Letters - November 17, 1999
Given the tremendous fan response and intimate design of Princeton Stadium, the Department of Athletics has made changes to Alumni Class Priority Seating for football games. This priority seating applies to individual game ticket orders onlyboth home and awayand allows alumni to be seated by class year in the same section of the stadium. Alumni ticket orders will be prioritized beginning with the 25th and 50th reunion classes, followed by the "Old Guard" (classes prior to 1935) and then by class year to the most recently graduated class. After Princeton alumni have been seated, the remaining orders will be processed. At Princeton Stadium the west side will be for season ticket holders. Alumni seating will begin in the lower tier of Section 25, approximately the 40-yard line, and continue toward the north end. This is identical to last year's seating, with the exception of the inaugural game. We had an overwhelming response to the reduced prices for Princeton Stadium's first two seasons. Nearly 7,000 season tickets were purchased in 1998, and that mark was eclipsed in 1999. The increase in season-ticket sales, coupled with the reduction of the seating capacity from approximately 45,000 seats in Palmer Stadium to fewer than 28,000 seats in Princeton Stadium has created some challenges for our ticket office. In order to provide classes with the best available seats, alumni class priority seating is now located on the east side. This adjustment will provide better seat locations for alumni and help us to create an atmosphere unmatched by anyone in the Ivy League.
Jim McLaughlin
Jadwin Gym Operations Manager
As a former Orange Key guide, I noted one small historical omission in your recent thorough article on presidential candidate Bill Bradley '65 (Feature, October 6). This election cycle is the first in many years where the three top contenders (at least at this point) are Ivy Leaguers, Bill Bradley (Princeton), Al Gore (Harvard), and George W. Bush (Yale). If my Orange Key memories are still sharp, the last time the top three contenders were from the Big Three was 1912, with Theodore Roosevelt (Harvard, Progressive), William Taft (Yale, Republican), and Woodrow Wilson 1879 (Princeton, Democrat). We all know who won that time.
Michael Malamut '82
Boston, Mass.
I was intrigued by the experience of Noah Sachs *95 with the Russian police (First Person, October 20).
My own experience took place at almost exactly the same time last winter, but with a quite different outcome. As one of two members of a U.S. Government commission on national security, I was flying from Moscow to Kazakhstan late one night in a small U.S. Air Force jet. Due to heavy winds, our pilots had to land the aircraft in Ufa, a town on the edge of the Ural Mountains, for fuel. Finding ourselves stranded by an ever-worsening snowstorm, we recruited four fellows in the bar of the tiny airport who were willing to drive us to town (for a price!) to find a motel.
Alone in one of the cars with my two new-found Russian friends, the driver somehow felt it necessary to drive about 70 miles per hour in his aging vehicle along snow-covered country roads bounded by four-foot-high snowbanks. Suddenly, in the darkness we burst right through a police roadblock. We skidded for what seemed an eternity, and I was relieved that no shots were fired, but the police soon caught up with us. It was at this point I realized our Russian visas had expired earlier that night since we had expected to have departed Russia on our now-aborted flight.
As the driver climbed out of our vehicle, an animated argument began with the officers but ended as suddenly as it had begun. As the driver climbed back behind the wheel, I asked what in heaven's name had happened. In very broken English he explained, "I told them 'Shame on you. You are delaying the American visitor.' So they said, 'OK' and let us go!"
A passage from my freshman Shakespeare course came to mind: "Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered!"
Norman R. Augustine '57 *59
Potomac, Md.
Piermont, N.Y.
"Killing a defective infant is not morally equivalent to killing a person. Sometimes it is not wrong at all," writes Princeton Professor Peter Singer, the DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at the University Center for Human Values, in a Sunday, October 3, 1999, article appearing in the Asbury Park Press.
His theory stating "that children less than a month old have no human consciousness and that parents should be allowed to kill a severely disabled infant to end its suffering and to increase the family's happiness" is a unsettling statement to come from a professor of human values.
He suggests that the family's happiness would increase after killing a severely disabled baby. How would that be? Think of the devastating guilt and dysfunction that would abound after such an act.
Singer says he's trying to alleviate the amount of suffering in the world. His methods seem to lack any feelings toward another human being.
Princeton University is, according to the article, taking the position of ensuring Singer's place without defending or condemning his views.
I would like to thank Mr. Steve Forbes '70, a university trustee, for withholding his financial support.
Kathy Camarata
Little Silver, N.J.
To facilitate communication among parents of Princeton students and to promote a dialogue between them and other members of the university community, I hope to set up an online network, similar to TigerNet. Parents and other family members could access this proposed Website to obtain up-to-date information on campus events, exchange views on a range of topics, or participate in discussions with President Shapiro and other members of the university.
I invite all interested parents of current Princeton students to send your name, along with the name and class of your son or daughter, and e-mail address to me at JDippe1333@aol.com. I will keep you advised of progress in developing this line of communication.
John V. H. Dippel '68
Piermont, N.Y.
Princeton Alumni Weekly welcomes letters. We may edit them for length, accuracy, clarity, and civility. Our address: Princeton Alumni Weekly, 194 Nassau St., Suite 38, Princeton, NJ 08542 (paw@princeton.edu).
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