Princeton Free Speech News & Commentary

Keith E. Whittington
Volokh Conspiracy, Reason Magazine

Excerpt: I noted last month that a Fourth Circuit panel had handed down a divided decision in Porter v. North Carolina State University. The case involved a tenured statistics professor in the college of education who was removed from the program in higher education after a number of complaints he had made about the program becoming too focused on social justice. The Porter panel denied his claim that the speech for which he was being punished was constitutionally protected.

I have now posted an article-length paper examining the competing arguments in Porter and contending that neither the majority nor the dissent approached the question in the right way. I offer an alternative approach to extending the Supreme Court's doctrine on government employee speech to the particular context of intramural speech by state university professors.

Professor Robert P. Gorge
National Review
 
Excerpt: As the new academic year begins, I have some advice for conservative and religiously observant students who are entering colleges and universities in which their beliefs will place them in the minority, and perhaps make them feel like “outsiders.”
You will encounter double standards. Don’t be quiet about them. Ask for them to be removed. If necessary, be assertive and persistent, though always respectful, relying on the force of argument and the power of reason. At Princeton, students and sympathetic faculty working together have had a fair amount of success over the years in getting rid of double standards, but we won’t stop until they are all gone.

You may experience prejudice, perhaps in grading, perhaps in other areas of your academic or social life on campus. If you do, try to find a friendly faculty member who can guide you and perhaps even advocate for you in addressing the injustice.

Darius Gross
Princeton Tory

Excerpt: In recent weeks, controversy has arisen surrounding an upcoming course in Princeton’s Near Eastern Studies (NES) Department for its inclusion of a book on its sample reading list that claims the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) deliberately cripples Palestinians.

While free speech protections are vital to the University and the book’s removal should not be the first response in a case like this, that does not mean anything goes. A piece of work that has sparked academic scandal must be thoughtfully studied in that context. If Prof. Larson refuses to acknowledge the plethora of scholarship critical of Puar’s book and its unfounded allegations, then she will have strayed from the University’s truth-seeking purpose, and removal of the work as Steinlauf has urged may prove necessary.

PEN America Press Release

Excerpt: PEN America said today calls to remove a book from a Princeton University syllabus and fire a professor were “highly misguided” and ”unwarranted.” The book in question, slated for inclusion in a course called ”The Healing Humanities — Decolonizing Trauma Studies from the Global South,” critiques the state of Israel’s policies toward Palestinians.

Jonathan Friedman, PEN America’s program director for Free Expression and Education, said: “If we scrubbed college campuses of any book that could cause any offense, we would be left with a fairly barren environment for academic inquiry. University education is meant to challenge minds and be a place for open exchange about global political issues, even when they are contested.”

Editor's note: Below is an excerpt of and link to an important statement issued by the Princeton Open Campus Coalition, the student free speech group at Princeton University.

Princeton University contributes to society through truth seeking, a pursuit necessitating academic freedom and institutional neutrality. Yet recent discussion of an upcoming Princeton course has prompted us, as leaders of the Princeton Open Campus Coalition (POCC), to reiterate the truth-seeking mission and how it functions on Princeton’s campus.

Benjamin Woodard, Rebecca Roth, Danielle Shapiro, and Marie Riddle
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: Princeton University contributes to society through truth seeking: a pursuit necessitating academic freedom and institutional neutrality. Yet recent discussion of an upcoming Princeton course has prompted us, as leaders of the Princeton Open Campus Coalition (POCC), to reiterate the truth-seeking mission and how it functions on campus.

Consequently, Larson is entitled to teach whatever books and topics she wants in her course, so long as students can form their own educated assessments of the material. This is true even if her choices are unpopular amongst students, governments, or other organizations.