‘We must stand boldly.’ Princeton president fires back as Trump’s battle with Harvard escalates.

Princeton University President Christopher L. Eisgruber received a standing ovation from graduates and spectators after defending American universities during his commencement address Tuesday.

The Ivy League university handed out 1,293 undergraduate degrees, 463 doctoral degrees and 200 master’s degrees at the ceremony at Princeton Stadium.

Eisgruber urged graduates to continue asking “questions that are unsettling and uncomfortable” and speaking up for what they believe in.

“Tensions between the academy, public opinion, and government policy have ebbed and flowed over the course of American history. They are now at an unprecedented high point,” Eisgruber said.

The president told the graduates “we must stand boldly” for freedom — before the applause from the crowd grew so loud it drowned out his words and forced him to pause.

Eisgruber didn’t directly mention the ongoing tensions between fellow Ivy League school Harvard University and President Donald Trump. But Princeton’s commencement was held as the battle between Harvard officials and the Republican president escalated Tuesday.

The Trump administration and Harvard have been sparing for months over diversity programs, foreign student enrollment and funding. The White House moved Tuesday to cancel all federal contracts with Harvard as Trump said he wanted to block the school from enrolling foreign students.

At Princeton’s commencement, Eisgruber questioned whether Princeton and other universities can be expected to be neutral in society.

“Universities might be less vulnerable to criticism and attack if they were bland innocuous and neutral. But then they would not be true universities,” said Eisgruber, who is also the chair of the Association of American Universities Board of Directors.

He also defended scholars who take on difficult topics.

“They want university faculties and students to produce useful inventions, illuminate poetic beauty, and study the virtues of successful leaders,” Eisgruber said. “They appear to become uneasy when, for example, scholars expose and analyze the role of race, sexuality or prejudice in society and politics.”

In other recent public appearances, Eisgruber has pushed back against the federal government’s use of “funds as a cudgel to get universities to do things that the government wants.”

In early April, the federal government notified Princeton it planned to freeze several dozen of the school’s grants from the federal Department of Energy, NASA and the Defense Department totaling as much as $210 million dollars.

In his speech, valedictorian and chemistry major Erik Medina asked fellow graduates to consider how they can live their lives according to Princeton’s informal motto: “Princeton in the nation’s service and the service of humanity.”

Medina said graduates can be mindful of how they treat others.

“One of the greatest ways that you can serve humanity is to be kind,” Medina said.

At last year‘s commencement, several students turned their backs on the Princeton president or walked out during his speech in a silent protest to show their solidarity with Palestinians. The protest followed a tense pro-Palestinian encampment on the Princeton campus that ended with arrests.

This year, many graduates wore keffiyeh scarves over their robes in symbolic solidarity with Palestinians.

During the ceremony, the university awarded an honorary Doctor of Law degree to Sherrilyn Ifill, former president and director-counsel of NAACP legal fund. She is also the founding director of the 14th Amendment Center for Law & Democracy at Howard University School of Law.

Other honorary degree recipients included: Nancy Weiss Malkiel, former dean of the college at Princeton who joined the faculty in 1969 when the school was transitioning to coeducation; Nobel laureate and Princeton professor Daniel Chee Tsui; Omar M. Yaghi, pioneering chemist and University of California Berkeley professor; disability rights advocate Lex Frieden; and biotechnology company founder Joshua Boger.

Since 1959, Princeton’s commencement tradition has honored outstanding New Jersey educators by awarding them $5,000 and giving their school’s library an additional $3,000. This year, four teachers received the Princeton Prize for Distinguished Secondary School Teaching.

The awards went to: Davine Floy of the Newark School of Data Science and Information Technology; Laurianne Brunetti Kuipers of Memorial Middle School in Fair Lawn; An Nguyen of Camden Catholic High School in Cherry Hill; and Theodore Opderbeck of Waldwick High School.

Commencement marked the end of several days of campus celebrations, including Class Day on Monday, which featured “On Purpose” podcaster Jay Shetty, author of “8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go” and other books.

In the weeks leading up to graduation, over 150 members of the class of 2025 signed an open letter rejecting the speaker choice.

“We deserve better,” the letter said, accusing Shetty of being a self-help guru who runs a questionable school.

In his speech on Monday, Shetty shared life advice with the graduates, according to video of the ceremony.

“The world is waiting for you,” he said. ”Use your passion in the service of others, and it will become your purpose.”

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Liz Rosenberg may be reached at lrosenberg@njadvancemedia.com.