Justice Project splits from Pace Center

The Princeton Justice Project, a student group designed to address social injustice, removed itself from the sponsorship of the Pace Center for Community Service after the University raised concerns about the partisan nature of the group.

The PJP has now registered as a student group with the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students. As a student group, the PJP represents only its own views, rather than that of the University.

Robin Williams '04, co-president of the PJP, said concerns were brought to the administration about the relationship between the Pace Center and the PJP because of the University's position as a nonprofit organization, which prevents it from taking a stance on political issues. The PJP encourages group members to make speeches and give testimony on social issues in various settings including the statehouse, the governor's office and hearings. Founded in the spring of 2001, the organization serves as an umbrella organization for social justice campaigns such as needle exchange and housing equity.

Robert Durkee '69, University vice president for public affairs, said advocacy groups have to be solely student organizations.

"The University as an entity can't allow individual offices or groups under University auspices to take positions that might be perceived as University positions," he said.

A number of people, including several faculty members, questioned the relationship between the University and the PJP, Durkee said.

Shawn Sindelar '04, head of the criminal justice initiative of the PJP, said the timing of this news unsettled him.

"I think the concerns are valid, but it disturbs me they raised them when they did," he said. "We're concerned it was our visibility that prompted these concerns, not the actual work we're doing."

As a student organization, the PJP will now have to go to the USG projects board for event-specific funding.

Vice President for Campus Life Janet Dickerson said the University has standard expectations about student organizations.

"[By working with the Pace Center, the PJP] was able to bypass some of the processes we expect of undergraduate organizations," Dickerson said.

Williams said that one of the advantages of working with the Pace Center was that the center funded a working budget, rather than funding each of the group's campus events on an individual basis. In addition, under the Pace Center, the process of acquiring funding was expedited.

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"The catch-22 is that you go under ODUS and you don't have the funding to do the things we left Pace to do," Williams said.

Sindelar said this University policy "seems antithetical to the idea of Princeton in the nation's service," and Williams said it limited the possibility of student activism.

"The bottom line is it is actually really difficult for students to be able to get off campus and do these activities," he said.

Dickerson said the University does seek to encourage student activism and will continue to consider how to support it.

"We will be holding another meeting . . . to think about what else we might be able to do to facilitate student activism at the same time as we acknowledge and respect our status as a nonprofit organization," she said.