You’ve probably been walking the past several weeks looking around at our spectacular campus — wonderful buildings and spaces that delineate endeavors and aspirations of a multitude of disciplines and communities — and no doubt have been pinching yourself. Yes, you earned being here, but being smart enough to get in means you’re smart enough to figure out that it is also an extraordinary privilege.
I believe that the most beautiful part of Princeton may be right under your feet. Walk up the stairs to McCosh 10 or 50 or go through the side doors of Nassau Hall and take a look at what has transpired to the pristine planarity of the steps you’re climbing — they’ve been scalloped by countless footsteps of those who have come before. You are part of a long, long line of Princetonians, who have all made their indelible mark as members of our community. Now it’s your turn.
Princeton makes a concerted and intentional effort to push intellectual boundaries; it’s not only a purpose, but a responsibility to society overall. It seeks to push such boundaries while also preserving the best of the tried and true. Conservative or liberal? You’d better believe it, and if that duality perplexes you, you need not worry — the point is to be able to comprehend and appreciate seemingly contradictory concepts.
There’s great truth to the old joke that it takes three Princetonians to change a lightbulb — one to replace it, one to mix the drinks and one to reminisce about how great the old bulb was (even if it was incandescent and being upgraded to an LED model). We love to work to gain the new and novel, we treasure the past and we also know how to throw a pretty decent party. It’s this amalgam that creates the experience that is Princeton.
Your newness brings zest and vigor to Princeton. Thank you for that. But don’t allow the temporal tyranny of your undergraduate pressures deprive you of an appreciation for the past.
You can wait years — even decades — to slowly gain familiarity with the historical base of your collegiate experience. But to wait so long to do so would be a shame. Here’s a suggestion.
Go “shoot” some alums. Head home for fall break or Christmas armed with the contact info for a handful of alums in your area — the older, the better. Give them a call and ask if you could come meet them and put them in front of a camera. Take a video of them responding to your questions — what their Princeton experiences were like, what and who the most memorable features and people of their time were, what they have treasured and what they wish they would do over. Come back to campus after New Year and share some of your edited video with classmates. Take a couple of hours after exams and compile the best of what you have all shot into a DVD (or two). Present your work to the Alumni Council. Put an ad in the Princeton Alumni Weekly and offer to sell the result to interested alums for shipping and handling. Make contacts with interesting people and broaden your horizons. Revel in an expanded appreciation for your new home. Go nuts, and have a blast.
Narcissus got in trouble by seeing his own image in the water. Instead, you can dip into the well that is Princeton and see images of how someone similar to you has benefited and struggled with the same dynamics that will support and challenge you.
If you elect to do this, embrace the unexpected gains of randomness. Don’t just try to track down the biggest ‘names’ or someone whose background parallels your own. Trust that the same admissions process that resulted in the wealth that is you and your classmates was able to identify lots of other classes filled with interesting people with interesting stories.
It’s unlikely that you’ve heard of my classmate David Boggs ’72 (whom I’ve never met). Boggs took time off before his graduate studies to work at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) and, as a 22-year-old straight out of Princeton, co-invented Ethernet. My class salutatorian, Jim O’Donnell ’72, became a classics professor at University of Pennsylvania — where he headed Penn’s“New Tools for Teaching” technology effort and ended up as Vice Provost of Information Systems and Computing, creating MOOC. O’Donnell became the provost at Georgetown; his biography of Augustine means that his mind spans Hippo to hypertext. A few years ago, former Director of Athletics Gary Walters ’67 introduced me to Ray Close ’51; Close spent 35 years with the CIA in the Middle East and has shared some remarkable and jaw-dropping stories.
Why wouldn’t you want to try to spend an hour with people like this — just three of thousands of such Tigers?
“And when these walls in dust are laid / With reverence and awe / Another throng shall breathe our song / In praise of Old Nassau.”
You are that throng, and all who came before are with you. Enjoy every step of your climb!
Tad LaFountain ’72
Read More
Progressives failed a lesson in free speech
Anais Mobarak“The recent controversy surrounding Charter Club has demonstrated that progressive voices on campus have failed to recognize the value of free speech beyond its usefulness as a political instrument. Thus, as a community, we must work to foster an ideologically-free understanding of free speech.”
“The recent controversy surrounding Charter Club has demonstrated that progressive voices on campus have failed to recognize the value of free speech beyond its usefulness as a political instrument. Thus, as a community, we must work to foster an ideologically-free understanding of free speech.”
Campus through a lens: Announcing the ‘Prince’s inaugural columnists
Eleanor Clemans-CopeReading a series of columns by the same author is seeing things through the writer’s lens — it’s looking at campus through the ‘Christofer glasses’ or the ‘Eleanor specs.’ This is the thinking behind having named columns.
Reading a series of columns by the same author is seeing things through the writer’s lens — it’s looking at campus through the ‘Christofer glasses’ or the ‘Eleanor specs.’ This is the thinking behind having named columns.
Bring back the course packet
Abigail Rabieh“With the recent news that Labyrinth Books will no longer supply the coursebooks for Princeton classes, we are facing a new era in which all readings will only be accessible by some digital medium, whether that be via Course Reserves or online ordering from faraway publishers. While some may see this as a step in the right direction of modernity, the increasing digitalization of our scholarship hurts our learning.”
“With the recent news that Labyrinth Books will no longer supply the coursebooks for Princeton classes, we are facing a new era in which all readings will only be accessible by some digital medium, whether that be via Course Reserves or online ordering from faraway publishers. While some may see this as a step in the right direction of modernity, the increasing digitalization of our scholarship hurts our learning.”
