University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 rebuked the Trump administration’s cancellation of $400 million of federal funding to Columbia University in an opinion piece published in The Atlantic on Wednesday morning.
“The attack on Columbia is a radical threat to scholarly excellence and to America’s leadership in research. Universities and their leaders should speak up and litigate forcefully to protect their rights,” Eisgruber wrote in the piece, a rare public move and his strongest statement against the administration to date.
Eisgruber opened the article by outlining the federal government’s close funding relationship with universities, arguing that it “facilitated the unfettered pursuit of knowledge” — so long as the government respected academic freedom.
His emphasis on the necessity of federal funding for research mirrors a recent focus of the University to highlight research enabled by federal funding. This includes a pinned Instagram post on Princeton’s official account that showcases health research funded by NIH grants from Princeton and its peer institutions, as well as Eisgruber making a commitment in his annual letter to the community to spend more time in Washington, D.C. lobbying for funding and preventing endowment tax increases.
Universities’ reliance on federal funding, however, has led to precarity as the Trump administration turns against institutions of higher education. In the article, Eisgruber noted that if the government were to ignore the importance of academic freedom, “it could bully universities” by taking advantage of their dependence on federal funding. As evidence, he cited the Trump administration’s decision to revoke $400 million in funding from Columbia University over what the administration characterized as “persistent harassment of Jewish students” amidst campus protests.
Eisgruber provided a narrow defense of Columbia, recognizing “legitimate concerns” surrounding campus antisemitism that may warrant investigation.
“To the extent that the government has grounds to investigate, it should use the processes required by law to do so, and it should allow Columbia to defend itself,” he wrote. “Instead, the government is using grants that apply to Columbia science departments as a cudgel to force changes to a completely unrelated department that the government apparently regards as objectionable.”
In his defense of academic freedom, Eisgruber expressed support for a university model permissive of controversial speech and dissent, while restricting campus disruption and rule-breaking. This argument closely aligns with previous comments he made in an article for The Daily Princetonian.
Similar ideas are also present within section 1.1.3 of Princeton University’s Rights, Rules, Responsibilities regulations on freedom of expression, which dictate that speech and action are permissible so long as they do not constitute harassment, create an unsafe environment, impede the operation of the University, or “violate the law.” On campus, protests in support of Palestine have largely conformed to these restrictions, sometimes referred to as “time, place, and manner.”
Eisgruber concluded his op-ed with a warning that further encroachments into the academic freedom of universities could result in a reduction in innovation and set a precedent for more speech restrictions under future administrations—even liberal ones.
Notably, Eisgruber did not explicitly mention Princeton or his position as the University’s president in the article, though it is included in his byline.
In the early weeks of the Trump administration, Eisgruber attempted to project an air of calm, adopting the slogan “Keep Calm and Carry On.” In recent months, however, Eisgruber has increased his public presence. In October of last year, he became the chair of the Association of American Universities, a collection of 71 top research universities that lobbies for policy related to higher education.
He has also been more outspoken in recent months, writing in The Atlantic last February about the importance of diversity on college campuses. His most recent article is another step into the national conversation on the future of higher education.
The University is not immune from attacks from the federal government, though. Eisgruber’s piece came hours before Princeton announced a hiring freeze, citing uncertainty around federal funding, a potential increased endowment tax, and future actions by the administration.
Vitus Larrieu is a senior News writer for the ‘Prince.’ He is from Pensacola, Fla. and typically covers community activism, the state of higher education, and construction and architecture.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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