As delivered

In a few minutes, all of you will walk out of this stadium as newly minted graduates of this University. Before you do, however, long-standing tradition permits the University president to offer a few remarks about the path that lies ahead.

As I began drafting this year’s speech, I found myself reflecting on…

Craig B. Arnold is the Susan Dod Brown Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Vice Dean for Innovation, and Princeton’s first University Innovation Officer. I invited him to reflect on his fascinating personal journey and how it dovetails with the University’s accelerating efforts at supporting innovation on campus and across…

With every year’s Princeton Pre-read, I introduce incoming first-year students to the intellectual life of the University through the experience of reading and discussing a book together. The Class of 2029’s book is Dean of the College Michael D. Gordin’s On the Fringe: Where Science Meets Pseudoscience. This is my foreword to the…

As delivered at the New York Public Library.

Thank you for that introduction.  I am honored by it, and by the opportunity to say a few words today about the extraordinary document that is the subject of this exhibition.

I am grateful to the New York Public Library, the New York State Archives, Barbaralee Diamonstein…

Hilary Parker ’01 became Princeton’s vice president and secretary in 2019. She is a key member of my leadership team and plays an important role in advancing the University’s strategic initiatives. I invited her to update PAW’s readers about one of the areas under her supervision, Princeton’s connections to the region around it. — C.L.E.…

"You have one of the hardest jobs in America,” alumni will sometimes say to me. That’s an exaggeration — but it’s true that university presidents face lots of challenges and that the last five years have been especially demanding.

I am confident, however, that I have one of the best jobs in America, not least because I get to share in so…

As written

It is a pleasure to say a few remarks to introduce an outstanding scholar and longtime friend, Professor Robert Post of the Yale Law School.  Professor Post is among the nation’s most insightful constitutional theorists and one of its leading experts on both free speech and academic freedom.  His talk this…

Conventional wisdom in America holds that the cost of college rises faster than inflation. That was once so — but it has not been true for a long time.

I was therefore glad when C-SPAN anchor Mimi Geerges gave me an opportunity to bust the myth. I appeared on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” in early December.

She asked me why “a…

Eight years ago, in 2017, I began writing annual “State of the University” letters to provide updates about Princeton’s progress toward strategic goals along with my reflections on major issues relevant to higher education.   The first of those letters summarized priorities from the strategic framework adopted by the Board of Trustees…

The Venture Forward campaign is entering its final year, and it is already transforming the University in spectacular fashion.

Venture Forward is a mission-driven campaign. We’ve not set any internal or external dollar goals. Instead, we have focused intensely on gifts and initiatives that advance key priorities as defined in Princeton’s…