Princeton Free Speech News & Commentary

A Yale report blamed universities for declining public trust. Princeton professors are divided.

A Yale report blamed universities for declining public trust. Princeton professors are divided.

Devon Rudolph May 04, 2026 1 min read

On April 10, 2026, a committee of 10 professors at Yale University published a report examining issues including the suppression of free speech. The Daily Princetonian published an article outlining perspectives from multiple Princeton professors on the report and its potential implications for Princeton. PFS released a related editorial, Yale issues a clarion call for change, joining other leading universities. Where is Princeton? PFS put Yale’s report in the context of the growing consensus amongst a widening circle who believe University leaders must take responsibility for their role in reaching this critical point. President Eisgruber is not among this list of reformers.

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Executive editor of the New York Times discusses student reporting, modern journalism

Executive editor of the New York Times discusses student reporting, modern journalism

Leela Hensley April 28, 2026 1 min read

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. 

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Princeton Turning Point USA and a New Outlet For Student Expression

Princeton Turning Point USA and a New Outlet For Student Expression

Abigail Readlinger April 23, 2026 4 min read

Feroce and his co-founders believed that the chapter, while certainly not the only conservative group on campus, would fulfill a unique need. “There’s a lot of conservatives on campus, a lot of groups,” Feroce notes. But, he added, many of them are focused primarily on “academia and intellectual thought.” The mission of TPUSA, however, as evidenced by Wold’s lecture, revolves around common sense and plain speech. This is a mission, Feroce argued, that would “fill a space for students on campus” and appeal to an untapped group of conservatives seeking to express themselves.

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U. spent $240,000 on lobbying first quarter of 2026, second-highest total in history

U. spent $240,000 on lobbying first quarter of 2026, second-highest total in history

Gray Collins April 23, 2026 1 min read

Princeton spent $240,000 on congressional lobbying in the first three months of the year, the second-highest spending total of any quarter in recorded history. The University’s Lobbying Disclosure Act filing shows lobbying efforts spanning issues including scientific research, financial aid, immigration issues, and the recently increased endowment tax.

The increased spending comes after the Trump administration cut hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants to the University, investigated Ivy League institutions over allegations of antisemitism, and ended a program sponsoring active-duty service members in graduate studies.

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PFS Editorial: Yale issues a clarion call for change, joining other leading universities. Where is Princeton?

PFS Editorial: Yale issues a clarion call for change, joining other leading universities. Where is Princeton?

PFS Editorial  April 22, 2026 5 min read 3 Comments

On April 15, 2026, Yale President Maurie McInnis announced, in an open letter to the Yale community, the issuance of a blockbuster fifty-page report by a special committee of ten Yale faculty that called for reform across many aspects of Yale’s policies and educational practices. The report dealt extensively with PFS’s core issues of free speech, academic freedom, and viewpoint diversity. But it also addressed other issues, such as affordability, admissions policies, political homogeneity, governance, grade inflation, the impact of technology on learning – all those issues that contribute to the decline in trust in higher education.

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How Third Worldism Corrupts American Higher Education

How Third Worldism Corrupts American Higher Education

Tal Fortgang  April 22, 2026 6 min read

There is a particular kind of bad idea that thrives under the protection of academic freedom. Such a toxic philosophy does not contribute to the marketplace of ideas. Rather, it gains prominence within the academy precisely because it systematically poisons that marketplace from within. When it comes under attack from outside university gates, campus administrators invoke free inquiry and end up defending it as precisely the kind of controversial matter academics must be free to explore; professors assign it as cutting-edge gospel; students come to think of it as precisely what they’re attending college to absorb. 

Third Worldism is such an idea. Though it is not campus-grown like critical theory, it has found the American university to be an almost perfect habitat.

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