Letters - May 19, 1999
I enjoyed your April 21 cover story on Princeton myths and noted with interest the item about Albert Einstein's desk. In the late 1960s, when Fine Hall (now Jones Hall) was closed for renovation, I was assistant to the chairman of the physics department. I heard that the furniture in Fine was to be thrown out, but I felt Einstein's desk ought to be preserved. So I went into his old office, removed the desk, and had it taken to the office of Dean of the Faculty Aaron Lemonick *54, in Nassau Hall. I also had a brass plaque made and installed on the back stating that the desk had been used by both Einstein and Nobel physicist Eugene Wigner. I once heard a professor say that Dean Lemonick liked to invite people into his office, sit them down facing the desk, then reveal that it had been used by Einstein and Wigner. It overwhelmed them from the start.
Robert A. Winters '35
Hightstown, N.J.
Apropos your article on myths, a bit of the Alexander Hall lore which I always enjoyed was an undergraduate cartoon showing Harry K. Thaw (the man who killed Stanford White) gazing at the building, with the legend, "My God, I shot the wrong architect."
Datus C. Smith, Jr. '29
Hightstown, N.J.
The myth I've heard for years about the black squirrels on campus is that a professor who visited Russia brought back a couple, and that's what started the whole thing.
Louise R. Ritenour
Hightstown, N.J.
I read with interest about the university's and Gordon Wu '58's financial straits (Notebook, March 24). The article states that the university invested $93 million in Mr. Wu's company, Hopewell Holdings -- an investment now worth $18 million. But if the $93 million was worth the initial investment and is worth holding onto even in its depreciated state, why doesn't Princo (the Princeton University Investment Company) invest another $18 million -- or for that matter another $93 million -- in Mr. Wu's company? That way, when the Hopewell stocks now held by the university start to regain their original value, the new holdings will cover the old losses that much quicker.
Graham C. Hunter II '69
Weathersfield Center, Vt.
The March 24 On the Campus article by Daniel Grech '99 provided a "commentary" in likening myself and the other senior-class officers to the Clinton scandal, and not a factual account of what really occurred. We did not plot to "rig" what Grech quoted as the "tacky" jacket for our own personal fashion gratification. Quite the opposite, we have told the truth about our actions and the truth about our intentions. Instead of Grech's portrayal, the jacket controversy was really about five seniors (with 11 years of combined class service) doing the things that no one else wants to do amidst their senior thesis and job search, trying to ensure a senior jacket in time for Reunions. On account of extreme delays from the senior-jacket committee and in order to avoid likely delivery delays and financial penalties, the officers went ahead with the '99 Bottles design (based on a childhood rhyme and a play on our class numerals) for our class "beer jacket." My "epic" e-mail to the class explained the entire situation, only to have others attempt to sensationalize the story.
Were we "corrupt"? Were we trying to promote more alcohol consumption at Reunions by choosing this design? I believe in my heart that we behaved honorably and in keeping with our sincere desire to accomplish to the best of our abilities the tasks required of us as class officers.
In spite of the personal attacks and taunting accusations launched in the press, we've kept silent until now because we didn't wish to dignify such fallacious charges with a response and to have them keep us from accomplishing other important tasks at hand. Consistently, our classmates have recognized that we're the class that has done the most new and interesting activities in each of our four years here. Each of the class officers has also made precious personal sacrifices to make these activities possible. Yet Grech ignores all this in his attempt to create a more sensational conclusion by criticizing our competency and accusing us of attempting to cover up this issue in the press.
The truth is, Grech never even spoke to any of us to get the real answers. Had he truly been motivated by the truth, he would have tried to find out about the reasons behind our actions, rather than inaccurately presuming to describe the whole "scandal" by drawing inane parallels to Watergate and President Clinton.
His words written in print take on a life and perverse truth of their own, slandering and tainting people's reputations irrespective of the truth. My fellow class officers and I hold dear our honor and integrity, as do generations of other Princetonians. We realize that with any position, there are good things and bad we must accept. But no benefit from class service is worth the sacrifice of our honor, integrity, and reputation. Still, it is our commitment to these same beliefs that continues to push us to do the best job possible in serving our classmates.
