SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

FIGHTING BACK – OVERNIGHT:  Ah, old Princeton.  Not a place where you usually find revolution.  But some of the Princeton tigers are actually proving to be real tigers, the conservative kind.  From College Fix:  A group of more than 60 undergraduate students at Princeton University has called out a dean’s statement critical of the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict as a violation of administrators’ obligation to remain officially neutral on controversial issues.  The students addressed an open letter to university President Christopher Eisgruber in response to a Nov. 20 email by Amaney Jamal, dean of the Princeton School for Public and International Affairs (pictured).  Jamal had used the school’s email server to send a message to all students in which she called Rittenhouse a “vigilante,” stated the not innocent finding sets “a dangerous precedent,” and asserted that “there are racial inequities in nearly every strand of the American fabric.”  The students’ Nov. 24 letter is signed by members of the Princeton Open Campus Coalition and published on the Princetonians for Free Speech website.  They write that Jamal’s use of her administrative position to advance her views on the case “exerts pressure” on dissenting students to conform. Jamal’s official statement, they argued, suppresses honest debate and truth-seeking regarding the case.  The writers clarify that they do not object to Jamal’s views and uphold her right to advance them as an academic and a citizen. However, they argued:  "What motivates our letter is a concern about the implications of a University administrator, speaking in her official capacity, promulgating to an entire community of students her moral evaluation of the outcome of a highly publicized and controversial trial. Her doing so in effect places [the School for Public and International Affairs]’s institutional support behind a particular position on a matter which, as it engages the interests of so many, should invite a vigorous and respectful conversation amongst students and faculty alike."   It takes guts to go up against the administratioon of an Ivy League school.  We need to reinforce these kids by voting in a new, conservative Congress in November, which will have the power to cut off federal aid to academic programs that don't pass the laugh test.  Even at Princeton.

December 28, 2021