The event, attended by incoming transfer students and members of the Class of 2028, marked the President's third consecutive year leading an Orientation session on academic freedom and free expression.
President Eisgruber and VP Calhoun encourage new incoming students to be champions of free expression and respect
In his third year leading an Orientation session on academic freedom and free expression, President Christopher L. Eisgruber encouraged transfer and first-year students to make the most of the “transformative” opportunity they’ll have at Princeton to meet and learn from others with whom they disagree.
“I hope that you will lean in to this community where we have these opportunities for discussion of sensitive and hard subjects in a way that I think is rare in our society right now,” he said.
Joining Eisgruber for the discussion was Vice President for Campus Life W. Rochelle Calhoun. He urged their audience at McCarter Theatre Center on Tuesday to be “courageous and self-reliant” as they encounter ideas different from their own on campus, invoking the words of Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis.
“It takes courage, Justice Brandeis says, to confront rather than suppress views with which we disagree,” Eisgruber said in his opening remarks at the Orientation session. “It builds self-reliance, he suggests, to fend for ourselves in discussion or argument, and to listen when we are wrong, rather than to trust a censor or referee to take care of us.”
Foundations for free expression
Princeton University promotes a culture of free speech and inclusivity where people of every background can feel welcome to engage in vibrant discussion and argument.
Eisgruber told the new students: “I hope that you will lean in to this community where we have these opportunities for discussion of sensitive and hard subjects in a way that I think is rare in our society right now.”
For last year’s Orientation program, President Eisgruber was joined in conversation by Anthony Romero of the Class of 1987, executive director of the ACLU. Later that semester, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs Dean Amaney Jamal and her Columbia University counterpart Keren Yarhi-Milo held a talk on the Israel-Hamas war that was a model for scholarly discourse. Princeton is also working in a partnership with PEN America, a worldwide champion for free expression, to conduct workshops about free expression and academic freedom on campus.
After warmly welcoming the students to the Princeton community, Calhoun posed a series of questions in conversation with Eisgruber and later asked him to reflect on other questions students submitted.
At Tuesday’s event, Eisgruber called students’ attention to the University’s Statement on Freedom of Expression from Princeton’s Rights, Rules, Responsibilities — which “guarantees all members of the University community the broadest possible latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge, and learn."
Calhoun encouraged the audience to visit the University's new Protests and Free Expression website dedicated to policies, guidelines, FAQs and resources for members of the University community. "This website gathers all of the information you need to know about how we actually exercise our right to free speech, and also our respect for our community," she said.
Reaffirming self-reliance
In his opening remarks, Eisgruber expanded on the idea of self-reliance, which he told students “is especially important at a university,” and never more so than now.
“There will come a time, I suspect, when some of you want the University to issue a statement endorsing some position that you cherish or condemning some practice that you abhor. You might ask me for a statement, and, if you do, I will almost certainly refuse because free speech presupposes self-reliance," he said.
He explained his position: "It's not the job of a university, or a university president, to validate your opinions or to tell students or faculty members what to think about the issues of the day. On the contrary, it is my job to ensure that people on this campus — including all of you — have the freedom to say what they think. It is also my job to encourage you to engage with, and to learn from, others who think differently than you.
"For these reasons, I have rarely issued statements in the past, and I expect to do so even less frequently in the future," he said.
Growing through hard conversations
In a warm and candid Q&A session following the President’s remarks, Calhoun posed a series of questions to Eisgruber and later asked him to reflect on others that students submitted via QR code at the event.
Calhoun asked Eisgruber: “How would you advise students to respond when they encounter speech that they find upsetting or offensive?”
“That’s a great question,” said the President, whose answer looked back to his own time as a Princeton student in the Class of 1983.
“What I would say is, there are a lot of different options,” Eisgruber said. “I came here from a small town in Oregon long ago and met people who thought very differently, and sometimes they didn't understand my perspectives or my identity or my experiences."
He continued: “And in most circumstances if one can say something like, 'You know, you just said something that offended me' or 'You just said something that I really want to talk to you about' or 'You just said something that you may not understand how it sounds to me,' those can be some of the most important and transformative conversations of your entire Princeton experience," he said.
Eisgruber said there will also be times when the right thing to do is walk away and seek someone else's perspective.
"One of the things I love most about Princeton is the range of mentors — from the res college staff to our coaches to our faculty members," he said.
He encouraged the incoming students to find somebody they feel comfortable going to and saying, 'Wow, I just heard this and it has really upset me. Can I talk to you about it?'"
"It is my job to ensure that people on this campus — including all of you — have the freedom to say what they think," Eisgruber said at the event. "It is also my job to encourage you to engage with, and to learn from, others who think differently than you."