On Friday, Nov. 7, 2025, Sunrise Princeton, alongside the Princeton Progressive Coalition, organized a rally of more than 100 demonstrators.
We called on the University to act as a leader by defending life-or-death climate research, divesting from weapons manufacturers to end the genocide in Palestine, protecting immigrants and international students, and safeguarding academic freedom in a time when rising authoritarianism threatens progress across the world.
In addition to demonstrating enormous student support for progressive action in an authoritarian moment, the rally — “Princeton Rise Up” — proved something about Princeton students: We’re not apathetic about politics, like critics have long claimed about us.
As a lead organizer for this rally, I learned an important lesson: Princeton students care a lot about progressive change, and are willing to publicly display their support because they’re optimistic that their actions can make a difference on a policy level.
They just feel like they’re too damn busy.
Indeed, it’s true: Princeton students are busy — so much so that we’ve internalized busyness as integral to our identities. As a result, we conceptualize ourselves as busier than we actually are. But we must not let that stand in the way of fighting for progressive change.
During the six-week promotional period prior to the rally, during which we reached people of every political leaning, I heard from many students (and several faculty members) that they would have liked to attend but had prior commitments that prevented them. Their answers illuminated a key reason that rallies that are only advertised a week or two ahead of time have comparatively lower attendance: Princeton students’ schedules fill up, and it can feel difficult to free up an hour, even for a cause we support.
Campus activism has fallen victim to our perpetual busyness. But we’re not too busy to contribute just a few hours a semester, especially for political progress we care about. And each of us has the opportunity to help fix our disengagement.
We obviously have a lot to do. According to The Daily Princetonian’s Class of 2024 Senior Survey, the median student reported working on coursework for 25 hours per week, and 86 percent had a job while on campus. And plenty of us commit dozens of hours a week to a varsity sport, a performing arts organization, or another club like The Daily Princetonian.
These are important, unavoidable commitments, and any campus activist who asks you to abandon them indefinitely in favor of their political action isn’t worth their salt.
Don’t get me wrong, I spend plenty of time studying and working too — but taking part in activism gives me a fulfillment that none of those do. If you participate in student activism, not as something to slap on your resume but as a genuine source of fulfillment, it can make you feel less busy in the long run and become something to look forward to amid your busy schedule.
I wouldn’t ask students to abandon their coursework or other extracurriculars to participate in political action. Becoming more involved in campus activism has forced me to reckon with a simple fact: I’m not as busy as I thought I was. I had time to give. And because I find the job fulfilling, it doesn’t feel like a burden to devote that time to activism.
If the climate — or Palestinian freedom, or immigrants’ rights, or academic freedom, or anything else — is an issue you care about, then ask yourself: Do you have any time to give? Committing to progressive change can mean devoting anything from one to 120 hours per semester to it — and if you really care, don’t let busyness stop you from contributing whatever you have the capacity to give.
Sunrise Princeton is sponsoring a Undergraduate Student Government referendum during the current election cycle to call on Princeton to cut ties with PetroTiger, the fossil fuel company it owns. We ask all undergraduates to vote yes on Referendum No. 1, to demonstrate that we believe our University should not be profiting from the climate crisis. But voting yes on a referendum won’t be enough: When the question is eventually called by the Council of the Princeton University Community Resources Committee, we must demonstrate a more robust “campus consensus” for cutting ties with PetroTiger.
That will mean more political action, in the form of emails, anonymous comments, demonstrations, and more. And we will ask you, the students of Princeton University, to join us in that action each and every time. And if you find it more fulfilling than doomscrolling, like I do, you can play a part in organizing that political action, too.
To win the progressive change we support — whether at Princeton or at the federal level — requires political action everywhere and always. Sunrise and our allies will provide countless opportunities for political action. We need you, at least every once in a while, to join us as we fight for a more just world.
Isaac Barsoum ’28 is an Opinion columnist and co-coordinator of Sunrise Princeton. He believes that ending University complacency on progressive action must begin by quashing student disengagement. You can reach him at itbarsoum[at]princeton.edu.
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