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James (Jimmy) Lane ’92
Princetonians for Free Speech Original Content
I am a HUGE fan of the “I” in DEI. I will leave the “D” and “E” for others to opine. This essay is mostly a story of how multiple-perspectives critical thinking training by a compassionate classmate at Princeton University helped a first-generation college student become included in middle class America and why a university culture of free speech and open inquiry is so vital to upward mobility.
Khoa Sands
Princetonians for Free Speech Original Content
National attention on campus free-speech issues tends to focus on only the most sensational threats. Incidents like speaker shout-downs,disruptive protests,physical attacks,major petitions, orunjust firings garner the most attention from alumni and the general public. And rightly so – there is no shortage of incidents that ought to cause outrage from those who believe in academic freedom and free expression. However, there are subtler threats to free speech in the university that fly under the radar, ignored by the press, alumni, and students, but are no less insidious. They can be as subtle as a state of mind.
Khoa Sands ‘26
Elite academia has been dominated by the question of free speech and free expression over the past year. 2024 has seen the explosion of pro-Palestine campus protests, throwing institutions into disarray. At Harvard, UCLA, Columbia, and other universities, administrators struggled to respond as activists occupied campus and harassed other students. Scenes of chaotic fighting at UCLA were played on televisions across the country.
Khoa Sands
Princeton Tory
Excerpt: While democracy emphasizes a particularized government consciousness that reflects the collective awareness and identity of a specific demos, liberalism prioritizes the universality of individual rights and freedoms shaped by historical consciousness. The tension between these forms of consciousness underlies key debates in contemporary political philosophy regarding which political regime is most preferable.
Raf Basas
Daily Princetonian
Excerpt: For centuries, Princeton has been the political and economic elite that America hates. Princetonians dominate Wall Street, with alumni earning some of Wall Street’s highest salaries. Princeton is far overrepresented in the top 1 percent, where 23 percent of Princeton students end up at the age of 34. Princeton is overrepresented in Congress, too. It’s difficult to name a set of “elites,” and not find a Princeton graduate among them.
This is concerning, because exit polls from the November election demonstrate that Princeton students prioritize neither the working class nor economic issues — we are not just elites, but elitists.
Maximillian Meyer
New York Post
Excerpt: Americans reacted with horror this week to a new poll that found young voters evenly divided on the righteousness of Luigi Mangione’s cold-blooded assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. To me, the result was no surprise: I’m seeing far worse on my Ivy League campus every day — the logical result of the morality crisis running rampant throughout “elite” academia and among many of my generation.
To far-left young Americans, on any given issue, the world is divided into two buckets: oppressor and oppressed. There is little room for nuance, and next to none for negotiation. I’ve seen this phenomenon firsthand in my role as president of Princeton’s premier pro-Israel student organization.
