New Campaign Calls on Alumni to ‘Stand Up’ for Princeton, Higher Ed

Princeton University Presidetn Christopher Eisgruber gives a speech at Alumni Day

President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 said the new initiative responds to “serious threats” to universities.

Beverly Schaefer

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By David Montgomery ’83

Published May 9, 2025

3 min read

For the first time in memory, Princeton is inviting alumni, faculty, students, and allies to lend their voices to a broad campaign of political advocacy and public affirmation in response to the Trump administration’s unprecedented attacks on research funding and academic freedom in American higher education. “To my knowledge, this is a new kind of initiative for the University,” President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 told PAW in an early May interview about the campaign, which is called “Stand Up for Princeton and Higher Education.”

“We’re in a different state of affairs than we’ve been in before,” Eisgruber said. “Right now, there are really serious threats to what Princeton is doing and to higher education … . It’s also important to have new ways of talking about the University’s mission and responding to what’s happening.”

Princeton learned in early April that federal agencies including the Department of Energy, NASA, and the Department of Defense were suspending several dozen research grants without explaining why. Funding cuts also have hit other Ivy League universities for alleged antisemitism while, separately, House Republicans are considering a ten-fold hike in the tax on university endowments.   

The “Stand Up” campaign grew out of myriad recent interactions Eisgruber says he has had with alumni who’ve asked how they can help in this battle over the role and value of research universities. “My answer — in addition, of course, to mentioning Annual Giving — is to say, look, please help us to tell the University's story … . We need people to understand higher education, and we need people to understand Princeton, and we need people to understand why it matters.”

The campaign is designed to give supporters the tools to advocate. It began in late April with an email from Jennifer Caputo, deputy vice president for alumni engagement, to the 76,837 alumni who receive emails from Princeton. The message provided a link to the campaign website with background information on academic freedom, research funding, and endowments. It invited recipients to sign up for a newsletter, which comes out every two weeks or so, providing suggestions for telling Princeton’s story and making the case for higher education through various channels, such as congressional lobbying or personal networks of friends and communities.

The May 7 newsletter, for example, urged readers to “speak out against an endowment tax increase” and showed them how with a tutorial on lobbying. It provided an update on action in the House Committee on Ways and Means and explained how to determine if one’s representative sits on that committee. The newsletter suggested facts and arguments to raise in a phone call to the representative’s office, “which is often more effective than an email.”

As of early May, 7,236 people had signed up for the newsletter, according to the University.

Princeton is not alone in devising a grassroots advocacy program for the current political climate. Brown recently created a Brunonian Advocacy web page. Johns Hopkins started its Research Saves Lives campaign to highlight the impact of federal research dollars.

“It's particularly important for people to be in touch with those making decisions in Washington right now because there are a lot of critical decisions being made,” Eisgruber said, about things such as research budgets, the protection of academic freedom, the endowment tax, and Pell Grants. “It matters that people weigh in.”

Eisgruber, who also serves as board chairman for the Association of American Universities, has been setting his own example as an advocate. In addition to media commentary and interviews, he said he’s been “spending at least a couple days a month” in Washington. He said he’ll know the “Stand Up” campaign is succeeding when he visits a senator who says “yeah, we’re getting calls about that, or yeah, your alumni are talking to us about that.”

Eisgruber takes the early outpouring of requests from alumni for ways to get involved as a good sign. “It can make a tremendous difference to have people use their voices in the way that our democratic republic assumes citizens will,” he said.

28 Responses

Steve Reynolds ’80

4 Weeks Ago

Stand Up for All of Higher Education

As it should be, much has been written in the PAW about the now critical need for our community to “stand up” for our cherished University. Ensuring our nation’s global preeminence in higher education and institutional independence are causes that have never been more urgent, especially at elite private (i.e., “independent”) colleges and universities like ours. However, I feel that there has been insufficient recognition in the media and elsewhere of the plight of other private colleges and universities — and, more importantly, their students — that possess far fewer of the resources that will be necessary for some of them to survive this “perfect storm” of challenges they are currently facing. My nonprofit association, the Independent Colleges and Universities of New Jersey (njcolleges.org), supports the presidents of the 13 private/independent universities in New Jersey, including Princeton.

