By Wendy Greenberg

Princeton University President Christopher Eisgruber has authored a book, published in September, in which he contends that most colleges and universities, including Princeton, are places of free speech and discourse, despite what campus detractors may say.

The book, Terms of Respect: How Colleges Get Free Speech Right (Basic Books), is the topic of a talk he will give at the Princeton Public Library on Monday, October 20 from 6 to 7 p.m. The event is full, but a waiting list is being compiled and the program will be livestreamed on the library’s YouTube channel, youtube.com/c/PrincetonPL, according to the library’s webpage. To sign up for the waiting list, go to princetonlibrary.libnet.info/event/14489008.

Eisgruber will be joined by Deborah Pearlstein, the director of the Princeton Program in Law and Public Policy and Charles and Marie Robertson Visiting Professor of Law and Public Affairs.

Eisgruber, a 1983 Princeton alumnus, is making news for his views on higher education, including interviews with PBS, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and various other media, and has written an article in The Atlantic in which he discusses the “gap between public perception and on-campus reality.”
In an online interview with journalist Kara Swisher, Eisgruber noted that there is important and “robust” discussion ongoing on college campuses, some in classrooms and other places that don’t get covered.

Although some critics assail colleges for not welcoming free speech, Eisgruber contends that most campuses are doing it in the right way. “Free speech,” he is quoted in Princeton Alumni Weekly magazine, “is in better shape on campuses than in the rest of society, and it’s stronger now in important respects than it was at colleges or elsewhere during the recent tranquil past.”

In Terms of Respect, says the publisher, Eisgruber, a constitutional scholar, “argues that colleges and universities are largely getting free speech right. Today’s students engage in vigorous discussions on sensitive topics and embrace both the opportunity to learn and the right to protest. Like past generations, they value free speech, but, like all of us, they sometimes misunderstand what it requires. Ultimately, the polarization and turmoil visible on many campuses reflect an American civic crisis that affects universities along with the rest of society. But colleges, Eisgruber argues, can help to promote civil discussion in this raucous, angry world — and they can show us how to embrace free speech without sacrificing ideals of equality, diversity, and respect.”

Dean of Yale Law School Heather Gerken, who called Eisgruber “the most important voice in higher education at this crucial moment,” notes in an online review that he “dismantles the conventional wisdom that speech and inclusivity are at odds. In doing so, he offers a realistic, clear-eyed view of college campuses that will force his readers to think hard about their own assumptions — exactly what a true educator should do.”

Eisgruber has served as Princeton University’s 20th president since July 2013, and previously as Princeton’s provost for nine years, after joining the Princeton faculty in 2001.

As president, Eisgruber has led efforts to increase the representation of low-income and first-generation students at Princeton and other colleges and universities, and as such has attracted national attention. Eisgruber has also been a leading voice in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere for the value of research and liberal arts education. He has also emphasized the importance of both free speech and inclusivity to Princeton’s mission and championed the University’s commitment to service.

A recipient of the United States Navy’s Distinguished Public Service Award and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, he serves as board chair for the Association of American Universities, as co-chair of the American Talent Initiative steering committee, and was a member of the United States Navy’s Education for Seapower Advisory Board from 2023 to 2025.

Eisgruber received his A.B. in physics from Princeton in 1983, graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He then earned an M.Litt in politics at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and a J.D. cum laude at the University of Chicago Law School. After clerking for U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Patrick Higginbotham and U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, he taught at New York University’s School of Law for 11 years.

Eisgruber’s books include Constitutional Self-Government; Religious Freedom and the Constitution (with Lawrence Sager); and The Next Justice: Repairing the Supreme Court Appointments Process.

Before joining Princeton, Pearlstein was Professor of law and co-director of the Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy at Cardozo Law School, Yeshiva University, and held visiting appointments at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Georgetown University Law Center. Her work on the U.S. Constitution, international law, democracy, and national security has been published in leading journals, including the law reviews of the University of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgetown, and Texas, as well as peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of American Constitutional History and Constitutional Commentary.  Her first book, Losing the Law, is forthcoming with Princeton University Press in 2026. Before a career in law, Pearlstein served in the White House from 1993 to 1995 as a senior editor and speechwriter for President Bill Clinton.