Eleven University affiliates were named by the National Association of Scholars in two categories of the top ten influencers in higher education in 2015.
The list appeared in an article titled "Roses and Thorns: NAS’s Top 10 List for 2015." Acknowledgement went to University of California, Los Angeles political science graduate student Michael LaCour, who was offered a position as assistant professor in the Wilson School, and members of the Princeton Open Campus Coalition, including Josh Freeman '18, Allie Burton '17, Evan Draim '16, Sofia Gallo '17, Solveig Gold '17, Andy Loo '16, Sebastian Marotta '16, Devon Naftzger '16, Beni Snow '19 and Josh Zuckerman '16.
Snow is a columnist, Naftzger is a contributing columnist and Draim is a former staff writer for The Daily Princetonian.
The NAS is a non-profit organization that promotes academic freedom, institutional integrity and principled citizenship in American higher education.
NAS Executive Director Ashley Thorne, who wrote the top 10 list, said that she collaborated with other members of the NAS staff to compile the complete list, which comments on diverse issues in higher education, including environmentalism, gender and sexual assault, science and history.
The Princeton Open Campus Coalition delivered a letter to University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 on Nov. 23 opposing the demands and techniques of the Black Justice League protesters. Civil dialogue was necessary because students were afraid to speak out against the recent BJL protests, the letter stated.
Freeman said that he is pleased with the recognition, especially since the POCC was only founded in late November and he did not expect the group to be nationally recognized so soon.
Thorne said that the POCC is significant because it shows the presence of students who, even if they agree with the complaints of the protesters, care about the method in which those concerns are voiced and respect the leaders of the school.
“[These students] are standing up for key principles that higher education is supposed to be about,” she said. “That kind of level-headedness is really needed on college campuses, and so it's encouraging to see that, it's important to remember those students exist, and I think that the protesters and people who are on their side should listen to them."
Joshua Zuckerman ’16, another member of the POCC, said that he believes that the POCC’s greatest accomplishment has been fostering a discussion that includes many perspectives, noting that no one at other campuses had stood up to oppose demands made by groups like the BJL and to link them to detrimental effects on free speech.
Thorne added that the mission of the POCC to listen in a respectful way and have a two-way conversation aligns with the goals and values of the NAS.
"Our mission is to have more debate. We are not a political organization, but we want to strengthen higher education, and one key way to do that is for academic freedom and civil dialogue to flourish, and that's what we hope to see,” she explained.
Zuckerman said that students at a few other top-tier colleges are in conversation with the POCC about how to start their own campus coalitions. He added that he could not share the names of the other schools, as students there have asked that the POCC not publicize the details at this stage.
“We would love to see what we have done spread across other colleges, hopefully nationwide, to make sure that what we're defending is being defended not just at Princeton, but at colleges across the country,” Freeman said.
LaCour co-authored a study with Columbia political science professor Donald Green for Science Magazine in December 2014 about how conversations with gay canvassers influence a voter’s stance on gay marriage. According to Science Magazine, the magazine retracted the study in May after investigation of irregularities in LaCour’s work revealed that the results of his survey could not be independently confirmed or reproduced, and that he misrepresented the incentives he offered to the survey’s participants and sources of funding.
LaCour had been offered a position as assistant professor in the Wilson School, but the University revoked its offer in June in the wake of the controversy.
Both LaCour and Green did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Thorne noted that scientific integrity was a big issue in the decisions made for this year’s list, and that replication of scientific research is an important but difficult task.
“We're trying to draw attention to the need for the public to be able to trust what scientists are doing and to have transparency in their methods,” Thorne said.
She added that the controversy surrounding LaCour’s retracted study has made an impact on higher education institutions by teaching a lesson about scientific integrity.
“With LaCour, I think he stands as a warning to scientists that it is important to be honest in your research and to publish real findings based on real surveys,” Thorne said. “Every time something like this happens, it decreases the public's confidence in the quality of science and social science.”
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