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February 27, 2026
A Special Feature
In PFS Supports Two Student and Faculty Events that Advance Free Expression, Executive Director Angela Smith highlights PFS support for two important on-campus events that happened in February, one organized by students, the other by faculty.
“Free speech and open inquiry are not abstract ideals – they are the lifeblood of a healthy university community. At Princetonians for Free Speech (PFS), we strive to advance those principles through practical, tangible support for students and faculty who put them into action. As such, we are pleased to tell you about two recent events at Princeton, supported by PFS, that reflect this mission in powerful ways.”
Read more about these events, why PFS supports them, and why you should support PFS.
And read coverage of these two events in the Student Corner below, written by our writing fellows Annabel Green ‘26 and Joseph Gonzalez ‘28.
Student Corner
Erwin Chemerinsky at Princeton: Navigating Campus Speech and Academic Freedom
By Annabel Green ‘26
RocaNews Event Brings Media Disruptors to Princeton’s Campus
By Joseph Gonzalez ‘28
Book of the Month
More and more, university leaders are speaking out about the importance of campus free speech and academic freedom. The latest is from Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the Berkeley School of Law at the University of California, and Howard Gillman, Chancellor of the University of California Irvine, in their just published book, Campus Speech and Academic Freedom: A Guide for Difficult Times. Chemerinsky’s appearance at Princeton on February 19 was covered by PFS writing fellow Annabel Green ‘26. See her article under Student Corner.
Articles of Interest
Nine Intellectual Virtues
Either universities appoint and promote professors who display and disseminate intellectual virtues, or they reward those who exemplify and cultivate intellectual vices.
By Nigel Biggar, Quillette, February 23 2026
More Than Half of College Students Are Lonely — and Social Media Is Making It Worse
By Chara Watson, The EduLedger, February 16, 2026
Higher Eds Most Divisive Chancelor
Daniel Diermeier says reform will save the sector. His critics say he’s exploiting its crisis.
By Kate Hidalgo Bellows, The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 18, 2026
Beyond Big Science: A Reform Agenda for American Science by Kali Jerrard
By Kali Jerrard, National Association of Scholars, February 17, 2026
Institutional Neutrality Is Not Censorship
By Nicole Barbaro Simovski, Free the Inquiry, Substack, February 2, 2026
Podcast of the Month
Daniel Diermeier on Why Universities Are Their Own Worst Enemies
Yascha Mounk and Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier examine how elite institutions created the backlash that now threatens their future.
The Good Fight with Yascha Mounk, Persuasion on Substack, February 14, 2026
Quote of the Month
Mounk: “Do you think there has been large-scale illegal discrimination on the basis of race and gender in faculty hiring at American universities? Do you think this will move more toward the center of the debate around higher education?”
Diermeier: “We just can’t have that. That’s the long and the short of it. As you point out, even if you are a strong supporter of race-conscious admissions, that’s about student admissions. That’s not about faculty hiring. Faculty hiring based on race or protected category issues was illegal all the time. … It’s illegal. You can’t do it. When you find evidence of [it], you have to stop it. … Now, how broad and how widespread that was is very difficult to say. My worry is that some universities just basically took a casual approach to [it], in part because maybe they supported it deep down, and maybe also because university faculty hiring is very decentralized. I have to tell you, if you force diversity statements or you put a DEI representative on search committees, you shouldn’t be surprised that this is happening. People understand the cues and they act accordingly. All of that, I hope, is changing. …
Blatantly illegal behavior is part of the past. It’s good that we are talking about it, but we can’t have it. That’s just that simple. … The same is true of discriminating in hiring based on political viewpoint. Faculty need to be hired based on their scholarly expertise, full stop. I’ve been pretty vocal on this in the past. I think this is a very important thing. I don’t know how widespread it is. We’ll have to tackle it whenever it occurs.
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 gift by clicking HERE. Every dollar defends free speech at Princeton!
On Sunday, May 24, Princetonians for Free Speech (PFS) hosted a breakfast at the Nassau Inn — and despite dreary skies outside, the energy inside couldn't have been brighter. About 70 alumni, current students and other free speech supporters turned out for what proved to be an engaging and inspiring morning.
PFS leadership set the stage with organizational updates from Co-founder Ed Yingling '70, President & CEO Todd Rulon-Miller '73, and Executive Director Angela Smith — including the exciting news that PFS has grown to over 26,000 email subscribers (20,000 of whom are Princeton alumni). This represents remarkable growth from just 1,400 two years ago, showing a momentum that was on full display during this packed event.
PFS’s featured editorial this month is Yale Issues clarion call for change, joining other leading universities. Where is Princeton? We put Yale’s report in the context of the growing consensus amongst a widening circle of University Presidents that President Maurie McGinnis is correct. University leaders must take responsibility for their role in reaching this critical point. President Eisgruber is not among this list of reformers.
If you want to know more about why Princeton is not leading this movement to restore trust in higher education,link here to a comprehensive Five-Part Review of President Eisgruber’s book, Terms of Respect, How Colleges Get Free Speech Right, written for PFS by Tal Fortgang ‘17.
Can universities be reformed? Princeton’s Professor of Mathematics Sergiu Klainerman is a pessimist. In the absence of powerful external pressures, reform from within is “very close to zero” due to what he sees as the deep corruption of the universities’ core mission.
Klainerman was born in Romania and graduated from the University of Bucharest in 1974. He earned his PhD in Mathematics at NYU in 1978 and has taught at Princeton since 1987. A MacAurther Fellow (1991) and Guggenheim Fellow (1997) he was awarded the Bôcher Memorial Prize by the American Mathematical Society in 1999 "for his contributions to nonlinear hyperbolic equations."
Klainerman presented his bleak perspective on the state of higher education in an address at the recent opening of the University of Iowa’s Center for Intellectual Freedom, a new institution dedicated to the study of civics.
