November 21, 1972 — In the face of extensive criticism from its members and faculty trustees, the Whig-Cliosophic governing council moved Sunday night to suspend tabulation of a recently conducted Presidential preference poll of the Princeton faculty.
The poll, conducted under the auspices of Whig-Clio, was actually initiated, financed and organized by T. Harding Jones '72 with the backing of the conservative Concerned Alumni of Princeton Association.
Stephen C. Carlson '73, president of Whig-Clio, said yesterday, "The sense of the governing council was to do nothing more with the statistics." (A preliminary tabulation had already been taken.)
Carlson indicated that this decision included refusing to "verify as precisely accurate" the preliminary figures released to Jones and "Prospect Magazine," the alumni council and The Daily Princetonian yesterday.
Apology
Carlson added that the governing council also felt "an apology is due — especially to those faculty members who would not have responded if they had known the complete story of the poll.
"If there's any blame to be taken, it's mine," he added.
But Carlson also explained, "Many of the things Whig-Clio does originate outside the society itself.
"I certainly would not have authorized the poll if it had been paid out for out of Whig-Clio funds," he added, in explanation of Jones' funding of the poll.
Carlson said that this apology to faculty members "who were misled by the poll" has not yet been written, and will "cost around $80 to mail it out — and a lot of time."
'Heartening'
Jones, who remarked Sunday afternoon that he was "surprised to hear rumors that the governing board is tyring to suppress the results," called the preliminary results of the poll "heartening."
The results, which Jones received from Carlson last Wednesday, show vote totals for McGovern, Nixon and other candidates, with the votes for Nixon broken down according to faculty department.
They do not include a similar breakdown for McGovern votes, and have not been officially verified by Whig-Clio.
With 214 responses from about 500 faculty members, the results give McGovern 177 votes, Nixon 26, Dr. Spock 3, Shirley Chisolm 1, Mickey Mouse 1 and six abstentions, Jones said.
He emphasized that only six of the Nixon votes come from either humanities or social sciences departments," but said the apparent rise in Nixon support from 1968 was "heartening."
1968 Poll
In a similar poll conducted by The Daily Princetonian in 1968 of 252 faculty members, Hubert Humphrey received 180 votes, Nixon 19 and Dick Gregory 19, with 18 abstentions and 16 other responses.
"The simple fact that a great uproar resulted over the poll's being taken points to something almost like paranoia among the faculty — that somehow, someone on the outside will see this," Jones said.
Jones added, "The importance of the imbalance comes from the humanities and social sciences — where it's the greatest."
He pointed out that in both the 1968 and 1972 polls, Nixon received no votes from sociology, economics, psychology, politics, philosophy or religion.
In 1968, Nixon received no support from the departments of Woodrow Wilson, history, English, East Asian studies and classics.
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