I sincerely regret all the time and concern this issue has caused the campus community. As the Class of 1999 prepares to join the fellowship of alumni, it is my deep hope that we will be able to move past all the consternation in order to celebrate the most important event of our Princeton careers: our graduation. At the P-rade, I urge alumni to look for the Class of 1999 as we don our senior jackets and greet each other with the traditional Tiger Cheer.
Grace Maa '99
President, senior class
Princeton, N.J.
Having been characterized (Letters, April 7) by Jim Moyer, a graduate student, as arrogant, dim of understanding, and simplistic in my reaction to PAW's coverage of the Nude Olympics, I feel that I deserve a chance to reply.
I regret that the worst charge that I can level against Mr. Moyer is that he is an idealist who harbors not the slightest doubt as to the rectitude of his views. He is earnestly certain that a young woman's voluntarily "being drunk, naked, and running with men" should not "make her body any less her own" and should, of course, invite no unwanted attention; the Nude Olympics ought to be just another opportunity on campus for male and female undergraduates to show healthy mutual respect for each other's intelligence.
Mr. Moyer's "jaw dropped faster and farther than usual" when he read my opinion that there were factors -- reduced inhibition, public nakedness, anonymity -- which might have had a bearing on the loutish acts that ensued. To him, it is perfectly clear that my citing the increased probability of such acts makes me a nasty old sexist condoning crude male behavior; a better sense of humor and a lot less in the way of posturing rectitude might have aided his understanding in the matter.
Finally, he reminds us that no thief should take advantage of your being drunk to steal your watch. Nevertheless, you would have to be a saint or a fool to persist in getting drunk in the company of thieves. When Mr. Moyer steps out of his ivory tower and onto the surface of the actual planet, it's little wonder that the "usual" declination of his jaw is toward the bottom of its hinged arc.
C. Webster Wheelock '60*67
New York, N.Y.
We are troubled by the lack of interest PAW has shown toward the sexual assaults alleged to have taken place on the night of the Nude Olympics. On campus, students and faculty, as well as offices like SHARE and the Women's Center, have shown an enormous amount of concern for the abuses of that night, and yet these campus conversations have been omitted from PAW's coverage.
More importantly, PAW has published letters about the Nude Olympics from male readers which constitute hate speech toward women and unfairly depict events that may become court cases; these writers have no information about Princeton's sexual-assault victims, and it is utterly partisan of PAW to publish uninformed letters suggesting that these women have no right to press charges because they may not have been virgins, or they may have been drinking. Rape, guys, is when the woman (or man) says no, and drunk or not, you should know what that means. Drunk or not, naked or not, "virtuous" or not, everybody has the right to say no. Rape is a type of assault and a hate crime, not a category of college sex or alcohol abuse.
In a way, we would like to thank the men who have written about the Nude Olympics for making explicit how uninformed and violent misogyny really is, and how prevalent a problem it still is in the Princeton community.
Where, then, are the letters from women -- or men -- who have been outraged by these events? PAW's coverage of the Nude Olympics is only one of many cases in which the magazine has alienated and excluded those readers who are not old-boy, white conservatives. To facilitate a meaningful Princeton-wide dialogue, female, minority, and progressive voices cannot continue to be silenced. To re-engage these readers, PAW must refuse to publish letters that incite or support violence. Paw should also regularly include pieces by liberals, women, and minorities, pieces that address the concerns of graduates who aren't wealthy, conservative, middle-aged, white, and male. (Hurrah at least for your February 24 Notebook article on the university's diversity initiative, "Princeton is still a too-white campus.")
Janet Waronker
Director, SHARE
Princeton, N.J.
E. Cameron Scott '93
Austin, Tex.
Perhaps the solution to the Nude Olympics is for the university to require that applicants for admission write a 500-word essay on how they would deal with the problem. A copy of each student's essay should be retained as part of his or her official file for the duration of the student's four years at Princeton.
Clinton Weiman '47
Greenwich, Conn.
