Princeton Rejects Professor Joshua Katz’s Offer to Resign

A Princeton professor who criticized campus activists and now faces termination, ostensibly in connection with other allegations, was in talks about a tentative deal that would have allowed him to resign — but negotiations broke down after the university administration insisted it retain the right to publicly say the president had recommended his dismissal, the professor’s lawyer confirmed to National Review.

Last week, the Washington Free Beacon’s Aaron Sibarium reported that “Princeton University is planning to fire one of the most distinguished classics professors in the country, Joshua Katz, after his criticism of the school’s racial politics made him the target of student protests and the subject of two separate university investigations.” Katz, a public critic of left-wing campus activists, provoked outrage at the university when he penned a piece for Quillette in July 2020 taking issue with aspects of Princeton’s political culture, including the behavior of student activists and the proposals for extra pay and vacation time for minority members of the faculty.

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Nate Hochman

Nate Hochman was a staff writer at National Review.

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A Princeton professor who criticized campus activists and now faces termination, ostensibly in connection with other allegations, was in talks about a tentative deal that would have allowed him to resign — but negotiations broke down after the university administration insisted it retain the right to publicly say the president had recommended his dismissal, the professor’s lawyer confirmed to National Review.

Last week, the Washington Free Beacon’s Aaron Sibarium reported that “Princeton University is planning to fire one of the most distinguished classics professors in the country, Joshua Katz, after his criticism of the school’s racial politics made him the target of student protests and the subject of two separate university investigations.” Katz, a public critic of left-wing campus activists, provoked outrage at the university when he penned a piece for Quillette in July 2020 taking issue with aspects of Princeton’s political culture, including the behavior of student activists and the proposals for extra pay and vacation time for minority members of the faculty.