Viewpoint Diversity at Princeton

Sofia Menemenlis, Jessica Ng, Hellen Wainaina, and Givarra Azhar Abdullah
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: At the CPUC meeting on Sept. 30, Resources Committee Chair Jay Groves announced the establishment of an online portal to solicit “community input” on the divestment proposal, which would remain open for 12 days. With respect to the mechanics of this process, Groves indicated that the Committee did not have specific plans for how it would consider the feedback it was soliciting, nor whether and how it would meet with interested groups.

Setting aside broader questions about the role of “consensus” in situations of social injustice, we write to express our concern with this post-hoc, poorly defined, and inadequately communicated process.

Flora Champy, Stephen Macedo, Leora Batnitzky, Jonathan Mummolo, Sanjeev Kulkarni, Eve Krakowski, and Emmanuel Bourbouhakis
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: The freedom of each Princeton faculty member to speak candidly on all manner of issues is indispensable. If faculty cannot express a broad range of intellectual views, including controversial ones, then the University’s mission to further human knowledge and educate students to become discerning, thoughtful citizens cannot be fully realized.

That is why we are supporting a proposal to modify the Rules & Procedures of the Faculty at Princeton to limit faculty meeting votes to matters directly concerning University governance. By extension, this measure would preclude votes that force faculty to take stances on political issues that lie outside of the faculty’s jurisdiction. We urge all our colleagues to vote in favor of this measure at the upcoming faculty meeting on Oct. 21.

By Leslie Spencer ‘79

The Daily Princetonian recently reported that President Eisgruber has rejected the idea of adopting the principle of institutional neutrality.  

At a time when universities throughout the country, including Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, USC, and Cornell, have flocked to adopt the principle to protect them from the myriad pressures to take stands on controversial issues such as the war in Gaza, President Eisgruber remains resolute against it.

Ava Johnson
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: I never thought that the use of one three letter word could change my outlook on academia — and the world. But in one of the first lectures I attended at Princeton, my Politics professor referred to a hypothetical person as “she,” and my world turned upside down.

This year’s faculty diversity report goes to show that the importance of experiences like mine — having your worldview expanded by a professor with a historically disenfranchised perspective — is not fully being taken into account within Princeton’s hiring and tenure-track processes. In order to serve all students in the way that this professor was able to inspire me, Princeton must prioritize diversity in new tenure-track faculty hiring.

Alex Norbrook and Eleanor Clemans-Cope
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: On Oct. 3, Princeton gutted its landmark policy on fossil fuel dissociation, which once barred certain fossil fuel companies from funding University research and is now weakened to the point of irrelevance. This is a profoundly troubling decision that undermines the fight against climate change. In this action, Princeton has chosen to align itself with the industry most responsible for driving the climate crisis.

By Marisa Warman Hirschfield ‘27

“Universities should follow the First Amendment, period. That’s it. That’s the framework.”

Legal scholar Cass R. Sunstein shared this message with over a hundred people in McCosh 50 during his “Free Speech On Campus” lecture. The James Madison Program hosted Sunstein, a Harvard law professor, on September 17th in celebration of Constitution Day. Attendees received a free copy of Sunstein’s 2023 book How to Interpret the Constitution upon entering. Adults comprised most of the audience with some undergraduate students scattered throughout the lecture hall. I attended in my capacity as a ’24-’25 Writing Fellow for Princetonians for Free Speech, an alumni group that offers many opportunities for student involvement.