All Ivies Except Princeton Offer Free Pass to Peaceful Gun Control Protesters

Princeton University has not quite offered a free pass to peaceful gun control protesters, like its Ivy League peers (photo credit: Andreas Praefcke).

Yale University, Dartmouth College, Brown University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were among the first highly selective colleges to declare that high school students who peacefully protest in support of gun control measures and face disciplinary action from their high schools as a result of their protests would not hinder their chances of admission. That list of schools that included Yale, Dartmouth, Brown, and MIT, was once 40 strong. It is now more than 175 strong. In fact, every Ivy League school — with the exception of Princeton University — is offering applicants a free pass in admissions when it comes to any discipline students face from their high schools as a result of peaceful gun control protests.

175 Universities Show Support for Gun Control Protesters

The list of 175 schools voicing support for students participating in the student-led #NeverAgain movement includes not only seven of the eight Ivy League schools and MIT but also Amherst College, Bates College, UC Berkeley, Boston College, Bowdoin College, Brandeis University, Bryn Mawr College, Carnegie Mellon University, Colby College, Colgate University, Davidson College, Duke University, Emory University, Georgetown University, Harvey Mudd College, Haverford College, Johns Hopkins University, Middlebury College, New York University, Northwestern University, Rice University, Smith College, Stanford University, Tufts University, Tulane University, University of Southern California, UCLA, University of Virginia, Vassar College, Wellesley College, Wesleyan University, and Williams College. There are a number of other schools on the list of course but we’ve cherrypicked some of the more highly selective ones since, well, we know our readers.

Princeton’s Explanation for Diverging from its Ivy League Peers

Princeton is not without an explanation for not offering the same free pass as its Ivy League peers. As reports Nikita Vladimirov for “Campus Reform” in a piece entitled “Princeton only Ivy to refuse free pass for gun control protesters,” “While Princeton acknowledged that peaceful student protesters will still be fully considered by admissions, the university also underscored that most schools will not discipline students for peaceful demonstrations in the first place. ‘Princeton University’s mission is to advance learning through scholarship, research, and teaching of unsurpassed quality, with a proud and demonstrated commitment to serve the nation and the world,’ the university said in a statement issued Monday afternoon.”

“‘Students who act on their conscience in peaceful, principled protest will receive full consideration in our admissions process. Many forms of peaceful protest are fully consistent with the rules of American high schools, and we have no reason to suppose that such protests will result in disciplinary action.’ the university continued. ‘If students are disciplined by their high school, they will be encouraged to augment their application to Princeton with a statement that addresses why they were moved to protest and why they were subject to discipline.'”

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