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Thirty-eight percent of Americans currently report having “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in higher education, according to this year’s Gallup poll, down from 42% last year and just two points above the record lows of 36% recorded in 2023 and 2024. Last year’s uptick, it turns out, was not the start of a recovery so much as a blip.

A proposal for proctoring on all examinations will be considered by two faculty committees before potentially reaching a faculty vote in May, according to Dean of the College Michael Gordin. This unprecedented proposal comes amid administrative concerns about cheating, especially given the prevalence of generative AI tools.

The change would constitute the most significant alteration to date to Princeton’s honor system since its establishment in 1893. Under the Honor Code, students pledge both to refrain from infractions of academic dishonesty and to report any academic integrity breaches they witness.

Joseph Kahn, the executive editor for The New York Times, spoke at Princeton on Wednesday as part of the Dean’s Leadership Series at the School of Public and International Affairs. Before his talk, Kahn sat for an interview with The Daily Princetonian, where he emphasized the role of student journalism and how the Times has adapted to the modern media landscape. 

February 2, 2026

Dear PFS Subscribers and Friends,

2026 has started with a bang. “Viewpoint diversity” is in the news. What is its role in protecting the knowledge-generating and truth-seeking mission of America’s universities? Please see our Special Feature, an original article by PFS’s Edward Yingling and Leslie Spencer, The Next Campus Battle after Free Speech: Viewpoint Diversity at America’s Elite Universities.

Also see an important new book Viewpoint Diversity: What It Is, Why We Need It, and How to Get It, forthcoming next month from Heresy Press. It is a collection of essays by some of the country’s leading heterodox thinkers who confront the rise of orthodoxy on both the left and the right.

And our Quote of the Month is from a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, Is a Four-Year Degree Worth It? by the President of Dartmouth Sian Leah Beilock, who makes an urgent call for university leaders to take action now to “reform ourselves.”

Happy New Year from PFS!

July 1, 2024

To Princetonians for Free Speech Subscribers, members and friends,

The Princeton campus, and others, have quieted down for the summer. But the drama of recent months seems likely to resume this fall, and PFS will be keeping you posted.

Princetonians for Free Speech participated for the fifth time at the 5th Annual Campus Free Speech Roundtable, hosted by North Carolina Congressman Greg Murphy, MD, held in Washington, D.C. on December 12th.

This year, Executive Director Angela Smith represented PFS at this event. The purpose of the 90-minute roundtable was to hear from free speech experts, engaged alumni, representatives from the Trump Administration, and lawmakers about the importance of protecting free speech in higher education.

December 1, 2025

Dear PFS Subscribers and Friends,

This month we are proud to present our 2025 Annual Report. It includes a message from our founders, financial summary, highlights of our projects and initiatives for the year, and our list of Top Ten recommendations for Princeton’s leadership to help restore a culture of free speech, open debate and viewpoint diversity, and put Princeton’s free speech principles into practice. We are pleased to present this summary of our year as you plan for your year-end charitable giving.

August 29, 2025

Dear PFS Subscribers, Members and Friends,

Big news! PFS now has over 10,000 subscribers, representing 14% of the undergraduate alumni population. 

 “Resist vs. Reform” is this month’s Special Feature: President Christopher Eisgruber ‘83 was in the spotlight, forcefully defending his leadership role in the now publicly acrimonious divide. Some university presidents, including Eisgruber, urge their colleagues to present a united front against the Trump administration and refuse to admit a need to reform longstanding problems. The opposing camp, led by Chancellors Daniel Diermeier of Vanderbilt University and Andrew D. Martin of Washington University St. Louis, argues that “de-wokification” reform from within is the only way to resolve what is needed to restore public confidence in elite higher education.

To Princetonians for Free Speech Subscribers, Members and Friends,

In February the Trump administration’s focus on radical change in higher education continued unabated. The Department of Education Office of Civil Rights released a letter on non-discrimination policies. DEI programs are targeted, with sweeping mandates that have caused several universities to take preemptive action to avoid federal funding cuts. 

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,

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.

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.

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. 

The Princeton chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) met Monday afternoon for a discussion surrounding academic freedom and the Trump administration’s attacks on higher education. 

Fewer than 30 faculty members attended the meeting, compared to the over 50 members present at the chapter’s inaugural meeting. Faculty members reformed the Princeton chapter of the AAUP last March amid attacks on higher education from the Trump administration. Since then, they have convened monthly to discuss updates and to identify threats to higher education.

Prestigious universities and leading state schools across the nation have embraced viewpoint diversity by building new institutions—civic education centers and the like—which are simultaneously on yet apart from the campus. Harvard has quietly taken a different tack. Over the past several months, the university’s top brass have been asking major donors for $10 million gifts to endow new professorships under the banner of “viewpoint diversity.” Provost John Manning, a scholar often associated with the conservative legal movement, has led the effort, aiming to place between 20 and 30 new faculty across schools and departments rather than siloed in a standalone institute. 

Why Harvard would need additional funding for this is an open question, but putting that partly aside, we ought to ask what to make of this unique initiative. It stands a chance of being either the most consequential reform attempt in elite higher education this decade, or a sophisticated piece of reputation management serving double duty as a clever fundraiser. Which one it turns out to be depends on whether Harvard has thought carefully about what viewpoint diversity means, and whether it intends to execute in line with a considered answer.

Yale University has finally achieved the academic version of Nirvana, a state of perfect peace and enlightenment. A recent study found that the faculty had finally purged every Republican donor from its ranks. While 98 percent of the political donations went to Democrats, not a single professor could be found who gave to a single Republican candidate. The complete lock for Democrats is in a country that is split evenly between Republicans and Democrats.

The Yale Daily News reviewed more than 7,000 Federal Election Commission filings from 2025 listing Yale as the employer: “Of 1,099 filings that included ‘professor’ in their occupation, 97.6 percent of the donations went to Democrats, while the remaining 2.4 percent went to independent candidates or groups,” the student newspaper reported Jan. 14.”

The study reinforces the recent Buckley Institute report, which found that, of the 43 departments surveyed, 27 entire departments contained zero Republican professors.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Noël Wise ruled that immigration provisions that allowed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to revoke student visas had a chilling effect on noncitizen student journalists at the Stanford Daily. Wise wrote that portions of two federal immigration provisions are unconstitutional when used against noncitizens for speech protected by the First Amendment. 

The Stanford Daily Publishing Corporation brought the lawsuit alongside two anonymous students unaffiliated with Stanford, though one student was later dismissed from the case. The plaintiffs were represented pro bono by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE.

Last year at an event hosted by the DC Center of Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), the host of NPR’s “Weekend Edition Sunday” Ayesha Rascoe asked President Eisgruber if today’s students are “fragile flowers who can’t deal with anything challenging their preconceived notions?”  In response, Eisgruber shared that he in fact has observed quite the opposite. 

The truth about free speech on college campuses and in civic discourse in American society is more complex than individuals’ inability to handle opposing viewpoints. In reality, it is external complications that influence whether an individual decides to speak openly about a belief or position they hold. Students and leaders are consistently weighing whether openly expressing their opinion is worth the political, social, or financial repercussions that could arise as a result. 

The Princeton Council is changing course on proposed modifications to the municipality’s special event regulations after over 40 people assembled at the Council’s Monday meeting to register opposition to what they viewed as potential restrictions on the community’s ability to organize.

The potential ordinance that local activists objected to, which was discussed by municipal attorney Lisa Maddox during a work session at the Council’s March 23 meeting, would impose increased fees, a new permitting process, and space restrictions on large public events.