I have worn my yarmulka every day I have been on Princeton’s campus, a period now spanning (sigh) more than 40 years. I have only had positive experiences as a result.
Given the events of the weeks leading up to Reunions, for the first time in my life, I felt some fear when I drove down to campus. I was only on campus on Friday and I know there were disturbances, but I felt as comfortable being an identifiable Jew on campus as I always have. That is not a feeling I would likely have on the campuses of many of Princeton’s peer schools.
That said, while Princeton was better than many campuses this year, it was far from an easy year for Jewish students on campus. I would like to suggest two steps the University could take that would be consistent with both its educational mission and First Amendment commitment:
1. Ban masked protesting. Anonymity encourages recklessness, not reasoned debate.
2. Implement a content neutral civil discourse code, patterned after the Honor Code. The goal of this code would be to provide more guidance around the “Time, Place, and Manner Restrictions” to promote reasoned debate and argument by speech and not intimidation. Just like the Honor Code, orientation would include programming on the code and students would be asked to sign a pledge affirming their agreement to abide by the code.