Academia’s Ivy League indoctrination centers, such as Princeton, have been clamoring in recent years for the government to impose sanctions as restitution for their racial sins.
Some adherents of “critical race theory” have even toyed with the idea of voluntary reparations for themselves, held back only by the hesitancy of others to follow suit in their ostentatious virtue-signaling.
Now, thanks to its own confession of ongoing “systemic racism,” Princeton may be the first university to face compliance issues with federal civil-rights laws under the Left’s redefined social-engineering standards.
On Sept. 2, Princeton President Christopher L. Eisgruber wrote in an open letter to students that the elite New Jersey school was continuing to harbor the vestiges of a racist legacy that included “intentionally and systematically excluded people of color, women, Jews, and other minorities.”
Eisgruber’s bromide-packed mea culpa deflected much of the blame onto everybody but the university, which he insisted “contributes to the world through teaching and research of unsurpassed quality.”
But that, in turn, makes it a gatekeeper of modern cultural values and a beacon to the rest of the world for effecting social change, he insinuated.
Eisgruber outlined proposals that seemed to be plucked directly from the handbook of the pro-Marxist Black Lives Matter, a movement with ties to anti-democracy globalist forces like George Soros and the Chinese Communist Party.
“[W]e must continue to find ways to bring that mission to bear against racism, and against all of the discrimination that damages the lives of people of color,” he prattled.
“Race-based inequities in America’s health care, policing, education, and employment systems affect profoundly the lives of our staff, students, and faculty of color,” he continued. “Racist assumptions from the past also remain embedded in structures of the University itself.”
Eisbruber’s intention clearly was to trumpet the “unglamorous” behind-the-scenes work that the school was doing below the radar to enact its new racial-justice agenda.
But in announcing it, he also caught the attention of attorneys with the US Department of Education, who noted that any sort of ongoing discrimination at a federally funded school was out of compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
As the conservative Power Line blog observed, “Those who attend a ‘systemically racist’ college are, by definition, subjected to discrimination by the college.”
The DOE and the Justice Department responded by sending Eisgruber a lengthy letter demanding that he furnish a trove of records explaining exactly what he meant by his acknowledgement of Princeton’s ongoing racism.
“Based on its admitted racism, the U.S. Department of Education … is concerned Princeton’s nondiscrimination and equal opportunity assurances … from at least 2013 to the present may have been false,” said the letter, noting the year Eisgruber assumed the provost position.
“The Department is further concerned Princeton perhaps knew, or should have known, these assurances were false at the time they were made,” it continued.
The letter indicated that Princeton had received “well over $75 million in federal Title IV taxpayer funds alone” while representing itself to be in compliance with federal law.
And it questioned Eisgruber’s pledge to explore “the possibility of a new credit- or degree-granting program that would extend Princeton’s teaching to a new range of students from communities disproportionately affected by systemic racism,” which might itself fall outside the bounds of discrimination laws.
The letter gave deadlines ranging from 21 to 28 calendar days for Princeton to furnish many of the requested materials, reminding them also that knowingly providing false information could carry a prison sentence of up to five years.
Luckily for Eisgruber, who started his career as a lawyer—even clerking for far-left former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens—deciphering the legalese to ensure full compliance should be no issue.
“Finally, by copy of this letter we are referring Princeton to the Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice, and to the Department’s Office for Civil Rights, for any additional action they deem appropriate,” it concluded.
