Working Group on Campus Social and Residential Lif

The University will ban students from participating in freshman rush, it announced on Tuesday. The ban will take effect beginning in fall 2012, with members of the Class of 2016 prohibited from affiliating with fraternities or sororities for the duration of their freshman year

I urge you, President Tilghman, do not attempt to fill our pails. Allow us to light our own fires, and work with us to ensure that we do not inadvertently set something else ablaze.

As most students surely recognize, the social opportunities offered by residential colleges and most activity-oriented student groups tend to pale in comparison to the social networks provided by the kinds of organizations the working group finds so problematic.

Regardless of the particular proposals, Princeton’s dangerous culture of “work hard, party hard” must end. The University should at very least continue its program of providing alternatives to that culture.

Students in fraternities and sororities, along with nonaffiliated allies, are taking steps to try to dissuade the University from banning freshman rush. The ban, which was recommended in a report issued Monday by the Working Group on Campus Social and Residential Life, would need the approval of the Office of the Vice President for Campus Life and the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students in order to be implemented.