Several alumni petitions denounced Texas Sen. Ted Cruz ’92’s objection to the certification of electoral votes for Arizona and Pennsylvania, which his critics believe emboldened insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol Jan. 6.
When contacted by PAW for this article, Cruz’s spokesperson referred to a comment previously given to The Daily Princetonian about the petitions, which said: “To suggest that Sen. Cruz’s actions were unconstitutional is disappointing and dishonest, at a time when this country needs to come together and heal.”
On Jan. 7, Elise Harris ’92 began a petition for classmates to condemn Cruz’s actions, and as of Jan. 19, 578 had signed on — more than half of living classmates. Harris pointed out that her petition avoids suggesting remedies.
A petition for all alumni with more than 1,100 signatories, created by Alexandra Lebenthal ’86 on Jan. 11, called for Cruz to resign, denouncing his actions to be “contrary to the spirit and aspirations of Princetonians and Princeton University to make positive contributions to society.”
Joshua Faires ’20’s petition for Princeton students, alumni, faculty, and staff drew more than 1,400 signatures and also called for condemnation but suggested measures such as Cruz’s resignation, his recusal from pursuing further public office, and for Princeton to consider rescinding his degree.
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5 Responses
Walter Weber ’81
3 Years AgoWhy Just Cruz?
The February 2021 PAW reports on a petition, signed by over 1,400 students, alumni, faculty, and staff, calling for the resignation of Sen. Ted Cruz ’92 and for Princeton to consider rescinding his degree, apparently because he objected to the certification of some of the electoral votes in the past presidential election.
Why just Sen. Cruz? A surprising number of Democratic legislators — Sen. Barbara Boxer and a host of Representatives — lodged objections to electoral votes in other presidential elections in the 2000s. Shouldn’t they also have their college degrees rescinded?
Why just electoral college objections? Shouldn’t Princeton consider cancelling the degrees of all the alumni who fought on the side of the South in the Civil War — a genuine insurrection — rather than honor them in the Memorial Atrium in Nassau Hall? (See “Princeton in the Confederacy’s service,” PAW March 23, 2011.) And of course, there are the pro-segregation alumni like Woodrow Wilson 1879.
Why just settle for yanking Sen. Cruz’s Princeton degree? Shouldn’t the petition also call for the retraction of his law degree, high school diploma, and any gold stars he received in kindergarten?
Or is it possible that the goal of making a social leper out of someone, even if they did something that one regards as badly wrong, is simply petty, vindictive, and immature — not to mention totalitarian?
Lawrence Cheetham ’67
3 Years AgoPrinceton’s Lack of Self-Awareness
I am saddened by the prominence PAW awarded the political rebuke of a distinguished Princeton alumnus and United States Senator, when the motivation is clearly visceral and hardly intellectual. In President Eisgruber’s June 2017 essay, “Free Speech at Princeton,” he purposefully committed to “all members of the University community, the broadest possible latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge, and learn.”
Now comes a cross-section of the Classes of ’86 and ’92 to trash this orthogonal sentiment, calling for Ted Cruz ’92 to resign his Senate seat and fellow classmates to condemn his actions. A current junior at Princeton went further, recommending “Princeton … consider rescinding his degree.”
What was his heinous crime? Expressing his opinion.
What unleashed such rank intolerance? Challenging political orthodoxy.
Sen. Cruz, also a former Solicitor General from Texas, had planned to present an argument on Jan. 10 for the applicability of Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution to the tabulation of Electoral College votes to a joint session of Congress. But these activists see no purpose to Cruz’s existence: He must be silenced and, if possible, made to simply go away.
What part of Eisgruber’s call for civility do we need to study, to be wary of those that ennoble themselves as proponents of “the spirit and aspirations of Princetonians and Princeton University to make positive contributions to society” but are the non-thinking obstacles to our free speech? Have these zealots no self-awareness about the world they seek to create?
David Hingston *96
3 Years AgoSuggestion for a New Award
An article in the February 2021 issue reads:
“Several alumni petitions denounced Texas Sen. Ted Cruz ’92’s objections to the certification. ... On Jan. 7, Elise Harris ’92 began a petition for classmates. ... Alexandra Lebenthal ’86 ... called for Cruz to resign. ... Joshua Faires ’20’s petition for Princeton students, alumni, faculty, and staff ... called for condemnation but suggested measures such as Cruz's resignation, his recusal from further public office, and for Princeton to consider rescinding his degree.”
If possible, please add my name to Lebenthal ’86’s and Faires ’20’s petitions.
However, believing as I do that Cruz won’t resign from the U.S. Senate unless forced to do so by Republican Senators, and that Princeton won’t rescind his degree, I have another suggestion:
Princeton should create an award to be given only when an alumnus does something that 1,400 or more students, alumni, faculty, agree deserves rebuke.
It need not be printed. A digital version should become part of the University’s permanent online archive.
Awarded in recognition of especially disgusting behavior by an alumnus of Princeton University, the proposed award might be titled “Vomite Princetoniensis.”
Ron Thompson ’64
3 Years AgoCruz ’92 as a Juror
If, as seems likely, Ted Cruz ’92 votes to acquit Trump, joining with 34 or more other Republicans in willfully defying the overwhelming evidence of Trump’s incitement of the violent Jan. 6 insurrection, he and they will have engaged in the most public act of jury nullification in American history and will richly deserve the infamy attached forever after to their names.
Thomas D. Logie ’72
3 Years AgoRoom for Robust Debate
Purported revocation of Sen. Ted Cruz’s diploma (Princetonians, February issue) would be unfair and unjust. Someone earned and paid for Cruz’s education, and no university can be free to actually revoke a diploma based on later conduct even if reprehensible. Cruz did the work and earned his diploma. If someone wants to peacefully express one’s displeasure with a public servant, that is within the First Amendment. Do students truly want their diplomas — or their admission to Princeton — to hinge on whether they have followed whatever intellectual party line that may be in fashion at the current moment?
Why should Princeton or any other university have a party line at all? From robust debate comes truth. Justice Brandeis believed this, and Proverbs 27:17 reminds us that “iron sharpens iron; so one person sharpens another.” Without free and open debate there will be bloody repression and tragedy. Robespierre, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, and Fidel Castro all illustrate this, and there are many others. Why not invite Ted Cruz to a fair and open debate with a distinguished Princeton opponent in the long tradition of Princeton discussion and debate?