As Samuel Alito '72 faced the Senate Judiciary Committee this week, his alma mater also had its turn in the spotlight, with confirmation hearings focusing on Princeton to an unusual degree.
Much of the questioning centered on Alito's involvement in the Concerned Alumni of Princeton (CAP), a conservative alumni group that critics associate with discriminatory views, but senators also digressed to broader aspects of Princeton.
By contrast, during confirmation hearings for now-Chief Justice John Roberts, the nominee's undergraduate and law school years at Harvard were not mentioned a single time.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) asked for an explanation of eating clubs — which he called "selective eating societies" — and Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) called Princeton a "last holdout" in admitting women and minorities.
Observers attribute the attention to several factors, including stereotypes about Princeton's elitism, its conservative past and CAP's controversial views.
"It was [Princeton's] turn [to] become a political football," added Bruce Reed '82, president of the Democratic Leadership Council and Slate.com political blogger.
He noted that Yale and Harvard came under scrutiny during the presidential elections of 1992, 2000 and 2004, while the last Princeton graduate to run for president was Bill Bradley '65, who failed to win the Democratic nomination in 2000.
Alito set the tone by talking about Princeton in his opening statement Monday, in which he distanced himself from some aspects of the University's past.
"I saw some very smart people, very privileged people behaving irresponsibly, and I couldn't help making a contrast between some of the worst of what I saw on campus and the good sense and decency of the people back in my community," said Alito, who grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Hamilton.
Alito added that the University was taking steps towards greater inclusivity at the time, but some senators continued to portray Princeton as elitist in their questions.
"A pretty widely known debate is that in the Ivies, the one, sort of, last holdout, fighting to not admit as many women and fighting not to admit as many minorities, was Princeton," Biden said, noting, however, that minorities represent 28.7 percent of the Class of 2005 and women make up 47 percent.
But the University's past continues to plague public perceptions of it today.
In "The Chosen," a history of admissions at Princeton, Yale and Harvard, Berkeley sociology professor Jerome Karabel notes that one of Princeton's historic interests was maintaining "its image as a genteel and anti-intellectual country club."
In an email Thursday, provost Christopher Eisgruber '83 acknowledged that while both Harvard and Princeton acted in elitist ways in the past, today's Princeton does not reflect such a characterization.
"At times, either community can act in ways that are exclusive or arrogant. We do ourselves no credit when we succumb to that temptation," Eisgruber said.
"Happily, I believe the vast majority of Princetonians are dedicated to building a University that is as inclusive as possible and dedicated to meaningful excellence," he added. "We've come a long way, and we should aspire to do even better in the future."
Dennis Thompson, a former Princeton professor who knew Alito as a student and now teaches at Harvard, attributes the perception of Princeton as elitist during Alito's years to a generally conservative student body.
"The faculty and administration were more progressive than most of the student body and the alumni," Thompson said in an email. "Because of the small-town location, the influence of the eating clubs and the traditions of the place, the campus had a more conservative milieu than most of the rest of the Ivy League, certainly than Harvard."
Despite this latent conservatism, Thompson noted that CAP represented the views of an extremist segment of alumni.
But Reed emphasized that there is no hostility toward Princeton graduates in Washington, and attributed the current scrutiny primarily to Alito's CAP membership.
Reed said much of the interest in Princeton is an attempt to discover why Alito would join such a group.
"People are scratching their heads trying to discover why Alito is aligning himself with CAP in Washington in the mid-'80's," Reed said. "CAP is just about the only interesting thing about him. He seems smart enough to have known better."
With regard to questioning about eating clubs, Reed added: "I think that the Lindsey Graham hearings on eating clubs are long overdue. There's no point in talking about problems in Washington when we can be investigating Prospect Avenue."
Original URL: http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2006/01/13/14237/