Note 74: My letter to Princeton's President
Sharing a note I sent to Princeton University's President a few weeks ago.
It's been difficult as of late to be an American who values things like balances of power, due process, and rational public and economic policy. It's also been difficult to be a Star Wars fan and not have this scene playing over and over in our heads as the news comes at us fast and furious:
"The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away."
In any case, I was heartened to read the news that Harvard is not backing down (like Columbia did) and joining the fight along my alma mater, Princeton University. (MIT isn't folding either.)
A few weeks ago, when news broke that the federal government was freezing funding to Princeton, I penned the following letter to the University President, Christopher Eisgruber (who has been awesome on this issue):
Subject: Stand Firm
Dear President Eisgruber,
Thank you for your recent comments on academic freedom and the importance of the research university to American life.
As an alumnus, you have my full support standing firm against this naked bullying and intimidation done in the name of Princeton’s Jewish community members - a community did not ask for any of this to be done in their name. As someone working in scientific research myself - I am an independent research software developer with an international client base - I am proud that my career and life’s work began as an undergraduate at Princeton - in Forbes College, across the golf course from the Institute of Advanced Study(*), where modern American scientific excellence was seeded by those escaping another bully seeking to subjugate Europe in the 1930s.
It is my hope that Princeton will live up to its motto - “In the Nation's Service and the Service of Humanity” - and stand tall and firm against those who neither understand, nor appreciate the scientific research enterprise. In the last century, Princeton served as a beacon of hope for scientists (and those who benefit from their work) when they were threatened by foreign autocrats. In this century, Princeton needs to remain that beacon against the bullies on our doorstep. I have faith, that as an institution older than this very country, those of you directing the University recognize what is happening and what will happen if you capitulate. If I may paraphrase Sturgill Simpson - this is an age coming to an end and this chaos is its dark energy clinging for survival, and we need to get through some dark times to discover something wonderful and beautiful in the end.
"We're seeing this energy clinging and clawing for survival because it knows it's dying..."
Princeton endured the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, two World Wars, the Cold War, and has emerged stronger each time. Keep that history in mind when aspiring dictators come knocking on the doors to Nassau Hall, threatening to distort the institution into one that makes a mockery of its motto. Princeton stood up to Hitler and his murderous thugs ninety years ago. It can stand up to a geriatric real estate developer with delusions of grandeur, only as long as you and your team guiding it don’t forget its history and rise to meet the moment.
You have my full support in keeping the University true to its roots and its character. If I may be of assistance in any way, please let me know, as we’re all in this together.
- Chris J. Karr
Co-Founder of the Behavioral Research Innovation Center
Founder & Chief Developer, Audacious Software
Princeton Class of 2002
* (For the newsletter readers, The Institute for Advanced Study is technically an independent institution from the University, but Princeton provided office space to IAS as Fuld Hall was being built, and IAS faculty worked with with local Princeton faculty and students.)
In this day and age, I may be painting a target on my back posting this publicly, but if it's my fate to wither away in prison, is there a better reason to do so other than opposing an authoritarian regime that's doubling down on sending innocent people to gulags (and working to erase evidence of that mistake)?
In any case, the Trump administration has already fired the first shots at me, if not directly. I've built research software for most of the institutions that the administration is "investigating" for civil rights violations: Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Northwestern, and MIT. (I don't have any projects with Princeton or Brown - yet.) These are all trumped up charges for the Project 2025 folks to weasel themselves into private independent institutions and turn them into ideological rubber stamps like they've done with the New College of Florida (see also).
An aside: If Princeton is the ideological nest of leftists that the administration claims, isn't it amazing that it keeps Robbie George (my old Constitutional Interpretation professor) around and continues to support The James Madison Program, produced the current Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth '03, as well as Cancun's favorite senator, Rafael Edward (Ted) Cruz '92?
Getting back to the letter, I have been very pleased to see the Princeton community support Eisgruber in this situation, as well as watching the University begin to mobilize its vast resources for a long fight to protect the independence of American universities and the integrity of research (scientific and otherwise) in those institutions.
We welcome Harvard and MIT to our corner - we still have space for Brown, Northwestern, and even Columbia, should the Manhattan Ivy change its mind.
We've stood up to foreign autocrats before, I'm confident that we have everything we need to outlast this latest domestic one as well.
Update (April 15, 2025): ¡Benvenidos, Stanford!
