By Anne Levin

Downtown Princeton’s kiosks were back on the agenda at Monday’s meeting of Princeton Council. While no final decision was made about the fate of the two unofficial information stations — one at Nassau Street and Vandeventer Avenue in front of the Princeton Garden Theatre, the other at Nassau and Witherspoon streets – a degree of compromise was reached after a presentation by the town’s Deputy Administrator Deanna Stockton.

Both kiosks need to be removed for a capital improvements project replacing the sidewalks on Nassau Street. It is the next step, once the construction is completed, that was the subject of Stockton’s presentation. The report recommends permanently removing the kiosk at Witherspoon, and transforming the one at Vandeventer into a combination of new electronic signage and the current, informal surfaces where flyers are posted by anyone who wishes to do so.

Council agreed that staff should further explore the idea, including how many sides to allow for the two functions. While most agree that the current kiosks are messy, they serve a purpose and promote free speech, members said. Councilman Leighton Newlin was originally in favor of getting rid of the kiosks, but after hearing what members of the public have said at his weekly “Leighton Listens” sessions around town, he has changed his mind.

“I really heard them, and I think we need to go back and listen to the public,” he said. “People my age, and those a lot younger, are not for this 100 percent digital concept. What I’m hearing is people want the freedom to put up and take down what they want. The people that live here want that freedom. I think we need to slow down. Maybe the public can help us with a design that could be both digital and analog.”

Councilman Brian McDonald commented that after examining examples of material posted on the kiosks, which were provided to Council members in preparation for the meeting, “I saw community engagement and free speech, and I want to preserve those values. I’m in favor of the continued ability or residents to put things up there,” he said.

Council President Mia Sacks noted that there had been a perception that the postings on the kiosks were “not of any particular relevance, and it was just junk. But I saw all sorts of flyers for emotional well-being, group activities, music lessons, education, and political and faith activities. I’m thinking about the importance of civil society and I feel very strongly that written materials are important.”

The kiosks were installed in the late 1980s and began life as public phone booths and newspaper box receptacles. Over time, they have taken different forms, eventually becoming a place to post flyers for everything from searches for roommates to meetings of special interest groups. Attempts by the town to clean them up or remove them have met with considerable public protest.

Stockton said she welcomes ideas of what the kiosks might look like in the future. While a two-sided replacement is proposed, that idea can be expanded to include additional sides. “We are a town full of architects and I’m sure there are a thousand opinions of what a kiosk could look like,” she said.

Members of the public who want to offer suggestions can email the staff at engineering@princetonnj.gov.

Also at the Monday meeting, Princeton University President Christopher L. Eisgruber made his annual visit to the Council, reporting on University issues and answering questions from Council members. While he is excited about more than a dozen new projects including the reopening of the Princeton University Art Museum, Eisgruber said the current political climate has created serious matters for higher education, “a kind of crisis we have not faced for 70 years since the Red Scare.”

Cuts being made to research funding in universities and agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the threat to academic freedom — about which Eisgruber recently wrote in the March 19 issue of The Atlantic — are major concerns, he said.

McDonald asked Eisgruber to clarify the definition of an endowment, since he has heard some people say Princeton’s is a large, discretionary source of funding that can be used for any purpose. Eisgruber said he welcomed the question because the University’s endowment is currently under attack.

The endowment is “a collection and a product of the gifts the University has received over time, with a promise to steward them for future generations,” he said. “People think of it as a kind of savings account for rainy day purposes, and that misunderstands what an endowment really is. It is much more like a retirement annuity. It needs to pay out every year. It is really critical that people understand what is going on with endowments and how to protect them.”

Sacks commented that local politics can seem trivial compared to what is going on in society as a whole. “How can you inspire us in our own little world here to try to fight for the preservation of civil society?” she asked.

Eisgruber responded that work on issues that might seem mundane needs to continue. “Part of what we have said to our own [University] community is that everybody needs to continue to persist in their mission. And that applies with regard to the town as well,” he said. “These civic institutions are the core of our civic life. I think what is really important in these times is to know what it is we stand up for, and stand up for it and be willing to speak for it — everything from universities to libraries to houses of worship. Far from being distracted, we need to recognize that this is a time to double down and speak up.”

In other matters, Assistant Municipal Engineer Jim Purcell reported that improvements to cell phone service are underway due to upgrades by Crown Castle with equipment from Verizon. He also reported that the town’s food scraps drop-off program that started in October has been expanded to include additional container sites at Littlebrook and Riverside elementary schools, and on General Johnson Road near the entrance to Johnson Park Elementary School. The town hopes to add more sites in coming months, creating a total of 12.

The next meeting of Council is April 14. Visit princetonnj.gov for more information.