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May 30, 2024
To Princetonians for Free Speech Subscribers, members and friends,
Reunions 2024 was a huge success for PFS! About 130 people attended our first on-campus Reunion event, “You Can’t Teach That! The Battle over University Classrooms,” with Keith E. Whittington and Jonathan Rauch. See details in the special feature below.We will let you know as soon as the event is posted on YouTube. In the meantime, see Whittington’s May 10 article in the Daily Princetonian: Civil Disobedience Has Consequences.
Did Reunions 2024 include protests that crossed the line into civil disobedience? Yes. Princeton Alumni Weekly reported that pro-Palestinian protestors delayed the start of the P-rade, disrupted President Eisgruber’s presentation in Alexander Hall, painted graffiti on Roberston Hall and dyed the fountain red. But the many thousands of alums did not let these intrusions by a few protesters put a damper on their fun.
On Saturday May 25,Keith E. Whittington, a leading constitutional scholar and author of Speak Freely: Why Universities Must Defend Free Speech, appeared in discussion withJonathan Rauch, prize-winning author, most recently of The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth. Whittington’s new book, You Can’t Teach That! The Battle Over University Classrooms prompted a lively discussion about the most pressing free speech and academic freedom issues facing private and public universities today. Whittington’s departure from Princeton for Yale this summer is a big loss for Princeton.
PFS’s second annual survey of Princeton students, conducted by College Pulse, will be released in two weeks. We will send you a Special Alert when this happens. In the meantime, preliminary results show a few encouraging signs, for example, more students think free speech is important to the mission of a university. However, overall there has been little or no progress on key measurements of free speech on the Princeton campus, with some results marginally worse. PFS will be reiterating its suggestions for concrete steps Princeton can take to improve the climate for free speech and academic freedom on campus.
Here is a link to the 2023 survey.
Maria Ressa ‘86, Philippine journalist, Nobel Laureate and free speech advocate, has been criticized for her commencement address at Harvard – for supporting censorship.
Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa Calls on Harvard Graduate to Support Censorship in the Name of Democracy
By Jonathan Turley, May 25, 2024
Rabbi Zarchi Confronted Maria Ressa, Walked Off Stage Over Her Harvard Commencement Speech | News
By Neil H. Shah, Harvard Crimson, May 24, 2024
By Angel Eduardo, FIRE, May 28, 2024
The policy change could spark similar reforms throughout higher education. Where Harvard leads, others follow.
Harvard Will Refrain From Controversial Statements About Public Policy Issues
By Emma H. Haider and Cam E. Kettles, The Harvard Crimson, May 28, 2024
Gratitude is What is Missing in the Ivy League
By Khoa Sands, Princeton class of ‘26, Princetonians for Free Speech, May 23, 2023
“To whom much is given, much is expected. As Princeton students, we have been given a great privilege thanks to the help of many supporters. We are here for a reason and have been given much for a reason – to pursue knowledge and truth. The rights and privileges we enjoy come with responsibilities to ourselves, our families and supporters, and to the university. How then, should students approach their time at Princeton? Gratitude is a good place to start.”
On Encampments, Free Speech, and ‘Time, Place, and Manner’ Rules on University Campuses
By Christopher L. Eisgruber ‘83, The Daily Princetonian, June, 2024 issue
Our ability to discuss difficult, sensitive topics depends partly on the culture of our community. I am grateful to everyone who has helped Princeton to talk constructively about hard questions during this very challenging year. … Our success also depends on the consistent application of our policies protecting free speech. Princeton will continue to enforce those policies resolutely, including both this University’s expansive protections for the expression of controversial ideas and the time, place, and manner regulations that enable us to engage in thoughtful dialogue, debate, and deliberation about those ideas.
The Wrong Way to Fight Anti-Semitism on Campus:A well-intentioned bill making its way through Congress could chill speech at colleges across the country.
By Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic, May 11, 2024
“University administrators are constantly regulating speech that is protected by the First Amendment. In the name of antidiscrimination, deans at Ivy League universities have tried to police matters as trifling as edgy Halloween costumes and slang on law-school party flyers. I favor opposing discrimination. I favor protecting speech. Colleges are too inept at both projects to excel at either when vague, constantly reinterpreted regulations prompt continuous monitoring of speech.”
The Diversity Leadership Fallacy
Exploring the efficacy and ethics of diversity initiatives
By Ryan Ruffaner, Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism, May 21, 2024
Yale Tells Hopeful Scientists: You Must Commit to DEI
One department seeks applicants who “feel personal responsibility” for helping to create an equitable and inclusive environment.
By John Sailer, The Free Press, May 23, 2024
By Jay Battacharya, Restoring America, May 24, 2024 (See quote of the month below.)
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.
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.
