The Princeton Principles for a Campus of Free Inquiry is a dangerous document that is being circulated. These so-called principles encourage the white cisheteropatriarchy and harm people from already marginalized communities.

The Princeton Principles are based on three lies:

• The core mission of the university, and its distinctive contribution to the American republic, is the pursuit of truth and advancement of knowledge through scholarship and teaching. This mission is sustained by freedom of inquiry, freedom of expression, and equality before laws and campus regulations. The best universities cultivate free and thoughtful minds.
• Universities are respected and supported by the public because the public trusts that they will advance free inquiry, honor intellectual merit, and respect the diverse ideas that arise naturally from the pursuit of truth.
• Many of our nation’s colleges and universities are failing to maintain cultures of free and vigorous inquiry. Faculty and university leaders of these institutions should soberly evaluate and revitalize their institutional cultures. In cases where trustees or other nonfaculty members engage in reform efforts, they must intervene in good faith by supporting a university’s efforts to fulfill its core mission. Universities should not be made into political or ideological battlegrounds.

At Cornell we reject these lies. The Cornell Principles are based on three virtues:

• The core mission of the university, and its distinctive contribution to the American republic, is the pursuit of social justice and advancement of social justice through activism and antiracist pedagogy. This mission is sustained by the academic censorship industrial complex. The best universities cultivate white guilt and fear.
• Universities are respected and supported by the public because the public trusts that they will advance social justice.
• Many of our nation’s colleges and universities, especially in Florida, are failing to maintain cultures of social justice.  Universities should be the political and ideological battleground for social justice.

You can be sure that the Cornell Principles will be advanced during Orientation.