December 2025 Newsletter

December 29, 2025

Dear PFS Subscribers and Friends,

We’d like to take this moment at the end of an eventful year at Princeton and throughout the country, to acknowledge two national organizations that pursue higher education reform in important and different ways, both of which are critical to PFS’s success. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), whose impact on free speech and campus discourse policies at over 30 campuses nationwide cannot be underestimated. Collaborating with FIRE on Princeton student surveys and campus reform policies has been invaluable to our growth and impact. The other is Heterodox Academy (HxA), the leading non-partisan membership organization for faculty, staff and students, whose campus community network has now reached over 80 campuses in the US and UK.

To highlight the work of these two organizations, see our Alumni Spotlight below on Harvey Silverglate ‘64, Princeton graduate and legendary co-founder of FIRE, as he reflects on FIRE’s evolution from its founding in 1969 to today.

And see our Special Feature this month on HxA’s just-released report on the rise of Civics Centers on America’s campuses. PFS’s article, by Leslie Spencer ‘79, links to the HxA list of civics centers and its in-depth analysis. The article highlights their findings, as well as the significant influence that Princeton’s James Madison Program has had on this emerging national movement. 

Of course, we couldn’t do what we do without you, our loyal subscribers and friends. With only 72 hours left in 2025, we urge you to take a look at our 2025 PFS Annual Report and consider a year-end gift on our website HERE. We value your comment and feedback HERE, or at the end of any article you read on the PFS website.

Alumni Spotlight

Harvey Silverglate ‘64, an advocate for civil liberties and free speech on college campuses since the 1960s, co-founded Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) in 1969. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1967 and has pursued a career in civil liberties litigation, criminal defense and academic freedom, with a focus on students’ rights. Now 83, this distinguished Princeton graduate has announced his retirement from FIRE’s board in this 2025 year-end letter. Link here to the full letter and read the excerpt below.

When we co-founded FIRE, Professor Alan Charles Kors and I could not have imagined what it would become. Our early ambitions were principled yet modest. We hoped to make a difference where we could, case by case, student by student, professor by professor. We hoped, and intended, to close our doors rather quickly. I, for one, thought the problems of censorship and the absence of due process on college campuses to be so inherently ridiculous, and so counter to the academic enterprise, that surely we'd solve them in no more than 20 years. I now admit error — mea culpa! 

We soon discovered — or rediscovered, as the case may be — the truth of the saying in the latea, great Village Voice columnist and free speech champion Nat Hentoff's immortal book, Free Speech for Me — But Not for Thee: The sexual drive is the second most powerful human instinct. The urge to tell our fellow humans to "shut up" is first.

As long as men and women hold positions of power, they will abuse that power. So the problems we face are eternal, which means we must always have a watchdog to keep that power in check. Thank goodness we have that in FIRE.

 

A Special Feature

This month Heterodox Academy (HxA) released a major new study: The New Landscape of “Civics Centers” in Higher Education: An Analysis of Missions, Structures, and Legislative Origins Across US Colleges and Universities.

In The Rise of Civics Centers at America’s Universities, PFS Vice-Chair Leslie Spencer ‘79 reports on HxA’s study, which includes a comprehensive list of 45 civics centers, most of which have emerged in the last decade, and the role that Professor Robert P. George and Princeton’s James Madison Program has played in shaping this emerging movement.  We think this HxA report tells an important story that can help faculty, administrators and trustees, as well as alumni, parents and the general public, to understand what these centers are and their potential significance in higher education reform.

 

Podcast of the Month

Heterodox Out Loud hosted by HxA’s President John Tomasi

Watch here: Can Universities Change Without Government Intervention? with Mary Kate Cary

Mary Kate Cary is Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications and Strategic Initiatives in the Office of the Interim President at the University of Virginia and a long-time advocate for open inquiry, free speech, and viewpoint diversity on campus. She previously served as an adjunct professor in UVA’s Politics Department, where she taught courses on political speechwriting, the greatest speeches in American history, and co-taught a bipartisan election class. Cary is the founding director of Think Again at UVA, a student-facing initiative promoting free speech, critical thinking, and respectful debate, and she co-chairs the Heterodox Academy Campus Community at UVA, one of the largest chapters of the organization.

Articles of Interest

The Rise of Civics Centers at America’s Universities

By Leslie Spencer ‘79, Princetonians for Free Speech, December 18, 2025

The Blessings of Free Speech
Officious Censors get lumps of diplomatic coal for Christmas
By James Freeman, Wall Street Journal, December 24, 2025

These Professors Don’t Agree – and That’s the Point
Two Loyola University Chicago professors show how modeling constructive disagreement can transform the classroom.
By Shiri Spitz Siddiqi, Free the Inquiry, Substack, December 22, 2025

Liberalism’s Lonely-Hearts Club
Standing up for due process, free speech, civil liberties, intellectual pluralism, and scientific rigour doesn’t win you many friends these days.
By Jonathan Kay, Quillette, December 13, 2025

Quote of the Month

Mary Cate Cary, Assistant VP & Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications, UVA

The number of people who have a great deal of confidence in higher education has dropped basically in half from 60 percent down to 32 percent. And among those people, when Gallup says, okay, what is it that is causing you to feel this way? Some of [those polled] say lack of affordability, and some of them say viewpoint diversity.  Those are the two top answers, lack of affordability, and lack of viewpoint diversity. And I would argue that the way to fix this is from the bottom up, which is what Heterodox Academy is doing – individual faculty members speaking up as opposed to the government imposing it.

From Heterodox Out Loud: Can Universities Change Without Government Intervention?

Mary Kate Cary in conversation with John Tomasi | Ep 41, Dec 16, 2025

Support PFS

Princeton should be a place where ideas are freely debated and students and professors can discuss controversial topics without fear. Preserving that environment requires a persistent presence pushing back. That’s PFS. PFS stands as the only independent organization of alumni and friends dedicated to holding Princeton University accountable on free speech, academic freedom, and viewpoint diversity. Our 2025 PFS Annual Report shows our impact; please consider a year-end gift by clicking HERE. Every dollar defends free speech at Princeton!