Greetings, Tories!
This is my last issue as Publisher of the Tory, and it’s been a bittersweet issue to put together, as I put the final touches on it now. I have been honored to be your Publisher over the last year, and I am looking forward to serving under our next Publisher – Paul Draper ’18. I will stick around – I have been chosen to serve as Editor-in-Chief for the next couple of semesters- but I am already eagerly awaiting the great things I know Paul will achieve with the Tory in the next year.
There has barely a day that’s gone by since I came to Princeton two and a half years ago that I haven’t been involved with the Tory. It has been a great experience for me as I’ve not only been able to write, edit, and serve as Publisher, but also meet so many amazing people through the magazine with their own unique perspectives and ideas about conservatism and the world in general. I’ve learned a lot, and I am proud to add this learning experience to my academic education at Princeton.
I am proud of so many of the pieces I’ve overseen in the Tory over the past year: we’ve covered national politics and campus happenings, opined on religious liberty and globalization, and reported on Robert P. George’s latest achievements and the eating clubs. In this issue, we commemorate the anniversary of the infamous case of Roe v. Wade with separate pieces on contraception and Roe itself from our archives.
I believe that while the Tory often brings a particular perspective to political issues, its perspective on campus issues does not necessarily mirror some Heritage Foundation or Cato Institute policy, but is grounded in a certain understanding of what the University is for. Many modern progressive administrators allow students to indulge in the belief that universities ought to be places for students to earn a bachelor’s degree and pursue a career while being insulated from any thinkers by whom they might be “triggered.”
In contrast to leaders at other schools, Princeton has upheld, time and again, that it is a place for free expression of thought and academic debate, where people with such diverse perspectives as Peter Singer, Cornel West and Robert George can all have a place to pursue the truth. It is the one of the highest responsibilities of a publication like the Tory to speak out when the University is not acting like such a place, and affirm it when it does. So we are not simply a critic, nor are we applauders, but instead active spectators, always hoping for the University to emulate the ideal of the place of higher learning we know it can be.
Over the last year, I have worked to enable the Tory to be this type of spectator. In the coming one, I hope to continue. Thank you to all of the readers who have accompanied us on the journey.
Signing off,
James Haynes ‘18
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