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Good morning!
After 25 years, politics professor Keith Whittington will leave Princeton for Yale Law School. Describing himself as a “right of center” academic, he claims that a lack of conservative voices in academic spaces fosters political polarization.
Having served in a bipartisan Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court, Whittington notes that the polarized political environment surrounding the Court has damaged confidence in public institutions. He told the ‘Prince’ that “the Court will, by nature, continue to be involved in very hot-button political issues,” as it did regarding the elimination of affirmative action and the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
At the beginning of this semester, a course offered by Princeton’s Department of Near Eastern Studies (NES) has come under criticism due to the inclusion of the book, “The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability” on the course’s syllabus. Whittington criticized attempts to get the book removed in an email to the ‘Prince.’
In an article from last spring, amid a debate over institutional neutrality, Senior Columnist Mohan Setty-Charity argues that a blanket principle of institutional neutrality may be misguided. Whittington has also questioned the principle of “institutional restraint,” warning that “once the institutions begin to stake out their own political positions, it will affect how individuals on campus feel welcome and fully part of the community.”
In a podcast interview, Whittington spoke with The Daily Princetonian on his career, free speech, grade inflation, and the Supreme Court following his announcement of departure.
LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE →
Analysis by Kent Kim
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