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July 30, 2024
To Princetonians for Free Speech Subscribers, members and friends,
While the nation is gripped by the uncertainty of the Presidential race, what’s happening in higher education may not be a focus of attention. But plenty is going on, even in July. Four surveys published this month track trends that have direct impact at Princeton and most universities in the country. The surveys featured here measure the following: 1) the radical decline of public confidence in higher education, 2) the dramatic rise in student and faculty concern about censorship and self-censorship post-October 7, 3) the dismantling of DEI programs, and 4) the lack of student knowledge of their country’s government and history. As universities including Princeton prepare to welcome students to campus next month, the results of these surveys will shape campus experience.
We also remind our subscribers of PFS’s own survey published in June – the second annual poll of Princeton students. Follow the link to see the results, and PFS’s recommendations for improving the campus free speech and academic freedom climate at Princeton: Princetonians Student Free Speech Survey Shows More Work Needs To Be Done.
U.S. Confidence in Higher Education Now Closely Divided
Nearly as many U.S. adults have little or no confidence as have high confidence
By Jeffrey M Jones, Gallup
An increasing proportion of U.S. adults say they have little or no confidence in higher education. As a result, Americans are now nearly equally divided among those who have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence (36%), some confidence (32%), or little or no confidence (32%) in higher education. When Gallup first measured confidence in higher education in 2015, 57% had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence and 10% had little or none.
See this related report: Gallup: Higher Education Plunges in Public Confidence
By Jonathan Turley, July 9, 2024 jonathanturley.org
Surveys reveal rising student and faculty concern about censorship, self-censorship post-October 7
By Emily Nayyer, July 12, 2024, Thefire.org
In a year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict went from barely a blip on most students’ radars to an almost all-consuming concern. Findings from FIRE’s forthcoming 2025 College Free Speech Rankings survey reveal that far more students this year than last year worry about censorship and self-censorship related to the war in Gaza.
As of May 2, FIRE analyzed almost 1,900 open-ended responses from university students nationwide for this year’s CFSR survey. The survey asked students who reported self-censoring at least once or twice a month, “Please share a moment where you personally felt you could not express your opinion on your campus because of how you thought other students, a professor, or the administration would respond.” In almost 9 in 10 responses, students explicitly stated concerns about censorship when discussing Israel, Palestine, and/or Gaza with friends, classmates, and/or professors. Students also overwhelmingly reported witnessing or experiencing censorship and/or self-censorship when discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. …
The barometer survey results further reveal that 76% of U.S.-based scholars of the Middle East have felt a greater direct or indirect need to self-censor since the start of the war. And 69% reported self-censoring on topics involving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (By contrast, in 2023’s barometer survey, conducted only a little more than a month after October 7, that percentage was 57%.) … Even before October 7, FIRE reported faculty members were self-censoring more than they did during the McCarthy era. The barometer survey’s findings suggest that conditions for free speech on campus are deteriorating even further.
Tracking Higher Ed’s Dismantling of DEI
By Erin Gretzing, Maggie Hicks, Christa Dutton and Jasper Smith, The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 15, updated July 26, 2024
The Chronicle is tracking higher ed’s dismantling of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. As colleges make changes in response to anti-DEI legislation and mounting political pressure, an inconsistent and confusing landscape has emerged. This resource aims to document the changes and help readers better understand how the campaign against DEI has actually reshaped campuses.
By Bradley Jackson and Michael B Poliakoff, Real Clear Education, July 9, 2024
How much do today’s college students really know about their nation’s past? The American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) has conducted a fresh national survey of college students to answer just this question. The results are concerning.
Sixty percent of college students could not correctly identify the term lengths of members serving in U.S. Congress. Sixty-three percent were unable to identify the chief justice of the Supreme Court. These are multiple-choice questions. Students did not have to recall John Roberts’s name, they merely had to recognize it, and a large majority failed. The same is true for the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, whose name was only known to 35% of students. Sixty-eight percent did not know that impeachment trials occur before the Senate, despite living through two presidential impeachments as well as the impeachment trial of a cabinet official.
Why the ‘Words are Violence’ Argument Needs to Die
The response to the attempted Trump assassination proves that Cancel Culture is real — and that ‘speech = violence’ is bullshit.
By Greg Lukianoff, The Eternally Radical Idea, Substack, July 19, 2024
“Higher Ed is Lying to Students About Freedom of Speech”
The Coddling of the American Mind, Substack, July 15, 2024
This College Professor may have figured out how to kill DEI
Zack De Piero’s lawsuit against Penn State has implications that go beyond this case.
By Michael Shellenberger, Public, Substack, July 8, 2024
Universities need to leave DEI Behind
The universities in question are dominated by a progressivism that pervades DEI departments, where the world is divided between the oppressed and oppressors, unprivileged and privileged.
