and the University of Pennsylvania in early October.
Megan McArdle
Washington Post
Excerpt: As the Trump administration’s war on universities settles into its entrenched phase, it’s given new urgency to a long-simmering debate about whether, and how, academia should pursue viewpoint diversity. This conversation has been happening for decades, mostly between conservatives who want more of it and an academic establishment that wants to leave well enough alone. Now, that conversation has become existential.
Miriam Waldvogel
Daily Princetonian
Excerpt: On Wednesday, The Daily Princetonian signed an amicus brief in support of The Stanford Daily in Stanford Daily Publishing Corporation et al. v. Rubio, a lawsuit in federal court that challenges the Trump administration’s revocation of international student visas for constitutionally protected speech. An additional 54 student newspapers and newsroom leaders from universities across the country have also signed on.
Abigail S. Gerstein
Harvard Crimson
Excerpt: Harvard Medical School canceled a pro-Palestine vigil organized by two recognized student groups on Thursday, alleging the groups violated the school’s campus use rules by distributing and posting event flyers without authorization.
Professors Robert P. George, Tom Ginsburg, Robert Post, David Rabban, Jeannie Suk Gersen, and Keith Whittington
Substack on Academic Freedom
Excerpt: We write as scholars of academic freedom to respond to the proposed Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education. We are politically diverse and do not share common views about the wisdom of particular proposals contained in the Compact. Nor do we agree on the extent or substance of the reforms needed in American higher education today. We are, however, united in our concern about key features of the proposed Compact.
The power to punish extramural speech has been abused against both conservative and liberal speakers in the past. The requirement of the Compact that universities and colleges censor students and faculty who voice support for “entities designated by the U.S. government as terrorist organization” imposes overly intrusive regulation of constitutionally protected speech.