Elisabeth Stewart
Daily Princetonian
Excerpt: Princeton released its fourth annual diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) report on Thursday, Jan. 30. The report, which covers the 2023–24 academic year, includes new data on the University’s DEI programming, partnerships with Native American and Indigenous initiatives, outreach to transfer and veteran students, and the fostering of belonging across faith-based identities.
The report’s release comes amid the latest onslaught of anti-DEI policies from the new presidential administration.
Andrew Bosworth and Hellen Luo
Daily Princetonian
Excerpt: A flurry of Trump administration executive orders and memos have paused, blocked, and then unblocked various streams of federal research funding since taking office, leaving scientists confused about their funding.
In his Jan. 28 email to the campus community, University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 acknowledged the confusion surrounding funding, writing that “you can expect to receive guidance from the Office of the Dean for Research, which is coordinating University-wide efforts.”
Bill Hewitt ‘74
Princeton Alumni Weekly
Excerpt: Princeton’s “double down on DEI” faces a direct challenge from President Trump’s Jan. 21 Executive Order 14171. It mandates an end to race- and sex-based preferences in institutions that receive federal funding, prioritizing merit-based opportunity. As a recipient of substantial federal support, Princeton is now at a crossroads: Will it comply with the law faithfully, or will it risk vital funding and the University’s hard-won standing — all to continue its DEI policies and programs?
Hayk Yengibaryan and Christopher Bao
Daily Princetonian
Excerpt: In his annual State of the University letter published on Jan. 29, University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 defended the University’s endowment, its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, and institutional restraint. Though his letter does not, according to him, address the recent orders and policies from the Trump administration targeting universities, much of what Eisgruber wrote addressed attacks on higher education in recent years.
Frances Brogan
Daily Princetonian
Excerpt: This spring, Princeton imposed the kind of penalties that Giberson escaped on students involved in the Princeton Gaza Solidarity Encampment. Jordan Johnson ’24 was a bystander at a pro-Palestinian protest in the Richardson Auditorium that disrupted President Eisgruber’s Reunions address. Larry Giberson ’23 was an active participant in a violent insurrection intended to prevent the peaceful transfer of presidential power.
Yet in a blatant perversion of justice, Johnson had his Princeton degree withheld for over a week, and Giberson was quietly granted his diploma on time even after he’d been charged with six violations of the U.S. code.
Frank Strasburger
Daily Princetonian
Excerpt: As a former Princeton chaplain, I’m eager to respond to Sasha Malena Johnson’s thoughtful Opinion piece urging that Opening Exercises be made secular. While I’m sympathetic to much that she says, my own understanding of Princeton’s religious pluralism leads me to a different conclusion.