Solveig Gold, wife of former Princeton University professor Joshua Katz, wrote a substack post that detailed her relationship with her husband, who spoke out about a July 2020 proposal by the school to address racism on campus.
Several of Katz’ Princeton colleagues signed the faculty letter, which suggested offering professors “of color” a summer salary and extra sabbatical time, among other items.
Katz wrote a response to the anti-racism proposals in Quillette, and said that while he supported some ideas, the others “would lead to civil war on campus and erode even further public confidence in how elite institutions of higher education operate.”
The president of the university came out against Katz in the Daily Princetonian and, according to Gold, “academics around the country accused him of inciting violence” and an investigation was launched.
“Eventually, the university called off its investigation. But the damage was done: Joshua was now a pariah,” Gold wrote.
The wife of former Princeton University professor Joshua Katz speaks out about her husband. (Photo by John Greim/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Katz was fired from Princeton University on Monday. The university cited his unwillingness to cooperate with a sexual misconduct investigation as reason for his firing.
Gold noted in her essay that Katz had told her about a relationship he had with a student.
Princeton Professor Joshua Katz’s spouse Solveig Gold wrote a substack about her experience with her husband’s firing.
(REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz)
“Early on in our courtship in 2018, he confided in me about the worst mistake of his life: a consensual relationship with a Princeton undergraduate in the mid-2000s. He told me about the angst and pain it had caused them both. And he told me that a third party had, after all these years, brought the relationship to the attention of the university and that he would likely be disciplined with a yearlong unpaid suspension,” Gold wrote.
FAUCI WARNS AGAINST ‘CACOPHONY OF FALSEHOODS’ DURING ADDRESS AT PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Princeton University fired tenured professor Joshua Katz after he spoke out several anti-racism porposals by the school. His wife, Solveig Gold, spoke out on her husband in a substack on Thursday. REUTERS/Dominick Reuter
(REUTERS/Dominick Reuter)
Following the president’s public rebuke of Katz, according to Gold, friends of Katz abandoned him without speaking to him first. One of his friends at the college did not speak to him for weeks, and eventually wrote “a few lines of expressing her disappointment.”
She said that following Katz’ article in Quillette, Princeton’s student paper started digging into his past and “reignited” the “frenzy” about his past relationship with a student.
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Many of his supporters believe the firing to be punishment for speaking out against the July 2020 anti-racism demands from the university.
Katz’ lawyer, Samantha Harris, agreed with the criticism, saying that the past relationship he had with a student was settled, and that this was punishment for his political beliefs.
“If expressing an unpopular opinion is an invitation to have your personal life turned inside out looking for damaging evidence, how many people are going to be willing to speak out?” she told the Wall Street Journal.
