A letter from an alumnus about the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education

November 16, 2002

I am astonished by one of the articles that appeared in your recent issue (Notebook, November 20). In it, you announce the results of poll taken by the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. Apparently, Princeton scored quite well.

I find it amazing that you would quote this journal as a source of anything. My impression is that it is a racist, old-fashioned, one-sided magazine that tries to parade as a representative of all American "blacks."

One would be hard-pressed to come up with a magazine that is more hateful and ideological that PAW would be willing to quote as an authority in its pages. Would you, for instance, reveal the results of a National Review or American Spectator ranking of America's colleges that did not take such a sanguine view of Princeton?

The Intercollegiate Studies Institute has been evaluating colleges for years. I have not yet seen a reference to its findings in any issue of PAW. Of course, the National Review, the Weekly Standard, and the ISI are far more even-handed, fair, and balanced than anything that has been produced by the editors of the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education.

Why, then, do you pay heed to such a biased organization? How in any way does Princeton benefit from its imprimatur?

John Weber '96
New York, N.Y.

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