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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.
PFS’s second annual survey of Princeton students, conducted by College Pulse, was released in early June. As PFS Co-Founder Ed Yingling ’70 wrote: “This survey provides information on student attitudes on key free speech issues. Because the survey is being done annually, comparisons can be made to see if Princeton is making progress. Unfortunately, with three important exceptions, on most issues the survey shows little or no progress from the troublesome results in the first survey. In a few cases, the results are worse than last year. Clearly Princeton still has work to do.” Read More
Our very own Matthew Wilson '24 has been promoted to Programs Associate. Matthew joined our team over a year and a half ago as an undergrad, and we are excited to be working with him for another year before he heads to law school.
In other student news, Writing Fellowship applications are now open for the fall 2024 term. For instructions on how to apply, please head to our student portal.
Confidence in colleges and universities hits new lows, per FIRE polls
By Nathan Honeycutt, FIRE, June 11, 2024
Confidence in higher education has plummeted to its lowest level ever according to the results of two new national polls commissioned by FIRE and conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago.
Harvard’s ‘Abysmal’ Year Continues
By Samuel J. Abrams & Steven McGuire, Minding the Campus, June 17, 2024
Harvard’s year has been one for the history books. It ranked last in the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s annual college free speech survey, earning its own category of “abysmal.” It had quite possibly the worst response to Hamas’s October 7th terrorist attack on Israel in all American higher education.
Bureaucracy Is Eating Higher Education. Just Look at Yale
By Lauren Noble, National Review, June 27, 2024
In the last year alone, the university added nearly three times as many bureaucrats as undergraduates and twice as many bureaucrats as educators.
‘Momentum undeniably growing’: More elite colleges look to end DEI hiring mandates
By Katlyn Anderson, The College Fix, June 26, 2024
Yale, Columbia still use DEI in hiring as other elite colleges like MIT, Harvard abandon practice.
October 1, 2025
Dear PFS Subscribers, Members and Friends,
On September 25, PFS Vice-Chair Leslie Spencer ‘79 and Executive Director Angela Smith attended the third annual conference of the MIT Free Speech Alliance, an affiliated alumni group. The conference focussed on this fraught moment in higher education, with threats posed by both left and right and by the federal government.
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.
July 1, 2025
Dear PFS Subscribers, Members and Friends,
June provides a welcome pause for PFS to try to make sense of a year uniquely disruptive in the history of American higher education. There was no better place to do this than at Heterodox Academy’s third annual conference, Truth, Power and Responsibility, held June 23 - 25 in Brooklyn, New York.
