A propos this, a professor at Princeton writes:
I think you are wrong about what’s going on with Joshua Katz's firing. It is not about his views, but rather about misconduct towards women students. Here are three relevant points.
1 — As a member of the Princeton faculty, I know Chris Eisgruber well and have discussed academic freedom with him at some length. His commitment to academic freedom is real. At least as long as he is President, Princeton University is committed to respecting academic freedom. For example, Eisgruber was very clear that Katz’s comments in the summer of 2020 are protected by academic freedom, saying that Katz “can be answered but not censored or sanctioned”:
2 — As I understand it, two important events occurred between the initial punishment of Katz (for a sexual relationship with a senior thesis advisee — not just a "student” but his direct advisee at the time of the sexual relationship) and the beginning of the second investigation.
First, the student newspaper reported the story publicly, with further allegations involving other students:
https://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2021/02/alumni-allegations-princeton-joshua-katz
Second, according to the NYT story you linked, the advisee herself had not participated in the first investigation of Katz for his sexual relationship with her, but later “filed a formal complaint that led the administration to open a new investigation, which it said was looking at new issues rather than revisiting old violations”.
The university’s second investigation, and new punishment of Katz, thus may well be motivated by faculty and students now knowing about the allegations against Katz (which had previously been secret), and may well be justified by the additional information provided by the advisee in her complaint.
3 — This is not the first time that Princeton has quietly punished someone guilty of sexual misconduct, and then in the face of public outrage that the punishment was not more severe (as it should have been in the first place) re-investigated and ultimately fired the professor. This is exactly what happened in the recent case of Professor Verdu.
https://www.nj.com/news/2018/09/princeton_professor_fired_over_sex_with_student.html
Since I'm told by other Princeton faculty that Katz is very likely to sue, we will probably find out more about the additional allegations against him and the role they played in the decision to fire him. Katz will no doubt argue that the later allegations were motivated by the controversy over his views, but if those allegations are vindicated, then the motive for bringing them forward will probably not matter.
UPDATE: Princeton, as expected, has fired Katz.
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