In his "Confronting the Beast" (PAW, March 24), Wes Tooke '98 describes a culture of destructive drinking on campus. Certainly, alumni will remember copious drinking, but without the violence and destruction Tooke describes. This violence represents a fundamental shift in campus drinking patterns since 1983, the year New Jersey raised its drinking age to 21.
Since the drinking age was increased, crackdowns on campus drinking have
been steady and unrelenting. Education programs have proliferated. However,
student alcohol consumption remains essentially constant while alcohol-
related violence and destruction have risen dramatically. The university's
response is to propose more of the same failed policies, which are based
on a misconception about the nature of student drinking.
As statistics show, the crackdowns have served not to reduce drinking but to channel it into less responsible patterns and places. Students used to drink beer, but now they drink liquor because it is easier to conceal and gets them drunk faster. Student drinking used to be centered at the clubs, where it was in the open, but it now occurs increasingly in dormitories, where it can be hidden. Drinking used to be a social activity, but it is now a way to outwit authorities.
Administrators seem to believe that more education is the answer, as though students' disagreement with their prohibitionist views must be due to misunderstanding. This condescending attitude is part of the problem. Princeton students are among the best educated in the world; it is not that they don't understand, but that they don't agree. The law notwithstanding, at some level they believe they are adults who should be allowed to make their own choices. Until we have policies which recognize that students are adults and that adults drink, the problems will just get worse.
Jim Cohen '89
Bethesda, Md.
Yes, Princeton students do drink alcoholic beverages on a weekly basis, but not nearly to the extent of students at many other colleges and universities -- I'm familiar with places where students party five nights a week and usually get thoroughly intoxicated in the process.
It may be possible that the whole alcohol issue at Princeton is getting blown out of proportion. I understand the concerns about liability and safety, but Princeton may be tarnishing its own image by drawing attention to the social scene to this degree. Perhaps PAW should take a comparative look at other institutions to see how we stack up.
Mary Mulcare '02
Princeton, N.J.
It seems a shame that major corporations (and future employers of Princeton graduates) don't offer tangible rewards -- monetary or placement incentives -- to students who pledge to spend their Princeton years alcohol-free. Success has its rewards, and it tastes better than alcohol.
Bonnie L. Wright s'69
Madrid, N.Y.
At Union College parents' weekend two years ago, just days after the well-publicized alcohol-related death of an MIT student, the questions to the dean of students were alcoholcentered and uniformly demanding. Whereupon my wife raised her hand and said, "Everybody here is acting as if this is a Union problem. But we've all raised our kids. We've had them for 18 years. We shouldn't expect a college to be responsible for everything."
This quaint point of view may be lacking at Princeton as well. I offer it (together with its broad ramifications regarding family, work, and values) for the community's consideration.
Robert Slocum '71
Stamford, Conn.
One way to stop or at least decrease binge drinking: the university should require students to clean their own dormitory bathrooms and hallways. That way, there would be peer pressure not to drink so much that they wind up vomiting and peeing on the floors. I don't blame the custodial staff for not wanting to clean up after the spoiled children who trash their own habitats.
Shannon Stoney '76
Cookeville, Tenn.
Your article on alcohol abuse noted that "In 1968, Cannon Club set a Houseparties record by consuming 52 kegs in one weekend." I was there and would replace the verb "consuming" with the more accurate "dispensing." Much, if not most, of that beer was not ingested, but tossed or used to create waves for surfing the long linoleum Banzai Pipeline in between the green and red bars. I shot some film of that weekend, and if anyone from that era is running for high office, I have negatives for sale!
Taylor Reveley '65 is absolutely correct. I saw a lot of beer thrown in our day, but I never saw challenge drinking or drinking games. Alcohol was abused, but not nearly to the extent that it seems to be today. That weekend at Cannon should not be used as a justification or a reference point for current behavior.
MacKinnon Simpson '65
Honolulu, Hawaii
Michael Klein '87's February 24 First Person about failing to connect with Fred Friendly ("Now I'll never finish my thesis") reminds me of one of my favorite poems, "The Road Not Taken."
