February 29, 2024
To Princetonians for Free Speech Subscribers, members and friends,
This month PFS turns a spotlight on the faculty movement at America’s private elite universities, and we urge President Eisgruber to endorse and lead this growing movement.
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Faculty organizing at America’s elite private universities was in the news this month: In The Fight Over Academic Freedom, The New York Times reported on the rise of faculty groups to “counter the climate of self-censorship and fear that stifles open inquiry.”
Faculty for Yale was introduced on February 13, and so far has 128 named faculty signatories. This group believes that Yale “must rededicate itself to its fundamental mission: to preserve, produce and transmit knowledge.” Columbia Academic Freedom Council launched last month, to “re-articulate and re-assert the timeless and liberal purposes, values, practices, and traditions of a university….[challenges to which] left unchecked, will further erode societal trust in our universities as centers of teaching, learning, research, and innovation.” In the aftermath of the drama surrounding Claudine Gay’s demise, Harvard’s faculty group, the Council on Academic Freedom, with over 150 named faculty members, this month released “The Freedoms of a University,” a statement of principles which it hopes will be adopted by Harvard. You can see more about the statement in the Harvard Crimson. Penn Forward’s “A Vision for a New Future of the University of Pennsylvania” has a membership of over 1,900 that includes faculty, staff, students and alumni. The leader of the pack is, not surprisingly, the University of Chicago’s new permanent entity, the The Chicago Forum, whose most recent event, on February 27, was a discussion titled “Free Speech in a Time of War.” And Dartmouth’s new Dartmouth Dialogues is especially notable for being spearheaded by its President, Sian Leah Beilock.
Which brings us to Princeton: To affirm Princeton’s commitment to the academic freedom of faculty and students, PFS sincerely hopes that Princeton’s leadership chooses to support this growing, inter-collegiate faculty movement by endorsing the Princeton Principles for a Campus Culture of Free Inquiry and by adopting the increasingly favored principle of institutional neutrality, known as the Kalven Report, which PFS reported on HERE.
An encouraging albeit rare example of a Princeton faculty member utterly unafraid to speak, see “Universities are Making Us Dumber” by Sergiu Kleinerman, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Mathematics, published in Tablet Magazine on February 27, 2024.
“Lost in the Chaos: Immanence, Despair and the Political Idols of the Age”
R.J. Snell, visiting lecturer at Princeton, editor-in-chief of Public Discourse (the journal of the Witherspoon Institute) and Director of Academic Programs at the Witherspoon Institute.
March 26th, 5 pm, Robertson 002. Sponsored by PFS in partnership with Princeton’s Federalist Society student chapter.
What Free Speech Is – and What it Isn’t
The Honorable Kyle Duncan, Judge, US Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, in conversation with Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions.
March 19th, Bowen Hall 222, 5pm. Co-sponsored by PFS and the James Madison Program’s Initiative on Freedom of Thought, Inquiry and Expression.
We welcome Anuj Krishnan ‘27 to the PFS team! Anuj is from Edmonton, Canada and is pursuing a major in the School of Public and International Affairs with minors in Italian and History. On campus, he is a member of the Princeton Debate Panel, Hindu Satsangam and a U-Councillor on the Undergraduate Student Government.
DEI Metrics Should Inform Stories, Not Staff By Abigail Rabieh, The Daily Princetonian, February 14, 2024
Princeton President makes Bogus Arguments that Diversity and Academic Excellence are Compatible By Jerry Coyne, Why Evolution is True, February 14, 2024
Jonathan Haidt: Abolish DEI to Save Academia By John Murawski, Unherd, February 10, 2024
The Review: Rival factions vie for Yale’s soul By Len Gutkin, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 20, 2024
Larry Summers on What Went Wrong on Campus
The Good Fight at Persuasion, with Yasha Mounk, February 24, 2024 (includes transcript)
Should Universities Adopt Institutional Neutrality?
