Black Alumni and their Alma Mater

It is commonly believed that Princeton has the best relationship with its alumni of any college in America.

Less talked about, however, is the University's relationship with its African-American alumni — a relationship that some believe has been extremely positive while others contend has been less than stellar.

While there is disagreement over how to characterize this relationship, many black alumni agree that Princeton's relationship with its African-American graduates is largely determined by the current state of undergraduate life at the University: When black alumni perceive that the administration is addressing issues important to African-American undergraduates, they are pleased — and when they feel the University is falling short, their relationship with Princeton can become strained.

"More minority students are familiar with Princeton compared to 25 or 30 years ago," explained Steve Dawson '70, former president of the Association of Black Princeton Alumni. He characterized relations between the University and its black alumni as very strong.

Marguerite Vera '79, a member of the ABPA who now makes her home in Princeton Junction, said, "I overall have been very happy with my alumni experience. I wish there were more notable ways to look at black Princeton alumni as part of the University community, but that will come along as we do more and more."

But some members of the University community have charged that Princeton does not adequately attract and retain black faculty. They cite as an example the loss of Cornel West GS '80 — founder and former director of Princeton's African-American studies program — who left the University for a similar position at Harvard in 1994.

And it is this perception that has caused concern among some black alumni about the University.

Current ABPA president Sergio Sotolongo '77 shares this view, at least to an extent. While he said he agrees that Princeton has done a good job of making African-American alumni feel like a part of the University community, he is quick to point out that some black alumni believe the University can further improve the relationship by making a vigorous, concerted effort to attract and maintain African-American and other minority faculty members.

"I would say that overall my sense is that the school has made some attempt to reach out to black alumni, but not nearly as much as is necessary," said Sotolongo, whose wife, Donna '77, is also black and currently chairs the Alumni Schools Committee of the Princeton Alumni Association of Central New Jersey.

Karen Ali '78 concurred. "I agree that one of our biggest concerns is trying to attract and retain African-American faculty," said Ali, who is currently vice president of her class. "They're leaving left and right and we seem to have some difficulty in finding and keeping them."

"There are more than enough people out there," she added. "I think we need to look more in our own backyard, to look among our graduates."

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Still, Dawson feels the University is not completely at fault for the loss of professors such as West. "It's a competitive environment, and sometimes there are opportunities that are attractive even at other places than Princeton," Dawson said.

"It's always been a national issue in terms of getting African Americans interested in going to grad school and then becoming professors at universities," he said of what he believes is a shortage of high-profile black academics.

"It's a very select group of people who want to go to grad school and teach at the university level," he continued. "There are a lot of other careers available for the minority community that are very competitive." He cited law and medicine as two examples.

University faculties across the nation are typically less diverse than their student-body counterparts, Dawson noted. He added that it is easier to produce black academics "when you're trying to recruit someone into a more diverse cultural environment."

Dawson explained that if the racial climate for African Americans at Princeton needed to be changed anywhere, it would be at the graduate school.

"Princeton doesn't seem to have as good a track record with regard to diversity in the graduate student program," he said, describing the situation as "unfortunate," but noting that it would likely be difficult for Princeton to overcome because of low interest among African Americans in non-professional post-graduate work.

ABPA treasurer Ken Bruce '83 also said the University needs to work harder to increase its black graduate student population.

Sotolongo and his wife recently attempted to start a discussion on how the University could attract more black faculty members.

They kicked off this effort by organizing three dinners. In addition to the members of the ABPA board, they invited the chairs of the humanities departments and Associate Provost Joann Mitchell to the first dinner.

"We had maybe nine or 10 that came, in addition to which we invited some grad students of color, four of whom that came," he said, "and we wanted to have some real concrete, frank, open discussion about what it was that we could do to advance this."

They then organized a second dinner and invited faculty from the science departments. "It was in the same spirit, and there were a number of very, very interesting things that came out of both discussions," he recalled.

Mitchell attended the second dinner, as well as the third, to which Sotolongo invited sociology professor Thomas Espenshade, ORF professor Erhan Cinlar, history professor Robert Tignor, graduate school deans John Wilson and David Redmond and Dean of the Faculty Joseph Taylor.

"So we shared with that group some of what we picked up in these first two dinners," Sotolongo said, "and what we suggested was that we put together a task force that would be a joint task force of department chairs, administration and people from within the ABPA community."

"What we heard universally was the issue and problem of sourcing candidates, and that's where we thought we could lend the greatest help," he said.

Sotolongo explained that though the task force idea has not been realized, the University gave them the impression that "we should continue to work through Joann [Mitchell] on some of these issues."

"And we're not averse to doing that because we feel very passionate about this, but there has to be some real structure and format if the University is serious about this."

Sotolongo also added that one of the driving forces behind this effort is a provision in the Wythes Committee Report that calls for an additional 500 students to enroll at Princeton, but no accelerated increased in the size of the faculty.

"We're going to have to be in position where we attract more faculty of color," he said, noting that if the Wythes report is implemented "as is" he believes it will decrease the ratio of minority faculty members to students.

"In order to keep the paltry ratios in line, we need to do a minimum of increasing absolute numbers of faculty of color," Sotolongo said. "It's a very tall order, and will require all of the resources that the University can muster in order to do that, but we feel we are among some of the more powerful of those resources."