In his letter in the April 2025 PAW, Bill Hewitt ’74 advises Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 to knuckle under to the Trump Executive Order calling for the University to abandon diversity, equity, and inclusion programs or face losing federal funding for education and research.
Hewitt seems to assume that Trump’s action will withstand a court challenge, and he sides with those who believe that efforts to encourage a diverse student body degrade education. The latter position is akin to the thinking of Pete Hegseth ’03, our new, short-on-military-experience Secretary of Defense, who fired Air Force Gen. C.Q. Brown, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, after insinuating that the well-respected and accomplished officer — who happens to be Black — could be a DEI hire.
When President Eisgruber took the lead in urging American universities to take a principled stand against the Trump Administration’s attempts to bully them, I was proud of Princeton. But Hewitt believes that Eisgruber should be more like the president of a large bank who focuses on financial holdings and maintains “fidelity to fiduciary duties.” For Hewitt the traditional ideal of Princeton “in the service of humanity” is just a sentiment for suckers. How sadly cynical.
In his letter in the April 2025 PAW, Bill Hewitt ’74 advises Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 to knuckle under to the Trump Executive Order calling for the University to abandon diversity, equity, and inclusion programs or face losing federal funding for education and research.
Hewitt seems to assume that Trump’s action will withstand a court challenge, and he sides with those who believe that efforts to encourage a diverse student body degrade education. The latter position is akin to the thinking of Pete Hegseth ’03, our new, short-on-military-experience Secretary of Defense, who fired Air Force Gen. C.Q. Brown, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, after insinuating that the well-respected and accomplished officer — who happens to be Black — could be a DEI hire.
When President Eisgruber took the lead in urging American universities to take a principled stand against the Trump Administration’s attempts to bully them, I was proud of Princeton. But Hewitt believes that Eisgruber should be more like the president of a large bank who focuses on financial holdings and maintains “fidelity to fiduciary duties.” For Hewitt the traditional ideal of Princeton “in the service of humanity” is just a sentiment for suckers. How sadly cynical.