Princeton University Amends No-Contact Orders After “Deeply Chilling” Free-Speech Violations

How tight is Princeton’s grasp on limiting free-speech to its students? Let’s get into it and what outside sources are trying to do to reiterate the free-expression policies put in place by the university.

This is the second reported time in two years that this has happened on the university campus, according to FIRE’s website.

“This practice is deeply chilling, in blatant violation of Princeton’s laudable free expression policies, and must end immediately,” the letter reads (via National Review).

According to FIRE’s annual College Free Speech Rankings, Princeton University is notoriously one of the worst colleges for free speech in the United States.

This “limits[s] potential interaction,” but does not “ensure” that the two individuals “will not see one another on campus.” The university’s policy uses these orders “to forestall future interactions that could be problematic for the individuals, and to protect both of the individuals.”

The journalist was recording footage of the protest when a graduate student allegedly attempted to block the journalist’s camera and followed her around as she tried to cover the event.

The letter continues: “Following the officer’s inaction, the graduate student continued to attempt to physically obstruct the journalist from filming, eventually pushing her and stepping on her foot.” The graduate student later obtained a no-contact order against the undergraduate journalist.

The dean, in an email to the student, invalidated any articles written for The Princeton Tory before the no-contact order that mentioned the graduate student’s name. He advised the safest approach to avoid an NCO violation was to refrain from writing or being interviewed for any future articles mentioning the student, or, if possible, to retract existing ones.

Unfortunately, this is not the first incident at Princeton involving no-contact orders issued against a Jewish student covering a pro-Palestine protest.

Danielle Shapiro, now a junior undergraduate, attended a pro-Palestinian protest on campus in 2022 for an assignment with the university’s paper.

Shaken by the experience, Shapiro penned an article for The Wall Street Journal. “Just two days after the article hit the stands,” they wrote, “a university administrator] sent the [no-communication order] letter, which was also delivered to campus police and the senior associate dean of undergraduate students. I felt mortified and trapped.”

However, the statement came with a vague warning. The administration said that Shapiro would “not necessarily to editorialize her directly or her comments.”

Many of Shapiro’s attempts to communicate with administration and deans through email were largely ignored. The student journalist made it her mission to get her freedom of press back.

After the piece was published, Princeton modified its policy by moving the provisions on no-contact orders to its “Conflict Resolution” procedures. Now, students had to notify another party who they want to have no contact with before requisitioning the order.

“A few days later, I was amazed to learn that my interlocutor, alleging discomfort with our interaction, took out something called a ‘no communication order’ against me, the university’s equivalent of a restraining order,” McKnight wrote in the Public Discourse.

Princeton’s policies around the no-contact order differs from other universities in several ways.

Princeton’s policies state that “the ideas of different members of the University community will often and quite naturally conflict.” However, it notes that “it is not the proper role of the University to attempt to shield individuals from ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable, or even deeply offensive.”

“Importantly, while Princeton’s no-contact orders to student speakers note they are not being formally charged with a policy violation, the university’s silencing of these students clearly violates their rights,” the FIRE and ADL letter states. “This systematic weaponization of no-contact orders to silence pro-Israel journalism—or any journalism—cannot stand.”

While the no-contact orders still exist to keep students safe from discriminatory harassment and other misconduct, the order has been used to silence journalist.

The new policy gives university administrators to issue a no-contact order as part of a misconduct penalty if they find a student to be responsible after an investigation.

The short-term orders only last for one or two days, but gives the administration time to investigate the issue. This will eliminate the process that conerned FIRE and ADL with the most recent issue.

President Eisgruber recently wrote that “[f]ree speech and academic freedom are the lifeblood of any great university and any healthy democracy,” and is re-committing the university to provide students and faculty “with the broadest possible latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge, and learn.”

The report discovered that the top ten worst offenders of free speech are Hamline University, Pennsylvania State University, Collin College, Texas A&M University, University of Pennsylvania, Emerson, Emporia State University, Tennessee Tech, University of Oregon, Loyola University New Orleans, and Georgetown University.

These schools are selected by the students who have experienced a high amount of censorship over the year. While Princeton does not make this year’s list, it is still on the road of improving how it handles censorship on its campus.