A significant part of our efforts at ICUNJ involves raising funds to support Pell-eligible and/or first generation students who face financial challenges as they pursue their degrees. While our alma mater provides unprecedented financial assistance to such students in need, most of our schools do not have endowments or alumni support sufficient to deal with the recent cuts in student aid and institutional support and the confounding attacks on higher education in general. I should note that while Princeton contributes a significant amount of financial and other assistance to our association, it receives relatively little from our efforts when compared to the other 12 — which makes me even more proud to be an alum. 

We all absolutely must “Stand Up” for Princeton, but I would ask that we also consider what we can do to support other private institutions in our state and in the nation that are now facing potentially debilitating state and federal cuts in student aid, along with reduced institutional support and harmful regulation. You think we have it bad …

Editor’s note: Steve Reynolds ’80 is president and CEO of the Independent Colleges and Universities of New Jersey.

Michael Goldstein ’78, Van Wallach ’80, Page Bondor ’90, David Schechter ’80, Rebecca Gold ’09, Jacob Gold ’06, Rabbi Yaakov Menken ’86

1 Month Ago

Taking a Stand Against Antisemitism

The June issue featured numerous letters lauding President Eisgruber’s stand against the Trump administration and its cuts in federal funding to universities.

The Department of Education has warned Princeton and 59 other schools of “potential enforcement actions” related to protecting Jewish students (see here). While in Princeton’s case the specific reason for the funding pause has not been stated, it is clear that Princeton is under investigation for not fulfilling its obligation to protect Jewish students.

Ironically enough, President Eisgruber announced the funding pause for Princeton on April 1, just before two more antisemitic events. One was the “anti-Zionist” conference sponsored by two University departments on April 4. The other was the infamous Naftali Bennett speech debacle on April 7, where Jewish students were reportedly cursed and the former Israeli leader prevented from speaking by hecklers.

Princeton has an antisemitism problem it appears unwilling and unable to address.

Based on examples at other Ivy League institutions, it appears to require legal pressure from the federal government, plus the threat of significant funding cuts, to get universities to take virulent campus antisemitism seriously and to treat students and applicants fairly.

At Columbia, $400 million in cuts may have finally gotten the attention of that university’s third president in two years. She has agreed to comply with the government to end the rioting, encampments, and vicious antisemitism that have paralyzed the school and forced Jewish students and faculty to work from home.

UPenn, which received a $175 million federal haircut due to trans athlete Lia Thomas swimming for its women’s team, has entered into an agreement to comply with Title IX. Among its stipulations, “UPenn will restore to female athletes all individual UPenn Division I swimming records, titles, or similar recognitions which were misappropriated by male athletes allowed to compete in female categories … UPenn will send a personalized letter of apology to each impacted female swimmer.” Perhaps Princeton swimmers will be among them.

Harvard has been recalcitrant, despite $2.6 billion in federal cuts and its own 300-page report acknowledging antisemitic incidents and the school’s failure to stop them. The federal government has formally found that “Harvard failed to protect Jewish students” and is “in violent violation” of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism sent a recent letter threatening to cut all federal funding. Does Harvard think it has a “right” to discriminate against groups like Jews and Asians while still taking tax money?

Let’s be honest; none of these changes would have happened without federal intervention. Yes, cancelling research grants to scientists and others uninvolved in denying students their civil rights is a blunt instrument. But the intransigence of the universities, after repeated efforts by students, alumni, and the government to make them stop discriminating, has left the government little choice but to take away what they love most, federal money.

Instead of pretending violent antisemitism is “free speech” or “academic freedom,” perhaps President Eisgruber could recreate a civil campus where all can learn.

Jon Greenwald ’64

2 Months Ago

Standing Up With Harvard

Though I hold its law degree, I am not a Harvard fan, certainly not in athletics. My student attitude mirrored Adlai Stevenson’s: “to bed every night a cheer for Princeton, every morning a groan for Harvard.”

As a New York Times stringer my senior Princeton year, I did a 1963 interview of Madame Nhu, South Vietnamese President Diem’s de facto first lady as the U.S. military involvement was growing.

Though she had been targeted by protest the previous day at Harvard, the Daily Princetonian staffers left her on the pre-program campus stroll to follow her beautiful daughter. I stayed with the mother, who commented: “Either Harvard must change, or the world must be warned against Harvard.”

I could not imagine when I included that quote in my story for The Times that a U.S. president would ever incorporate that sentiment in a campaign threatening the higher education that gives our country prestige and strengths, including by attracting foreign students, many of whom become its admirers and contributors to scientific research, medical services, and general civic capacities.

