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‘[I]mplicit’ message is ‘don’t hire white men unless absolutely necessary,’ investigators wrote

Princeton University has used racial quotas and engaged in “outright discrimination” in academic hiring, a recent City Journal investigation revealed.

Over a dozen internal documents and interviews with six employees confirmed Princeton University’s flagrant violation of Civil Rights Act principles in the name of “social justice,” the Manhattan Institute’s Christopher Rufo and Ryan Thorpe reported in a City Journal article.

For example, a 2021 internal report on faculty recruitment best practices explained how staff were required to increase applicant diversity at each stage of the hiring process.

“The report advised search committees to discount negative references for minority candidates and to ensure that every shortlist included at least ‘two women and/or two underrepresented minority candidates,’” the investigators wrote.

In another example, the university’s Target of Opportunity Program, which was discontinued in 2024, provided funding for departments to hire candidates from “underrepresented” campus groups.

Princeton professors told Rufo and Thorpe “underrepresented” groups referred to women and racial minorities.

More documents showed that the university launched a multiyear “Supplier Diversity” plan, urging departments to award contracts based on race or commitment to DEI rather than quality or cost.

In addition, an infographic from Princeton revealed that at least 40 academic and administrative departments have DEI committees specifically aimed at altering the campus’s racial makeup.

This aligns with Princeton’s first annual diversity report which stated “Every administrative and academic leader is being held accountable for demographic evolution.”

Princeton faculty members said “demographic evolution” refers to “racial quotas and outright discrimination in academic hiring,” Rufo and Thorpe wrote.

“At Princeton, it’s totally common knowledge that there are favored groups and disfavored groups,” one professor said. “[D]isfavored groups” include “whites, Jews, males.”

The school’s “implicit” message is “don’t hire white men unless absolutely necessary,” the investigators wrote.

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump’s administration suspended dozens of grants worth $210 million to Princeton as part of an investigation into antisemitism on campus, Newsweek reported.

In an email informing the campus community that the grants had been frozen, Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber stated the university is “committed to fighting antisemitism and all forms of discrimination” and “will cooperate with the government in combating antisemitism.”

However, Eisgruber told The New York Times he’s “not considering any concessions” to the Trump administration.

MORE: More than 70 medical schools still have DEI offices, watchdog says

IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: Blair Hall at Princeton University; IVAN KOKOULIN/Canva Pro

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