Letter to the Editor: Eisgruber's administration has quietly eviscerated the free speech rule
To the Editor:
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To the Editor:
Yes, this will be as straightforward as it sounds: no title could better encapsulate the nature of this piece and our motivations for writing it. Reading The Daily Princetonian and seeing the negative charge towards the University in many articles prompted us to write this letter to immortalize our staunch feeling of love and gratitude for Princeton. We realized that, both in our case and in the case of many other students, it so often happens that the desire to better one’s community renders you blind to all the great things the community already bestows you. In spite of the challenges it can pose, Princeton is an incredible place to learn, grow, and prepare for life.
Last summer, as a fellow in his namesake program in government service through the Princeton Internships in Civic Service (PICS), I got to hear Leonard Schaeffer ’69, a businessman, speak about maintaining a good work-life balance. Schaeffer spoke about how trying to attend his children’s big games or shows — even jetting around the country for this purpose — often meant that he was the only father in a room full of mothers. This advice, while inaccessible to most of us without private jets, felt particularly meaningless for the women in the room. Schaeffer was able to make his contribution to his kids lives seem completely compatible with his career. Yet what about those mothers which he was the only father among? If those women in his story were all stay-at-home moms, what were we supposed to think about our career prospects? He left a persistent problem for the female participants to discuss post-lecture: how do high-achieving women have it all?
“The most striking thing about the lesbian community at Princeton,” one 1979 article in The Daily Princetonian noted, “is that it doesn’t exist.”
Now that Princeton University has begun a process of fossil fuel divestment by committing to remove publicly traded fossil fuel companies from its endowment, it is time to apply the same logic to the University’s employee retirement plan. All of us in the Princeton community — the Board of Trustees, President Eisgruber, faculty, staff, and students — can contribute to persuading the retirement plan managers, the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA) and the Vanguard Group, to divest their funds of fossil fuel companies. In the interim, Princeton should supplement the available options in its retirement plan with a broad selection of fossil fuel-free funds.
What should I do with my time here? This question sometimes feels like a specter haunting me while I try to make my way through campus. Much of the time, the answer is obvious: try to keep up in the fast-paced academic environment that Princeton prides itself on, which is a tall order in and of itself. Much ink has been spilled over whether or not Princeton’s academic environment is conducive to a balanced and healthy existence. But what about the rest of our time? Overlooked in the past semesters’ mental health discourse is the toll of our obsessively competitive culture. Princeton’s network of competitive systems feels natural to us, but it is worth considering: is striving to one-up each other truly the best use of our limited time on campus?
In 2019, Princeton Students for Title IX Reform (PIXR) led a 200 hour long protest that called upon the University to address the culture of sexual misconduct on campus and reform its unethical implementation of Title IX procedures and investigations. In the four years since the protest, the Princeton community has learned that we cannot rely on the University to ensure or provide opportunities for justice, healing, protection, or prevention. The lack of resolution as the protests ended, compounded by the University’s refusal to address the traumatizing and violating nature of Title IX proceedings, reflects its ongoing failure to confront systemic and cultural issues on campus that enable sexual misconduct to occur. We, the members of PIXR, continue to advocate for justice, safety, and healing for survivors of interpersonal violence and a paradigm shift in the campus culture that has brought about these harms.
A year ago, I called on the University to improve the experience for Muslim students during Ramadan. This Ramadan, there were marked improvements for Princeton Muslims thanks to the collaborative efforts of the Muslim Student Association, University Student Government, and Campus Dining.
The following is a guest contribution and reflects the author’s views alone. For information on how to submit an article to the Opinion section, click here.
The following is a guest contribution and reflects the author’s views alone. For information on how to submit an article to the Opinion Section, click here.
The following is a guest contribution and reflects the author’s views alone. For information on how to submit an article to the Opinion Section, click here.
On April 22, the Daily Princetonian released the results of its highly anticipated annual Senior Survey. Among a wide array of data points it collected, the survey asked 571 graduating seniors (approximately 44 percent of the Class of 2023) to answer questions about their political views — quizzing them on topics ranging from their vote in the 2020 U.S. presidential election to how their stances on issues have evolved over the course of their undergraduate education.
Princeton does not give students the option to take five years of undergraduate coursework. Such a primitive and restrictive policy is detrimental to the University’s success and the health of the student population. For many students, four years is not enough to fully explore their interests and personal goals.
The following is a guest contribution and reflects the author’s views alone. For information on how to submit an article to the Opinion Section, click here.
The following is a guest contribution and reflects the author’s views alone. For information on how to submit an article to the Opinion Section, click here.
Princeton represents the scientific and intellectual vanguard of our society, and it needs to act like it by demonstrating an awareness and care for student needs. When the University prioritizes performance metrics over students’ well-being, trust in the institution’s commitment to mental health is eroded. If we feel like Princeton is an aggravator of our conditions, why would we look to it for help? This is the reality: Princeton does not adequately show students that it cares about our mental health. Therefore, we are less likely to seek help when we need it, which may create or exacerbate existing mental health issues.
The following is a guest contribution and reflects the author’s views alone. For information on how to submit an article to the Opinion Section, click here.
The following is a guest contribution and reflects the author’s views alone. For information on how to submit an article to the Opinion Section, click here.
The following is a guest contribution and reflects the author’s views alone. For information on how to submit an article to the Opinion Section, click here.
Grading is a subject of great mystery and concern at most schools, including Princeton, especially as finals season approaches and the end of the semester draws near. But conversations around grading reform are less prominent, and the Princeton community has yet to sufficiently grapple with the important questions of this debate. Are the systems we have in place conducive to student learning and growth — or are they harmful to those objectives? And do they constitute an accurate standard for assessing students’ academic progress and achievements (if such a standard is even possible)?