Donations should not be conditional on student speech
Jackson Baldrate | 27 November 2023 | The Daily Princetonian
Louisa Gheorghita / The Daily Princetonian
In the wake of Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, many wealthy donors have pulled or threatened to pull their donations to Ivy League schools. A non-profit organization founded by billionaire Leslie Wexler announced it is breaking ties with Harvard University, arguing that it cannot support an administration that has been “tiptoeing” around the issue of terrorist attacks. Similarly, at the University of Pennsylvania, former U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman condemned the university’s “silence” about the attacks, and said he would halt his family’s donations to the school. Princeton has largely steered clear of this controversy at the moment because of President Christopher Eisgruber’s forceful denunciation of Hamas’ attacks, as Aidan Gouley ’27 noted in a recent column. However, watching the monetary fallout of political turmoil at other schools should cause both donors and the administration to reevaluate how much influence wealthy individuals should have on Princeton’s operation and educational mission.