Princeton Free Speech News & Commentary

Wynne Conger
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: “They may have the sense of entitlement,” Larry Leighton ’56 writes of young Princeton alumni who donate at rates far lower than their predecessors. “[T]here seems to be very little knowledge of the importance of philanthropy generally.” In recent years, many alumni have penned “giving pleas” of a similar vein, bemoaning the dying culture of annual giving. But is the reality truly as terrible as these alumni assume it to be?

Yet in recent years, younger alumni have demonstrated a marked decrease in charitable donations, and especially when compared to that of previous classes. Although there may be a manifold of reasons as to why, more and more students have reduced their giving out of concerns about whether the endowment’s investments continue to line up with their values, along with the underlying recognition that the University is no longer sustained on the backs of alumni contributions.

Zach Gardner
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: As a former student and interviewee of Dr. Wright’s, I feel her conclusions deserve a defense. As a conservative, I believe Clemans-Cope’s article demands a response. As an advocate for free speech on campus, I believe the principles of free and open debate warrant a proper definition, not a poor caricature.

If personal experience is the currency of modern campus politics, my time at Princeton has proven Dr. Wright’s conclusions correct. I have benefited tremendously from an environment in which my views are in the minority.

Bridget O’Neill
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: In November 2015, student protesters from the Black Justice League (BJL) occupied the office of University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 during his office hours, commencing a 33-hour sit-in. The students came prepared with a list of demands, which included mandated cultural competency training for faculty and staff, an ethnicity and diversity distribution requirement, and the removal of the name of Woodrow Wilson Class of 1879 from the then-named Wilson School and College.

Following prolonged pro-Palestine activism in the spring, this scene of the BJL sit-in takes on new relevance — not for its impact on the University’s history of racial reckoning, but for how the sit-in permanently altered Eisgruber’s understanding of his own role in responding to student demands.

Bridget O’Neill and Miriam Waldvogel
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: The Council of the Princeton University Committee (CPUC) met on Monday, Nov. 11, for its second meeting of the academic year. The University's endowment came under particular scrutiny, as the group discussed divestment from Israel and fossil fuel dissociation. The state of dialogue among students in the wake of the US presidential election marked another of the meeting’s major talking points.

Julianna Lee
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: At Princeton, there is a stereotype of the classic Trump voter: hateful, uneducated, racist, and transphobic. Sitting at an Ivy League institution where a pre-election poll found that 74 percent of eligible undergrads cast votes for Harris, it’s easy to think that people don’t vote for Trump unless there is something really messed up about the way they see the world — but Princeton’s favorable view of the Democrats is an outlier.

We shouldn’t dismiss Trump voters as hateful, uneducated, or misinformed; we should engage with them about where they are coming from and why they made the choice they did.

Cynthia Torres
Daily Princetonian

Excerpt: Following the Clio Hall sit-in that ended in 13 student arrests, University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 sent a campus-wide email stating that the University was “exploring offering students arrested for protest-related offenses the option to participate in a ‘restorative justice’ process.”

However, according to an email chain obtained by The Daily Princetonian, this process quickly collapsed.