Must eliminate passes

Thursday, April 18, 2002. It was two weeks ago that I turned in my thesis. I am having a good time at the Street with friends. We hear that there is a Billy Joel cover "band" at Cottage. It escapes me how a band can cover a man, but I agree to go to Cottage with four friends.

When we approach the door at about 1:30, there is no line. The two doormen inform us that they are "Members Only, ICC, or 21 Club." Three of my friends have ICC passes and are waved in, but that exclusive ilk is denied the opportunity to take a guest with them, as they traditionally are. One of them is also in the 21 club and is denied a guest despite that additional, more exalted accolade. I start ranting to the doorman about being a second semester senior. He sarcastically replies, "Oh, let me get you a box of tissues," and we thenceforth engage in a swearing competition that would rival an Andrew Dice Clay act. One of my friends who is granted entry makes a snide comment aimed at me: "Oh, 'Gee,' here he goes again." I walk away so scorned by the doorman and my friend's belief that I am wrong that I promise to write an editorial. Jeers.

Friday, April 19, 2002. In three years of writing columns I have never written about the Street, but I break tradition this morning because that doorman so inflamed me. I am not disillusioned with the Street or with bicker. For myriad reasons to be explained in a future editorial, I believe that the Street is among the best collegiate social systems. Let me be very clear: I love the Street and think that, for all its positives and negatives, it is a valuable Princeton institution. I am not singling out Cottage, for I take exception with the pass system everywhere it is used — it is an abomination.

For those readers not familiar with the "pass system," let me explain it. Cap, Cottage, Ivy and TI issue passes to their members for Thursday and Saturday night parties; other clubs issue passes for special events throughout the semester. Members distribute these business-card-like passes to non-member friends whom they would like to gain admission to the club for that night. Grad students-turned-doormen guard the entrances to the clubs and receive guests by requesting passes. When the officers declare that the club is full, it goes on "Members Only," which is supposed to mean that entry will be granted exclusively to members, students on the Inter-Club Council, and members of the "21 Club."

There are two major reasons for the system: First, to prevent overcrowding; and second, to limit the liability of the clubs by controlling who can enter. What most people forget is that the same people usually frequent the same clubs. If officers suspended the pass system there might temporarily be a crowd problem at the "pass clubs," but that would subside as people returned to their regular social patterns, and as the aura of entering a pass club died down. Indeed, the social scene would be democratized as students would abandon the superficial mindset that dictates, "that's a bicker club and you need a pass to get in there" in favor of one that appreciates fun over supposed prestige. In the long term, every taproom would be better used, thereby de-crowding the pass clubs.

There is this vintage notion that the clubs need to be able to monitor who is entering the building and that passes therefore limit liability. It is clear to me that passes are not a prerequisite to such screening. The sign-in clubs find a way to successfully screen entrants without using passes. Moreover, people often forget to consider the liability that obtains when students are impelled to slip through basement windows or climb fire escapes in order to enter a "pass club." As risky and degrading as these activities may sound, students regularly appeal to them to elude the pass system. Hence my complaint that the pass system is unnecessary.

So where does this leave us? In the long-run, passes should be eliminated. In the short-run, by which I mean beginning tonight and continuing for the balance of the year, all clubs should admit all seniors who present a PUID. I have forwarded this column to every "pass club" president and the ICC president, and I would appreciate a swift, public response. I want to know why this system must persist, especially for seniors who are winding down their Princeton career and really want nothing more than to hang out with friends that we may not see for a while come June. Cheers. Ryan Salvatore is a Wilson School major from Stamford, Conn. He can be reached at salvatre@princeton.edu.