When a Princeton classics professor wrote an article for the Quillette website taking issue with recent faculty demands over race, a storm of criticism descended. This was an opening for President Christopher Eisgruber and other university leaders to remind people that Princeton is a place where speech and debate are cherished. Instead, Princeton is demonstrating how a lack of leadership enables the cancel culture.
The professor is Joshua Katz, and his offending piece was headlined “A Declaration of Independence by a Princeton Professor.” Mr. Katz took issue with a petition sent to President Eisgruber signed by more than 350 faculty members. The faculty letter began with the statement “Anti-Blackness is foundational to America” and included demands ranging from an extra semester of sabbatical for faculty of color to removing the statue of John Witherspoon, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and former Princeton president who owned slaves.
Mr. Katz’s capital offense was his description of the university’s Black Justice League as a “local terrorist organization.” This hyperbole has given critics an excuse to denounce Mr. Katz without addressing his argument. His own department accuses him of using language that has long been used to “incite racial and specifically anti-Black violence.”
In a statement to the Daily Princetonian, President Eisgruber piled on: “While free speech permits students and faculty to make arguments that are bold, provocative, or even offensive, we all have an obligation to exercise that right responsibly. Joshua Katz has failed to do so, and I object personally and strongly to his false description of a Princeton student group as a ‘local terrorist organization.”’
But Mr. Katz was not saying the Black Justice League is al Qaeda or the IRA. The rest of that sentence defined what he meant, calling it a group “that made life miserable for the many (including the many black students) who did not agree with its members’ demands.”
As for Mr. Eisgruber, in 2016 Princeton rejected demands to remove Woodrow Wilson’s name from a Princeton residential college and its School of Public and International Affairs. Wilson’s racism was not in doubt then or now. Mr. Eisgruber said Princeton had “rightly” concluded the best path to diversity “is not by tearing down names from the past but rather being more honest about our history.” But this June students again demanded that Wilson’s name be purged. A week later the board decided — on Mr. Eisgruber’s recommendation — to excise the former U.S. president.
Mr. Katz has tenure, but the cancel culture doesn’t need to get him fired to succeed. It succeeds by making him an outcast in his own university, and intimidating into silence others on campus who might agree.
This is happening across America and is especially disappointing at Princeton. The university has welcomed more conservative and independent voices than some of its peers, and under President Eisgruber it was one of only two Ivy League schools to sign the University of Chicago principles upholding free and open inquiry. It’s a shame to see Mr. Eisgruber wilt under pressure now, when liberal values of speech and tolerance most need defending.
Similar issues even exist at less prestigious institutions, like local community colleges. In my job, I was tasked to improve college completion. After speaking to a small group about research on "the murky middle" I was called to the principal's office, metaphorically. The Black administrator told me that "we don't talk about our students that way here." I asked "what way." I asked if she knew what the "murky middle" research referred to. She did not. I explained that students in the middle of the GPA distribution often get less attention than those at the top and bottom. We can improve graduation rates by focusing some resources on those students. It did not refer to race.... Nevertheless, it became crystal clear that I should not discuss educational research that did not conform to institutional orthodoxy and potentially might offend, regardless of its veracity. I realized the institution focused more on ideology than truth. Pity for the students.
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Michael B. Reiner, PhD, is a higher education consultant and educational researcher. Previously, he was a professor of psychology and college administrator at City University of New York (CUNY), Miami Dade College, the Riverside Community College District, and SMCCCD. He can be reached at mreiner32205@gmail.com
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Similar issues even exist at less prestigious institutions, like local community colleges. In my job, I was tasked to improve college completion. After speaking to a small group about research on "the murky middle" I was called to the principal's office, metaphorically. The Black administrator told me that "we don't talk about our students that way here." I asked "what way." I asked if she knew what the "murky middle" research referred to. She did not. I explained that students in the middle of the GPA distribution often get less attention than those at the top and bottom. We can improve graduation rates by focusing some resources on those students. It did not refer to race.... Nevertheless, it became crystal clear that I should not discuss educational research that did not conform to institutional orthodoxy and potentially might offend, regardless of its veracity. I realized the institution focused more on ideology than truth. Pity for the students.
--
Michael B. Reiner, PhD, is a higher education consultant and educational researcher. Previously, he was a professor of psychology and college administrator at City University of New York (CUNY), Miami Dade College, the Riverside Community College District, and SMCCCD. He can be reached at mreiner32205@gmail.com
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