Honoring the decision to serve

Affixed outside many of the windows of the older dormitories at Princeton are bronze stars inscribed with a name and a year, marking the identities of Princetonians fallen in the twentieth century's wars. The total number of Princeton students killed in World War I, II, Vietnam and Korea approaches 600, each of them with their own star as a reminder and commemoration of their sacrifice.

Very few Princeton graduates are fighting in our nation's wars anymore. In the fall of 2003, though, 13 new bronze stars appeared on campus. The occasion was the commemoration of the 13 alumni killed in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in a memorial garden abutting Chancellor Green and East Pyne, of which the iconic stars were the centerpiece. While explicitly not making a judgment on the lives of those who died in the attacks, the changing use of the symbol — from a recognition of a Princetonian's life given in the nation's service to, plainly, a recognition of a Princetonian's life abruptly taken — traces the changing relationship between Princeton and national service.

The 30 years after the Vietnam War, in which relatively few Princeton graduates have chosen to join the armed forces, are a historical aberration. The stories of Princeton's legends — Hobey Baker '14, Jimmy Stewart '32, Donald Rumsfeld '54 and thousands of other alumni — are incomplete without mention of their military service.

These days, Princeton is tied to the military by a single thread. Enrollment in the Army Reserve Officer's Training Corps (ROTC) — a fair barometer of how committed we are to military service — is barely 5 percent of what it was at its height in the 1950s and 60s. Direct ties to the armed forces were frayed in the late 1960s. Neither the country nor the University believed in the Vietnam War, and support for military training on campus plummeted. By 1970, the faculty voted to kick ROTC off campus.

The climate for ROTC has improved: those currently affiliated with the program report strong administrative support. During graduation week last year, President Tilghman took the highly symbolic step of attending the ceremony at which ROTC graduates receive their commission.

Even so, there is something missing. National service is a polite suggestion rather than a requirement for Princeton graduates — no longer is being a Princetonian associated with the kind of leadership demonstrated by alumni of past generations.

The numbers don't lie. When the Class of 2004 entered the work world, 43 percent of them chose a job in the financial industry. One single member of the Class of 2008 has chosen to enroll in the ROTC program.

When we started to chart our success in terms of endowment growth, acceptance rates and Rhodes scholarships, we forgot about imparting a sense of duty. As a result, America no longer looks to Princeton for moral leadership. We have been so busy defending the meritocracy that we have denied our historical calling to be soldiers of the American democracy.

If we want to honor our history — and we must — we should institutionalize the decision to serve. I have not chosen military service for myself. National service now comes in many stripes, and there are opportunities unavailable to past generations of Princeton students to extend life, liberty and prosperity without putting on a uniform. While moving the ROTC program symbolically and physically to the forefront of the undergraduate experience, we should also dramatically increase our support of other forms of nonmilitary service that fulfill our historical obligation to send forth national leaders from Fitz-Randolph Gates.

Let us begin to emphasize to applicants that, while Princeton encourages graduation in four years, there is a strong expectation that time be spent performing national service before or after graduation.

The infrastructure to regrow a culture of service is largely in place. It is time to refocus some of our fundraising efforts to add Princeton-in-Trenton and Princeton-in-Newark to the suite of Princeton-in-Africa, Asia and Latin America; to triple the size of Project 55; and to offer a Princeton education that is incomplete without participation in such programs.

Let us prove that it is still within the capacity of Princeton University to inspire a nation with its service. Thomas Bohnett is a sophomore from Princeton Junction. He can be reached at tbohnett@princeton.edu.