Today Harvard is on the front line of a vital national struggle: to maintain the democratic soft power that is a pillar of our global standing. All our schools need to join proudly, as Princeton is doing, with the “ten thousand men [now people] of Harvard” to oppose the power grabs of a president for whom the adjective “autocratic” increasingly appears insufficient.

Robert Crooker ’83

2 Months Ago

Stand Firm, Stay the Course

I was really inspired by Zoë Buck Bracey ’08’s letter to the editor in the May issue about redirecting her “modest” charitable giving from humanitarian causes to Princeton to stand up against government funding to universities being “weaponized.” My donations to Princeton over the years have been modest at best, but I join her in significantly changing that if Princeton continues to stand firm in defending academic freedom. So far, President Eisgruber’s leadership has been admirable and I hope that he and the trustees stay the course.

Vincent DiGirolamo *97

2 Months Ago

Support for ‘Stand Up’ Campaign

Yes, sign me up for the newsletter. Our most precious institutions are under attack for trumped up reasons. We will endure and triumph.

M. Tyson Gilpin Jr. ’65

2 Months Ago

Another Supporter

Sign me up. I will speak out.

Donna Hill Staton ’79

4 Weeks Ago

Stand Up

Stand up for higher education.

Mark Dwyer ’72

2 Months Ago

Fighting Extremists, Defending Research

From where does this come, this strange notion that our government should not help fund university research and other research to further healthcare and science, through grants and tax advantages? What better way is there of supporting the common good? Are we to suppose that groups of private citizens can step up and assume the task of supporting such efforts?

The administration’s assault on university research and academic freedom is being justified by a fig leaf of concern about antisemitism. I wonder whether those who oppose government support for the sciences would be comfortable with ending tax breaks for churches and other religious and charitable organizations. In any event, I think Princeton can be proud to be among the institutions standing up to a power grab by political extremists.

Mitra Sharafi *06

2 Months Ago

Valuing Free Speech and the Rule of Law

Thank you, President Eisgruber, for showing the courage and leadership to stand up against authoritarian impulses. This is (still, I hope) a democracy that values free speech and the rule of law.

R. David Mishalove ’62

2 Months Ago

Thank You, President Eisgruber

Thank you, President Eisgruber, for leading Princeton at a very challenging time. The issue of a university’s responsibility in allowing free speech but protecting the well being of all students is fraught with difficulty. I hope that Princeton is doing well in that regard.

I cannot understand why some alumni are opposed to government funding for research and in favor of Princeton losing its tax-exempt status. Research universities are vital for the advancement of knowledge. Princeton’s endowment supports faculty salaries and makes it possible for talented individuals to attend Princeton, and, hopefully, to continue on “in the nation’s service and the service of humanity.” This is especially important today.

Doug Hensler ’69

2 Months Ago

Divisive President in Nassau Hall

IMHO, this mess doesn’t begin to resolve until President Eisgruber is out of office. He is a divisive figure at Princeton, which has rendered him ineffectual. He has dug a hole from which he cannot extract himself, and now he goes begging alumni for support. Time for the board to take action.

Amie Knox ’77

2 Months Ago

Eisgruber’s Brave Stance

I completely disagree with Doug Hensler’s comment. President Eisgruber has bravely stood up for academic freedom in the face of the autocratic bullies in Washington. I’m hoping most alumni agree with me, not Mr. Hensler.

Mary Poteau-Tralie *91

2 Months Ago

A President for Our Times

Thank you, Amie. I could not agree more. President Eisgruber is a president for our times and I am grateful.

Eric Chase ’68

2 Months Ago

Unify Against Antisemitism

The antisemitism is the disgrace of the decade. This should be our unified message.

Paul Kennison ’70

2 Months Ago

Questions for the Commenters

Some questions for the readers who’ve posted comments:

In response to Doug Hensler ’69 and Eric Chase ’68 — I’m asking because I’m not sure: Are you confusing antisemitism with pro-Palestinian-state-ism? Many people who are not antisemites, including many Jews living in Israel, are in favor of a Palestinian state. Wouldn’t you agree?

For James Fair ’72, are you willing to share your reasons for thinking that President Eisgruber should be fired?

For Robert Walter Ehret ’67, do you also think that churches should get off the “taxpayer funded ‘teat’” and pay taxes like the rest of us? If not, why not?

James Fair ’72

2 Months Ago

A Vote Against Eisgruber

Hear, hear. I think Mr. Eisgruber should be fired.

