POCC asks that alumni sign and share the following letter. Signatures will not be published until a critical mass of alumni has signed on. Many already have. Please share this letter with your fellow alumni. Thank you all for your support.



Dear President Eisgruber,
 
We undersigned alumni write in support of the undergraduates of the Princeton Open Campus Coalition and their letter of June 29, 2020.[1] We are inspired by their commitment to the important freedoms of thought, speech, academic pursuit, and truth-seeking.

While we support efforts to increase awareness of racial injustice on Princeton’s campus, recently demanded remedies – such as “anti-racist” training and curricular requirements – will inevitably promote a one-sided ideology, which is the antithesis of a liberal education. For example, “anti-racist” training at other universities has regularly been used to enforce certain viewpoints on contentious policy debates rather than fostering mutual respect.[2]

It is only through a commitment to free speech and diversity of thought that Princeton can hope to break down barriers among people of different races, religions, and political ideologies. Princeton should be a community that brings together students from all walks of life for a common purpose: the pursuit of truth and justice through robust learning and good-faith disagreement.

Our request is simple: Princeton must maintain an atmosphere where, as you have said, all people are “free to express their opinions, even when those opinions may be disagreeable or offensive to people around them.”[3] Princeton should stand by the principles of free expression that you have professed and that the University has already codified.[4] Princeton must be impartial, facilitating open academic discourse, not indoctrination, on contentious issues.
 
With love for our alma mater and its future alumni, we hope that you and your administration will once again defend the time-honored principles of academic freedom that have made our University excel. If the mission of the University has changed, its alumni deserve to know.

Sincerely,
 
Princeton Alumni for Academic Freedom


[1] https://www.facebook.com/1658896681016555/posts/2618310721741808/?d=n
[2] https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/politics/sdut-university-california-microaggression-faculty-2015jun19-story.html
[3] https://inclusive.princeton.edu/addressing-concerns/freedom-expression
[4] https://rrr.princeton.edu/university#comp113