Langsam denies trying to censor Tory's 'Rant'

In the most recent issue of the Princeton Tory, executive board members accused USG president Nina Langsam '03 of condemning and threatening the conservative publication — acts they say fall outside her jurisdiction.

The board followed up the accusations with a press release to local media, accusing Langsam of attempts to suppress free expression.

"[Nina's] position as USG president says she is to represent all constituents," said the publisher of the Tory, Pete Hegseth '03. "It seems like she is using her position to silence a group of students because they disagree with her opinion."

Langsam responded to a "Rant" in the October issue of the Tory that said, "Boys can wear bras and girls can wear ties until we're blue in the face, but it won't change the reality that the homosexual lifestyle is abnormal and immoral."

In her email to the Tory, Langsam asked Hegseth and Brad Simmons '03, editor-in-chief of the publication, not to attack "individual students on [Princeton's] campus," telling them to be cautious of crossing such lines in the future.

"I sent the email because I felt their words were callous and insensitive to a particular subset of campus," Langsam said. "It was a personal email with a personal opinion not meant to be published."

Langsam said many of the accusations were false and out of context.

"I never had any intention of trying to censor the Tory," Langsam said. "The goal of the email was to increase their sensitivity."

Despite requests from Langsam to keep the email private, Hegseth and Simmons published the email and a response. Several opinion pieces in The Daily Princetonian suggesting censorship of the Tory — and that the University halt funding of the magazine — alarmed the staff, Simmons said.

However, Hegseth said he does not think Langsam is part of this crusade.

"In the email, [Langsam] invoked her office and that alarmed us given the language in the oped pieces published in the 'Prince,' " Simmons said. "We felt it was important to publish her statement."

In her email, Langsam wrote: "As the elected representative of the students, I feel obligated to defend my constituents and friends."

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The Tory's response also claims Langsam put censorship of the magazine on the agenda of a USG executive board meeting. At the meeting, she reportedly said, "They should not be able to publish that," referring to the comment about the homosexual lifestyle being "abnormal and immoral."

The meeting, however, was not a formal gathering, but a Garden State dinner, to which dining services invites USG members once a semester, said USG Academics Chair Barham Ray '03, who was at the dinner.

"The Tory was brought up in casual conversation during which Nina expressed her feelings about the 'Rant,' " Ray said. "But no one was floating around the idea of censorship by any means."

The publication of the email was partially a result of lack of communication between Langsam and the Tory, Simmons said. In response to long emails written by Hegseth and Simmons, Langsam said she was "too busy" or ignored them all together.

"It was frustrating that only when she learned her name might be in the Tory did she demonstrate concern for clarifying what she had to say," Simmons wrote in an email.

Langsam said she responded to Hegseth and Simmons immediately after their initial emails, after which they asked her to write an article for the Tory.

"That is when I responded that I was too busy," Langsam said.

Hegseth and Simmons have both said that the response is not a personal attack on Langsam at all. It is, rather, a questioning of her role as a representative of the campus community. Both said it is important for the president of the USG to remain neutral, yet her statement seems to favor one group over another.

"If [Langsam] feels that she has been mischaracterized or that there has been confusion, we're glad that she has the chance to set the record straight," Simmons said.

Langsam said she does not plan to respond.