Heterodox Academy President John Tomasi in conversation with journalist Jamie Kalven, the son of the late Harry Kalven, author of University of Chicago’s Kalven Report, Heterodox Out Loud, February 14, 2024
Economist Roland Fryer on Adversity, Race and Refusing to Conform
The Free Press, Honestly podcast with Bari Weiss, February 13, 2024
Larry Summers, Charles W. Eliot University Professor and President Emeritus at Harvard, Secretary of the Treasury for President Clinton and Director of NEC for President Obama.
"I think there is a widespread sense—and it is, I think, unfortunately, with considerable validity—that many of our leading universities have lost their way; that values that one associated as central to universities—excellence, truth, integrity, opportunity—have come to seem like secondary values relative to the pursuit of certain concepts of social justice, the veneration of certain concepts of identity, the primacy of feeling over analysis, and the elevation of subjective perspective. And that has led to clashes within universities and, more importantly, an enormous estrangement between universities and the broader society."
Larry Summers on What Went Wrong on Campus
The Good Fight podcast with Yasha Mounk, February 24, 2024
Below we juxtapose Larry Summers’ quote with a quote from President Eisgruber’s recent remarks in The Atlantic.
"A noxious and surprisingly commonplace myth has taken hold in recent years, alleging that elite universities have pursued diversity at the expense of scholarly excellence. Much the reverse is true: Efforts to grow and embrace diversity at America’s great research universities have made them better than ever. . . . But like most reactionary myths, hand-wringing about modern universities also trades upon dewy-eyed nostalgia from smart, decent people who ought to know better. In December, for example, Fareed Zakaria released a six-minute video lamenting that American universities, once regarded with “admiration and envy,” were “neglecting a core focus on excellence” because they cared too much about “diversity and inclusion.” Peggy Noonan praised Zakaria lavishly in The Wall Street Journal and gushed about a lost era when “regular people” idealized universities as places filled with “rows of gleaming books, learned professors, an air of honest inquiry. Perhaps Noonan and Zakaria have never seen Animal House—or, for that matter, Oppenheimer."
Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber ‘83, The Atlantic, February 13, 2024
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To Princetonians for Free Speech Subscribers, Members and Friends,
PFS hosted two events this month, one in Santa Barbara, California, and the other on campus. See details in the Special Feature below.
Additionally, our next PFS Inner Circle event is coming up. On November 21 at 4 pm EST Abigail Anthony '23, journalist and graduate students at Oxford University, will discuss free speech in journalism, her experience as a student activist, and more. You can event this event and all of our Inner Circle events by joining the Inner Circle subscription.
To Princetonians for Free Speech Subscribers, Members and Friends,
As the academic year begins at Princeton and on campuses throughout the country, an extraordinary array of newsworthy events has already occurred. In the wake of last semester’s sustained campus disruption and a contentious national election around the corner, this may be just the beginning. We start not with the usual one, but three Special Features.
To Princetonians for Free Speech Subscribers, Members and Friends,
This week is Orientation for new students at Princeton. Students, faculty and staff are, no doubt, on edge. The encampment on Cannon Green and the arrests for criminal trespass of Clio Hall are fresh in everyone’s memory. Despite clear and intentional actions that broke Princeton’s rules of conduct and its core commitment to free expression and respectful disagreement, the administration struggled to respond clearly.
This moment requires clarity from Princeton’s leaders on the rights and responsibilities concerning free speech, academic freedom, respect for viewpoint diversity and rules of civil discourse.
Princeton boasts robust free speech protections and rules around peaceful protest. But principles and rules “on paper” are not enough. Specific actions need to be taken to regain the practice of a true liberal education, which is by necessity rooted in free expression. Diverse perspectives are what empower students to engage in challenging ideas and learn from respectful disagreement. Threats and harassment are not part of what free expression means. Princeton has a long way to go to embed core principles into the everyday experience and outlook of students, faculty and administrators. As students return to campus, we present The PFS Top Ten – the ten most important reforms Princeton’s leadership should consider.