Princeton Free Speech News & Commentary

Commentary: Princeton’s administration of justice is Trumpian

January 29, 2025 1 min read

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.

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Commentary: Secular Opening Exercises? Don’t throw out the baby with the bath water

January 29, 2025 1 min read

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.

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2025: A Breakthrough Year for Free Speech on Campus

January 24, 2025 15 min read 3 Comments

By Edward L. Yingling, Cofounder of Princetonians for Free Speech

INTRODUCTION: 

It is now widely understood that for years many of our country’s colleges and universities have been losing their way; they are no longer bastions of the core values of free speech, open discourse, and academic freedom, nor are they focused on promoting learning and the advancement of knowledge. Instead, they have increasingly become focused on a specific agenda and advancing that agenda, in the process often repressing these core values.

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Commentary: It’s time for a civic education requirement at Princeton

January 24, 2025 1 min read

Kenneth Chan 
Daily Princetonian 

Excerpt: If the 2024 election was a rebuke of American institutions, it was an even stronger rebuke of the educational elite. The Democratic Party, long the party of American labor, has become the party of the college educated. As college students preparing to be the leaders of tomorrow, that sounds like a good thing. This institution supposedly selects the brightest students in the nation. It is supposed to mold our minds for leadership in the world.

It seems our leaders have forgotten how to lead a pluralistic and economically diverse society. To renew confidence in tomorrow’s leaders, the solution at Princeton must be a return to common values. One way to do this is a new civic education requirement.

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Commentary: Princeton Professor Versus Right-Wing Hats

January 23, 2025 1 min read

Abigail Anthony
National Review

Excerpt: Kevin Kruse, a history professor at Princeton University, shared the following post on Bluesky this week:

“I’m at the Princeton Columbia MBB game, sitting next to one Columbia fan with a National Review hat and in front of another wearing a gold and white Trump 47 hat. I may need bail money later.” 

A subpar lawyer might attempt to construe these comments as threats or incitement. Even though I've previously described Kruse's (now defunct) Twitter as "so far left that it makes Vox look conservative," I don’t think he seriously contemplated committing politically motivated violence.

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Commentary: Princeton should make Opening Exercises secular

January 23, 2025 1 min read

Sasha Malena Johnson 
Daily Princetonian 

Excerpt: Donning “Butler Bee” antennae, I joined the many students fighting for camera attention as I waited for Opening Exercises to begin. After a long orientation, I was excited to take part in a seemingly monumental and ancient rite of passage at Princeton. What I did not expect was the level of religiosity.

While Princeton was founded by Presbyterian pastors, it has always been a secular institution — a legacy best upheld by secular Opening Exercises. According to the most recent Frosh Survey from The Daily Princetonian, around 45 percent of the Class of 2028 identifies as agnostic or atheist. In consideration of the significant numbers of Princeton students who do not identify as religious, the University should move towards secular Opening Exercises.

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