Princeton Free Speech News & Commentary

Zach Gardner
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: As a former student and interviewee of Dr. Wright’s, I feel her conclusions deserve a defense. As a conservative, I believe Clemans-Cope’s article demands a response. As an advocate for free speech on campus, I believe the principles of free and open debate warrant a proper definition, not a poor caricature.

If personal experience is the currency of modern campus politics, my time at Princeton has proven Dr. Wright’s conclusions correct. I have benefited tremendously from an environment in which my views are in the minority.

Bridget O’Neill
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: In November 2015, student protesters from the Black Justice League (BJL) occupied the office of University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 during his office hours, commencing a 33-hour sit-in. The students came prepared with a list of demands, which included mandated cultural competency training for faculty and staff, an ethnicity and diversity distribution requirement, and the removal of the name of Woodrow Wilson Class of 1879 from the then-named Wilson School and College.

Following prolonged pro-Palestine activism in the spring, this scene of the BJL sit-in takes on new relevance — not for its impact on the University’s history of racial reckoning, but for how the sit-in permanently altered Eisgruber’s understanding of his own role in responding to student demands.

Bridget O’Neill and Miriam Waldvogel
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: The Council of the Princeton University Committee (CPUC) met on Monday, Nov. 11, for its second meeting of the academic year. The University's endowment came under particular scrutiny, as the group discussed divestment from Israel and fossil fuel dissociation. The state of dialogue among students in the wake of the US presidential election marked another of the meeting’s major talking points.

Julianna Lee
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: At Princeton, there is a stereotype of the classic Trump voter: hateful, uneducated, racist, and transphobic. Sitting at an Ivy League institution where a pre-election poll found that 74 percent of eligible undergrads cast votes for Harris, it’s easy to think that people don’t vote for Trump unless there is something really messed up about the way they see the world — but Princeton’s favorable view of the Democrats is an outlier.

We shouldn’t dismiss Trump voters as hateful, uneducated, or misinformed; we should engage with them about where they are coming from and why they made the choice they did.

Cynthia Torres
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: Following the Clio Hall sit-in that ended in 13 student arrests, University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 sent a campus-wide email stating that the University was “exploring offering students arrested for protest-related offenses the option to participate in a ‘restorative justice’ process.”

However, according to an email chain obtained by The Daily Princetonian, this process quickly collapsed.

Hayk Yengibaryan and Justus Wilhoit
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: In the early hours of Wednesday, Nov. 6, former President Donald Trump officially defeated Vice President Kamala Harris to become the 47th president of the United States. With Harris’s defeat, Princeton students are questioning where this leaves them and the future of America.

Despite a significant majority of Princetonians supporting Harris, the rest of the country experienced an overwhelming red shift. In a New York Times analysis, more than 90 percent of counties with complete voting results shifted toward the former president, indicating a trend of strengthened support for Trump in 2024 compared to 2020.