Ed Overtree ’66

3 Months Ago

Taxing Higher Education

Princeton wants its academic freedom. So do I.

I pay income taxes at the 21% marginal bracket and so should Princeton.

Freedom comes with responsibilities and Princeton must relinquish its non-taxable status.

Douglas M. Carpenter ’55

3 Months Ago

Faith-Based Resistance

Jesus lived his entire life under the rule of tyrants, the Herods and Roman rule in general. His resistance to this and his entire way of life brought about his early death. We honor him by living as he lived even if it gets us in trouble with the present U.S. tyrant.

Paul Firstenberg ’55

3 Months Ago

Thank You for Resisting

Thank you for resisting Donald Trump and preserving the educational integrity of Princeton! I am Bill Bowen’s financial vice president and a 1955 graduate. My daughter Debbra Kushma is 1980 graduate. Both our lives have benefitted in countless ways from our Princeton education. Among other things it taught me how to write about matters important to me; the result: three published books of nonfiction and numerous journal articles. So count on Princeton alumni to grasp the special benefits of the Princeton experience and stand tall against Trump.

Robert Buntrock *67

3 Months Ago

Alumni in Congress Should Stand Up, Too

Prevail upon Princeton alumni in Congress, especially Ted Cruz ’92, to honor their Princeton education and degrees (rather than their dishonorable previous stands and statements) to defend colleges and universities from arbitrary and illegal funding cuts and attacks on academic freedom and the endowment.

Robert Walter Ehret ’67

3 Months Ago

Colleges Should Fund Themselves

I strongly agree with the approach of the Trump administration — and hopefully congress and the judiciary — are taking to get so-called “private” colleges and universities to fund themselves.

I believe that Princeton University should intentionally get off the taxpayer funded “teat” and follow the Hillsdale College model.

John Scott ’58

3 Months Ago

Not a Model for Princeton

Does Hillsdale College engage in ground-breaking research which will help humanity, or does it just engage in religious propaganda? Not a model for Princeton to emulate!

Joyce W. Gardiner w’56 p’98

3 Months Ago

Communicate Higher Ed’s Achievements

I want to encourage understanding higher education with emphasis on its goals and achievements. I believe in the need for respectful and rational communication on all social issues, from specific ones like economics to broad underlying values like equality under the law. Thank you.

Donald Pickels ’73

3 Months Ago

MAGA Is Popping Princeton’s Bubble

I am sick and tired of the antisemitic nonsense going on at Princeton. I'm also tired of your traitorous support of it. I'd be happy to see you lose your tax-exempt status to teach you Marxists a lesson. You have ceded control to America-hating libs who are content to ruin America. You live in a leftist delusional bubble that we MAGA people have popped wide open. Grow a spine, a brain, and get out of our way.

Gaetano P. Cipriano ’78

3 Months Ago

No Taxes for University Research

I’m delighted that the federal government is cutting the funding.

It was never intended or anticipated in the Constitution that research conducted in universities would be funded by tax dollars. The taxes paid by a plumber in Davenport, Iowa, shouldn’t be paying for Princeton professors making a fortune and barely teaching. Or to build the latest Taj Mahal building using the most expensive design team ever assembled. Get back to basics. The most grotesque waste of money in history is the Plasma Physics Lab at Forrestal at which billions of dollars were flushed down a rat hole trying to commercialize fusion to generate electricity. Failure after failure after failure funded by my tax dollars.

Robert Buntrock *67

3 Months Ago

Research Cuts Destroy Decades of Investment

Research is not something that could be anticipated by the Constitution. This reply exhibits ignorance on the entire research process, especially basic research. Trump and DOGE are taking a chainsaw approach to a lot of funding, especially research, and as many have pointed out, destroying the accumulated knowledge over several decades making the U.S. the leader in STEM. In addition, the support of students at all levels is being decimated. The return on taxpayer investment over the years is huge.

What was your major at Princeton and what has been your career since? Sounds like we have a major ideological contest with the apparent partisan ideological polarization of science and education.

Ed Overtree ’66

3 Months Ago

Same Questions

What was your major at Princeton and what has been your career since?

Bruce M. Ramer ’55

3 Months Ago

Princeton Serves the National Interest

Princeton has a long history of service in the national interest. This contribution needs to be reinforced and continued. Funding, both public and private, must be continued and increased to allow the University to continue and to increase its service in the national interest. The University should continue to publicly announce its areas of service and specifics regarding the particular services and their results.

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