Our Purpose
The Princeton Council on Academic Freedom is a faculty group devoted to fostering and defending academic freedom and intellectual pluralism on our campus. Princeton has long affirmed that free inquiry and expression are fundamental to our university’s mission to seek truth and advance knowledge. We believe that the faculty should play a leading role in nurturing and safeguarding academic freedom, thereby ensuring that our colleagues may continue to conduct research and teaching in an environment that is free from fear of reprisal for positions they defend, questions they ask, or ideas they entertain.
Though we differ in our scholarly expertise and in many of our academic and personal commitments and ideas, we collectively support two core principles:
Freedom of Inquiry and Expression
All members of Princeton’s faculty should enjoy broad freedom to explore any scholarship they deem worthy of inquiry and to teach and publish the results of such work; freedom from discipline when speaking out about university policy and governance; as well as freedom from institutional censorship or discipline when speaking or writing as private citizens.
Intellectual Tolerance
Princeton University benefits from intellectual pluralism. Members of our community who hold a broad range of First Amendment-protected opinions should be able to express them in an open and rigorous academic environment. To that end, we encourage respectful and undaunted discussion of ideas, as well as civil disagreement, both within and beyond the classroom. Preserving this commitment requires adherence to neutrally and consistently enforced time, manner, and place regulations that ensure the unhindered functioning of the university as a condition of everyone’s academic freedom.
We are committed not only to defending these principles when they come under threat but also to serving as a forum for civil discussion and debate, including about the nature and challenges posed to and by academic freedom.