Prospective students to experience Princeton without Prospect

Today throngs of students will be walking around campus pinching themselves. As the 300 potential members of next year's freshman class awaken from their daze while enjoying non-alcoholic events of prefrosh weekend, they might begin to see Princeton beyond the lecture halls and the Prospect 11.

A few years ago, the University changed the prefrosh program from mid-week to the weekend in an effort to give students a general feel for campus life beyond the classroom, Dean of Admissions Fred Hargadon said in an e-mail.

But the prefrosh will be missing out on one major aspect of University life — the uncensored 'Street.'

Alice Teti '00, Inter-Club Council adviser, encouraged clubs to go dry this weekend.

"I asked the clubs to seriously consider the risks of hosting regular parties on a weekend when so many high school students would be on campus," she said in an e-mail. "The clubs have made individual decisions."

Teti said a few clubs are going ahead with the bands and parties they had previously booked before the date of prefrosh weekend was announced. Other clubs will either be members only or closed entirely.

Though liability is an issue, many argue that the University will be presenting an inaccurate portrait of campus life.

"Before I came here, I wanted to know about the social scene," Travis Miur '05 said. "In order to get a complete view of the place, you have to see what people do here. The 'Street' is an integral part of that."

USG president Nina Langsam agreed.

"Of course, having the eating clubs either members only or closed will give the prefrosh a skewed view of Princeton life," she said.

Miur recalled attending a party at Quadrangle Club before deciding to come to the University.

"As much as I care about academics and sports and being in a beautiful place, if there weren't cute people having a good time, I wouldn't want to come," Miur said.

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But other students walked away with a different impression after visiting the street as a prefrosh.

The 'Street' was not closed during Arun Wiita '02's prefrosh visit. Wiita had a negative prefrosh experience because of parties he attended — or tried to attend — at the 'Street' on a Thursday night. With a borrowed prox, Wiita and two other prefrosh wandered around Quad and tried to get into Tiger Inn.

"We left the 'Street' thinking, "wow this place sucks,' " he said. "As far as I'm concerned, closing the 'Street' is definitely a good call."

After his trip to the 'Street,' Wiita decided he did not want to attend the University, and only attended because his parents forced him.

While having no 'Street' experience might give an inaccurate impression of the Princeton social scene to the prefrosh, closing it down and having Communiversity show some of the other sides of life would have made more of a positive impact on Wiita if those activities had been available on his prefrosh weekend, he said.

In between heaving sighs of relief, the prefrosh will have an opportunity to take in panel discussions on minority life and social life at the University, a Salsa Dance Party, a lecture by Dr. Drew of "Loveline" and Communiversity — an annual event celebrating town-gown relations.

This weekend is the University's chance to put its best face forward. Class officers, in conjunction with admissions, have planned special events to convince as many of the accepted students to accept the University's offer as possible.

A packed social calendar is not atypical for a University like Princeton, Hargadon said. Prefrosh will experience how students spend their time outside of class.

"Having a lot of events take place over the weekend is certainly not unrepresentative of Princeton," Hargadon said. "Such weekends do happen, as I found out the past couple of weekends when I realized that I had to make choices between a large number of student performances, athletic events, and outside speakers."