By Carine Hajjar, Boston Globe, July 18, 2024
By Yolanda Watson Spiva, Real Clear Education, July 22, 2024
Amid an especially fraught presidential election, polarizing armed conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, and deepening political divides over issues like immigration, the economy, and even our democracy itself, the nation is facing a politically charged moment that shows no signs of abating. Tribalismis on the rise, as is an intense—and historic—distrust of many of our nation’smost important institutions, including Congress, the Supreme Court, and the presidency. Higher education has not been spared from this crisis of faith,with just 36 percent of Americans now expressing confidence in the country’s system of colleges and universities.
How Liberal College Campuses Benefit Conservative Students
Right-wing culture warriors ignore the value of being surrounded by ideological opponents.
By Lauren A. Wright, The Atlantic, July 8, 2024
At Princeton University, where I have taught political science for seven years, conservative students make up just 12 percent of undergraduates. Throughout college, they hear alternative perspectives and hone their own arguments, anticipating opposition. In research for a book in progress—Tested: Why Conservative Students Get the Most Out of Liberal Education—I conducted dozens of in-depth interviews with students at Princeton and other competitive schools. Of the 28 conservatives I’ve spoken with so far, more than 90 percent report attending events featuring speakers with whom they disagree, compared with less than half of the 15 liberals I’ve interviewed. Nearly all of the conservatives said that they’ve been challenged by professors or other students in classroom discussions, but just two of the liberals said the same. These reports echo national surveys, which find that conservative students are more open to speakers of any ideological bent than are liberal students, who tend to support only speakers they agree with.
Campus Indoctrination's Costs Outweigh Unintended Benefits
By Peter Berkowitz, Real Clear Politics, July 21, 2024
A respectful critique of the article above by Lauren A. Wright, who is Associate Research Scholar in Politics and Public Affairs at Princeton.
To restore Harvard's reputation, faculty should speak up
In countries like China and Russia, one is punished if they present an idea that is classified as antipatriotic. Is this truly the direction that Harvard should now be turning?
ByJohn Evangelakos, Jason H.P. Kravitt, and William Schmalzl, Boston Globe, July 4, 2024
(Jordan Peterson posted this article to his 5.3 million followers on X, formerly Twitter: “Academics with spines @Harvard. Probably too little too late, but it’s good to see.”)
Ben Sasse, former Senator from Nebraska who recently stepped down from his position as President of the University of Florida to attend to his wife’s critical illness and his children.
“What we tell all of our students, protesters and non, is that there are two things we’re going to affirm over and over again: We will always defend your right to free speech and free assembly. And also, we have time, place and manner restrictions. You don’t get to take over the whole university. You don’t get to spit at cops. You don’t get to barricade yourselves in buildings. You don’t get to disrupt somebody else’s commencement. We don’t allow protests inside. I ran by our group of protesters waving their Palestinian flag – we protect their right to do that. But we have rules. And one of those rules is we don’t allow camping on campus. You can’t build an encampment. But our goal is not to arrest people, it’s to help them get into compliance with the rules. They can protest. They can try to persuade people, but they don’t get [to] build a camp.”
To Princetonians for Free Speech Subscribers, Members and Friends,
Whoa. January certainly was a month of explosive change for higher education! Three executive orders that could impact funding of universities prompted President Eisgruber’s January 28 letter, which rightly admits “there is much we do not know.” See the Daily Princetonians coverage of Eisgruber’s letter: Eisgruber says U. is “exploring measures” in wake of Trump orders, stops short of specific guidance.
Most importantly, take a close look at our special feature, written by PFS cofounder Ed Yingling, 2025: A Breakthrough Year for Free Speech on Campus. It is a grand synthesis of the many ways 2025 could be a year of dramatic change at US Universities, change that could critically impact free speech, academic freedom and viewpoint diversity at Princeton and elsewhere. Yingling’s article helps to make sense of the radical changes that lie in store.
To Princetonians for Free Speech Subscribers, Members and Friends,
Happy New Year! At PFS we are delighted to welcome our inaugural Executive Director; you can see below our introduction to Angela Smith. Our Special Feature includes two original articles by our PFS student writing fellows Marisa Hirschfield ‘27 and Khoa Sands ‘26. And nationally, we feature an event of particular importance to anyone interested in the state of academic freedom and free speech on America’s college campuses, held by the University of Chicago Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression. It is presented virtually as well as in person on January 31, 2025, and features Princeton professor and New York Times columnist Zeynep Tufekci. See below for details.
And PFS momentum is building! As 2024 came to a close, over 1,200 hundred new subscribers signed up with PFS. Please help to build awareness by asking your alumni and other friends to join us HERE. And for those who may have missed it, here is our 2024 Annual Report.
To Princetonians for Free Speech Subscribers, Members and Friends,
Happy Giving Tuesday from PFS! We are grateful for the support we've received over the past 4 years from alumni like you and many others. As our Special Feature this month, we are proud to present the PFS 2024 Annual Report, which showcases our achievements over this year. We hope you will continue to help us grow our reach and impact during this season of giving!
