On Monday, The Daily Princetonian published a response to a piece that I originally authored for the Princeton Tory’s online blog, entitled “The 10 Worst Courses Offered at Princeton in Fall 2014.” In his response, Bennett McIntosh eloquently argues against the assertion that certain courses at Princeton are “worthless” and articulates why Princetonians should be encouraged to be adventurous in the classes that they elect to take. Although McIntosh meant for his op-ed to serve as a response to my article, I do not disagree with the points that he makes and never meant for my post on the Princeton Tory’s blog to be taken as a serious critique of Princeton’s courses or world-class faculty. Indeed, as the first paragraph of my post claims, the piece was only intended to provide “comedic value” for readers, which (admittedly) many people feel it failed to accomplish.
While Bennett McIntosh presents a very eloquent case in his op-ed, he seeks to ascribe a particular motive to the original piece that was never present. The Tory blog post arguably did not fulfill its comedic purpose, but no malice was intended toward any professors or their classes. Nevertheless, I take full responsibility for the purpose of my article being misconstrued. Within one day of the article’s publication (before The Daily Princetonian ever published a response), I had already requested that the Tory staff remove the article since its interpretation did not match my intended message. Within that same time frame, I also issued individual apologies to each professor mentioned in the article and offered to meet with them in person to better understand the content of the courses discussed. While I do not wish to divulge the complete details of our personal correspondence, many of the professors whom I contacted said that they realized the article was meant to be taken in jest, and I appreciate their understanding.
Princeton has afforded me so many excellent opportunities — both within and outside the classroom. I very much appreciate all of the exceptional academic experiences that the University has made possible and sincerely apologize if the article indicated otherwise. Admittedly, it was reckless to try to satirize courses without doing more thorough research into each class. However, once I realized this mistake, I quickly made sure that the article was redacted so that my opinions were not misconstrued. This was not done out of cowardice. As a contributor to other news organizations outside of Princeton, I have not been shy about defending my true convictions, even against hostile audiences or comment boards. However, the way that my article on the Tory blog was ultimately interpreted did not reflect my true convictions about the quality of Princeton courses and educators, and therefore I had no desire to defend it further. Hopefully, as a community, we can move forward to discussing issues that warrant real debate.
Signed,
Evan Draim ’16
Addendum to "Avoid these worthless classes!"
As I have mentioned elsewhere, I did not mention Evan Draim's name in my column because he removed his name and retracted the post, so I did not want to direct unwanted attention in his direction. I regret if that decision caused any confusion as to the official editorial stance of the Tory, or Draim's position as a staffer thereof. In the meantime, I am glad that Horton, Draim and I have been able to foster discussion on this important issue.
Signed,
Bennett McIntosh
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