"Crap. I left my iPod in Frist." A girl in my a cappella group did a forehead smack as she realized she had forgotten her treasured, not to mention extremely expensive, gizmo in the student center on her way to rehearsal.
"Damn it. Well, it'll be there when I get back."
She didn't rush over to the next-door building to retrieve it, but continued to sing with what seemed like little worry. How could she be so blasé about a $400 dollar possession, not to mention the no doubt hundreds of songs, which she had probably invested a lot of time in obtaining, stored on the thing? She got me thinking about the attitude at our school. My consequential reflection began, I think, with the bathrooms.
There's a phenomenon that occurs in the non-dorm girls' bathrooms at Princeton that I don't think the guys are aware of. After walking in, girls put their bags on the floor across from the sinks. There are hooks in the stalls, but no one uses them. Not only do students leave their purses and messenger bags susceptible to splashes from wet hands reaching for paper towels, but also snatches from klepto hands reaching for wallets and cell phones.
Chicks are not the only ones showing trust at Princeton. The phenomenon of belonging desertion is a guy thing too and can be observed at virtually every dining hall. Lugging around a huge bag of books with one's tray could lead to spilling and, God forbid, the extremely embarrassing shattering of a dish, so students dump their bags in cafeteria lobby areas before they even offer their proxes for swiping. With the hubbub of mealtimes, no one really keeps an eye on the piles of luggage, umbrellas, and coats, and the chances of anyone noticing who opens which bag are slim.
But my bag just has my books and papers in it, you might be thinking. What wack-job would want to steal those? Books and papers aren't all that we leave unattended, however. Walking by any study area, you're sure to see at least one abandoned laptop. Maybe the owner left for the gym or wanted to grab a snack or maybe a whole meal of food. The point is, these computers are pretty pricey pieces of equipment, and students, displaying an extreme trust in their peers and the community at large, are willing to leave their appliances alone with full confidence that they'll still be there when they get back.
In the beginning of the year, I was pretty shocked. I graduated in a class of fewer than 90 kids, and we had combination lockers. My high school fought a huge laptop stealing problem that lasted throughout my entire senior year. Sure, people left their books lying around, but anything technological was put under lock and key. When I came here, I couldn't believe that at a school with thousands of students — way more than I encountered with all the classes of my prekindergarten through 12th grade school combined — kids would so nonchalantly desert their stuff.
After a while at Princeton, though, my skepticism wore down, and I must admit that I, too, have now come to feel the trust inside the Princeton bubble. I didn't notice it until I consciously had to remind myself to take my wallet with me to the bathroom while studying at Starbucks. I don't even think twice about leaving the Dell alone for a few minutes.
Some might say that the faith we have in each other is one the nicest aspects of our school, making Princeton almost like a second home — minus the whole having someone to pick up after you part.
Feeling so comfortable all over campus is awesome, but is our trust unfounded?
On March 6, four computers were stolen from Frist. The building was open 24 hours for midterm week. Perhaps the bubble's not as safe as we thought. Are we being naive in thinking that just because we go to an Ivy League school, we can leave our $1,000 gadgets wherever we want? At what point does our trust become foolish? The thefts were kind of a wakeup call. Maybe we need to make like Frank (the Tank) in couples' therapy in "Old School" and ask: "What, I thought we were in the trust tree in the nest, were we not?"
Laura Berner is a freshman from Rye, N.Y. You can reach her at lberner@princeton.edu.
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