Sharing the Wealth

Shortly after a column of mine was printed in these pages last month, I received an e-mail from a high school student in California who was considering Princeton but was a bit taken aback by my descriptions of "elitism" and other problems which, in my opinion, detract from the University environment.

She asked, "Is Princeton really a place that would narrow my views rather than broaden them? Would I have discussions with people of identical economic backgrounds and prepschool breeding?" Honestly, I wasn't sure what to tell her. The climate which remains from the days when Princeton was an all-male, all-white institution is not fading away quickly, and though I can't speak from personal experience, I didn't feel right telling her that I thought Princeton was the best place in the world for the cultivation of a diversity of opinions.

Yes, there are women here now. Yes, the campus is not 100-percent white. But a few different faces do not a diverse campus make. Let's face it: Princeton does not attract students from certain corners of our society. We have very few students from urban public schools. We have very few people from the Midwest who aren't from an urban metropolis. We have hardly any foreign students who aren't well-off by their native standards, or by ours either.

But after receiving the news over intersession that the Board of Trustees has approved an increased budget which will guarantee that all financial aid in the future takes the form of grants, rather than repayable loans, I have new hope. What the Board of Trustees has done has the potential to rank with admitting women to the University as one of the greatest things to happen to Princeton in the past 50 or 100 years.

By replacing loans with grants, and — it should not be ignored — also increasing funding for graduate students and formally adopting a policy of need-blind admissions for international students, the Board has opened the door for dramatic positive changes to occur within the next few years.

Moreover, it has bucked the national trend of making repayable loans an increasingly large percentage of financial aid packages.

No longer, one hopes, will Princeton's doors be closed to those who cannot afford the $33,000 annual tuition. No longer will students who attend the University and receive financial aid — about 40 percent get funding of some sort — be forced to put off desired career plans or graduate studies to work in I-banking or consulting until they pay off $20,000 in loans.

Why, then, do I say that this move has the "potential" to be great? Because the ball is now in the court of Fred Hargadon and the admissions office. Now that Dean Fred has returned from his sabbatical, the landscape has changed. Five hundred additional students will be phased into Princeton shortly, and now there is the potential for something truly different to happen here.

Diversity can come from a lot of places. It can't be measured by the color of the faces of a graduating class, but by what each individual has to offer. Two white students of different income levels would likely have much more diversity to offer one another than a black student and an Asian student who both went to New England prep schools ever could.

I urge Dean Hargadon and the admissions committee to make it a point to use this opportunity to make a statement that the days of 'Good Ol' Boys' nostalgia have officially come to an end. There are beautiful minds and great, diverse opinions in parts of this nation and this world that we don't know about. Bring those people to Princeton. Bring non-athletes from urban public schools. Bring someone from Iowa or Kansas who lives on a farm, not in Des Moines or Topeka. Bring students from Africa who aren't the children of ambassadors. When that happens — and there is now no reason why it should not — I will be confident in telling any high school student who asks that Princeton is indeed a place where the exchange of diverse experiences and knowledge is not only possible but regular and, hopefully, unavoidable. Dan Wachtell is a philosophy major from Rye, NY. He can be reached at wachtell@princeton.edu.