Unlike Klein, in the spring of 1972, I did call Friendly at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism while researching a radio documentary I was reporting for WPRB. I got an interview for the documentary, and that developed into a relationship with him. It led to his appearance as guest speaker at WPRB's annual dinner that fall, when I was station manager. And it led to my decision to go on to Columbia's J-School after graduation.
My decision to become a journalist, which Friendly helped shape, is interesting in light of Mr. Klein's comments about the law career he chose to pursue. That was my other area of interest. At the time, the era just past Vietnam and deep in Watergate, it seemed that the journalists were the heroes and the lawyers were all going to jail. I'm not sure journalists have much claim to a moral high ground any more. And when I contemplate the cost of living in New York on a public-television salary I sometimes question my decision. But I do like my job, and Friendly gets some of the credit for that.
For better or worse (and it's probably a little of both), journalism has become the "fourth branch" of government. During my year at Columbia (1974), Friendly held a seminar entitled "Journalism and the First Amendment." I think our papers served as research for his next book, The Good Guys, the Bad Guys, and the First Amendment: Free Speech vs. Fairness in Broadcasting.
Fred Friendly was one of a kind: headstrong and demanding, but also inspiring and motivating. Michael Klein should have picked up that telephone.
Scott Gurvey '73
Nightly Business Report
New York, N.Y.
No one in my generation will forget Pearl Harbor, VE Day, or VJ Day. Twenty-five of my classmates and I don't know how many other Princetonians died in that war, so I took a particular interest in Richard J. Schoeck *49's poem "My Hiroshima" in the March 24 In Review. I was moved to write the following "poem" (using his title) as a reply. It is written in lines, and I think it is no less poetic than Dr. Schoeck's effort. It expresses my personal view.
My Hiroshima
At the Hiroshima Memorial Museum they do not
Remember Pearl Harbor
or the invasion of Manchuria
or the death march at Bataan
or any other atrocities in the creation
of the Greater East Asia Co-Pros-
perity Sphere.
Nor do they remember that Hiro-
shima's horror
ended a war that took millions of
lives --
Japanese, American, British, Chinese,
and many others.
Nor do they consider the alternative,
the inevitable invasion,
with untold thousands more bodies
falling
on the beaches, in the mountains, on
the plains.
But the horrors of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki
so stunned the world
that in war no nuclear bombs were
dropped
for a half-century or more,
that small wars were contained.
Fear balanced fear;
two world wars in the 50 years before, none in the next 50.
What is the calculus of war?
Counting the dead? Measuring the
pain?
Or estimating what would otherwise
have happened?
Did the 66 thousand Hiroshima dead
die in vain?
Herbert S. Bailey, Jr. '42
Fearrington Village, N.C.
The March 10 cover story on public-school teachers portrayed them as having low incomes compared to alumni in the private sector who earn in the "upper six digits." In fact, many professions earn substantially less than this,and for some years now the gap has been closing between teachers' wages and those of other professionals. According to the American Federation of Teachers' Website, for example, in 1962 the average attorney made 2.15 times as much as the average teacher; by 1997, the ratio had decreased to 1.74. At the same time, test scores for public school students -- one yardstick for measuring teacher performance -- have been declining.It's important that taxpayers hold teachers accountable for this disturbing trend.
P. Anthony Kane '91
New York, N.Y.
Must high tech result in low standards of accuracy? In your April 9 cover story on how computers are changing the teaching of art history, you show a digital version of the 1748 Nolli map of Rome accompanied by an inset of the Pantheon, with a dotted line to a red circle showing its location on the map.
Trouble is, the place designated by the circle is far away from where the Pantheon is actually located (the circle seems to be centered about where the Piazza Venezia is today). Errors such as this do not augur well for the use of computers for teaching.
James M. Guiher '51
New York, N.Y.
Editor's note: The mistake was ours, not the digital map's.
For a book commemorating the centennial of Princeton basketball, I would welcome remembrances, anecdotes, clippings, photos, or whatever from fans and former players alike. Please send them to Dan White '65, Box 291, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544.
Dan White '65
Director, Alumni Council
Princeton, N.J.
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