Princeton Says Federal Government Is Suspending Research Grants

Princeton University must stand up for its academic scholarship in the liberal arts and sciences and stand with Harvard, and if needed, by itself, against the United States government of 2025.

President Eisgruber, we appreciate your important message standing firm for academic and intellectual freedom of faculty and students in the face of autocracy.
Stable programs of government partnerships and grants are important. However, they come with drawbacks: It is often the government which decides or influences the focus of the research; and there is, as we have seen, the real potential of government blackmail.

Now, particularly since the government is trying to change university policies and behavior, universities should not only resist blackmail but should consider countering with more of their own restrictions as to specific types of research they will or will not undertake with government funding.

In the meantime, we stand firmly behind your courageous response to a regime of petty tyrants.

On April 7, the alumni group known as ’72 Friends for Reproductive Justice (founded several years ago by women in the class of 1972 in response to our classmate Justice Samuel Alito ’72’s authorship of the Dobbs opinion) wrote a letter to President Eisgruber to thank him for his courageous and principled stand in support of academic freedom. Since then, many of our fellow alumni have written asking to add their signature to the letter. Since some of the readers of PAW may also want to join us in thanking President Eisgruber, we want to make the text available to them as well. The text and the original signers follow:

Dear President Eisgruber:

We, the undersigned Women of Princeton, Class of 1972, and friends, want to express our profound appreciation for your Atlantic essay, “The Cost of the Government’s Attack on Columbia,” your March 21, 2025, interview with Jeffrey Brown of PBS on the topic of recent government attacks on research universities, and your April 1 statement to the New York Times following the suspension of several dozen federal grants.

We respect the clear and principled stand you have taken for the university, as well as yourself. It is a joy and a relief to join you in affirming that our beloved University must be unwavering in its commitment to academic freedom and anti-discrimination in all its manifestations. 

While these words may seem ordinary, they represent the heart of excellence. Without unfettered academic freedom in support of humanity’s highest potential, every discipline, every department, indeed every individual endeavor is made smaller and allowed to be less curious. At its worst there is a direct path to authoritarian repression when necessary conversations addressing the enormous challenges of our time are limited or constrained.

Thank you for placing these events in historical perspective. It is our wish that the proven partnership between government and the academy, enshrined over many decades, be fortified by present scrutiny and move forward undeterred in service of meeting the challenges of the 21st century.

As proud Princeton graduates it is our hope and belief that our work, our volunteer activities and our lives remain grounded in the values that your words so perfectly represent.

In light of the government’s recent suspension of monies that Congress approved, we encourage you to hold firm to your stated beliefs. As you put it to the PBS NewsHour, “Academic freedom is a fundamental principle of universities — it has to be protected … . And so I have concerns if universities make concessions about that. And I think that once you make concessions once, it’s hard not to make them again.” 

With our deep gratitude,

Susan Squier ’72

Helene Fromm ’72

Sherry Leiwant ’72

Judith White ’72

Daryl English ’72

Barbara Julius ’72

Helena Novakova ’72

Meggan Moorehead ’72

Elaine Chan ’72

Carol Obertubessing ’72

Doug Harrison ’72

Ann Sease Monoyios ’72

Sue Tuthill Schiess ’73

June Fletcher ’72

Mary Caroline McLeod ’72

Carol Rahn ’72

Elizabeth M. Landes ’73

Nancy Teaff ’73

Ruby Huttner ’72

Beth N. Rom-Rymer ’72 

Diana Foster ’72

Macie Green VanRensselaer ’73

Elizabeth Houghton ’72

Charles Schiess ’72

Maurice D. Lee, III ’72

Joan Matthews ’72

Marsha H. Levy-Warren ’72

Larissa Brown ’72

Aida del Valle ’73

Ellen Hymowitz ’73

Daniel Gardner ’72

William Fawley ’72

I applaud President Eisgruber’s leadership in standing up for academic freedom and protecting all students, faculty, and departments against baseless threats of deportation, defunding, and censorship. We need more university leaders with the moral turpitude to defend the rights of their communities and protect their mission.

We are writing to commend President Eisgruber’s recent statements decrying the Trump administration’s attack on Columbia University and calling out the profound threat such actions pose to academic freedom. His principled stand and gutsy leadership in this fraught moment are inspiring to those of us who believe that our country is at a historical crossroads that requires us all to stand up unequivocally for our democracy if we wish to keep it.

We urge him to continue to serve as a leading voice and force against the administration’s appalling assault against freedom of thought and speech. His courageous leadership is a shining example of “Princeton in the nation’s service” and we are proud that he is Princeton’s president and our classmate.

From a snail mail to President Eisgruber:

Please find enclosed an additional contribution to this year’s Annual Giving in appreciation of your strong stand against attempts by the Trump administration to curtail academic freedom and freedom of speech on America’s university campuses.

I support free speech.

Furthermore, I strongly resent using the notion of Jew hatred as a guise to threaten Princeton. My family respects the rights of students of any religion or no religion to be outspoken within the limits of civility.

For those who are observant, happy Passover.