Letters to the Editor

The other message sent by banning ROTC

When I wear my ROTC uniform on campus, the most reaction I usually elicit from students is curiosity. It is the staff, from the servers in East Pyne to the security staff at Firestone, that express their support — and surprise. After telling me that he is a vet and asking me which branch I'd like to join, one security officer smirks, "I didn't know Princeton kids did the army."

Since the debate began to ban ROTC from the Princeton campus, I have been deeply disturbed. As a liberal that supports gay rights, but who has also answered the call to the nation's service, I could not put my finger on what made me so angry. This security officer sums it up. Princeton is an elite educational institution. Taking into account the best efforts of the administration, it will always be a place where the elite are educated. Banning ROTC on campus may make a statement about gay rights, but it will also make another statement — the elite will no longer bleed with you.

When righteous young liberals banned ROTC from all the other Ivy Leagues during Vietnam except Cornell, the antiwar statement they made also marked the beginning of a class divide that has weakened the U.S. Armed Forces and the U.S. population they represent.

The elite really doesn't serve anymore, as dwindling enrollment numbers in Princeton ROTC show. At a time when the debate is raging over low-income access to education, not to mention the increasing economic divide, I do not believe this is a message we can afford to send.

If we ban Princeton ROTC, some lawmakers will think "Isn't it nice that those elite Princeton kids forced their ROTC program to The College of New Jersey" and I will no longer be able to look security guards in the eye. Amity Weiss '07

Don't take Princeton food for granted

Regarding 'Coping with late-night cravings' (Tuesday, April 19, 2005):

At the risk of taking a "you-don't-knowhow-lucky-you-have-it" attitude, you really don't know how lucky current Princeton students have it when it comes to food selection.

My parents, who have lived in the Princeton area since the late 1960s, joke that their only option for eating out when they arrived in Princeton was Lahiere's. They could not afford to eat there, so cooking in their Hibben apartment was the only option available. Some time during the 1970s, a local gas station opened a Chinese restaurant, and that became the "hot" spot for exotic cuisine for years to come.

By the time I graduated in 2003, it seemed that Princeton had experienced a culinary awakening. Admittedly, the only thing I find appealing about Panera is the bottomless coffee, and I too wish that there were more Mexican options in the area other than the Taco Bell in Hamilton. However, we had several excellent sushi options, including the award-winning Ajihei and the less-expensive Sakura Express. Small World had expanded its services to include breakfast and lunch options, and Zorba's was on the brink of opening a casual dining location on Nassau Street. Heaven!

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I, too, complained about the lack of affordable options until I matriculated as a law student at another Ivy League institution. While it is not Yale, which you addressed in your column, I figured that I would have an increasing number of options because of a dramatically larger city and student body. Wrong. Our school store is not open on Sundays, and one of my classmates recently saw a proprietor of a nearby Thai restaurant wash off plastic-ware from the garbage and put it back into circulation. Between that experience and catching the flu from poorly washed highballs at our equivalent of the D-Bar, I feel like I could write "The Jungle" all over again. An anonymous '02-er recently drove through Princeton on her way back to school for the sole purpose of bringing back chocolate chip cookies from Olives. At 24 and 23, respectively, we shamefully nuked the cookies to simulate the experience of leaving Olives with an oozing cookie in hand.

Was it the actual cookie we craved? Probably not. Rather, it was the memory of going to Olives with friends after turning in our theses for a small piece of heaven. When I look back on specific food memories from Old Nassau, I remember the night junior year that my roommate and I stayed up all night talking on the floor of our common room whilst stinking up the entire suite with garlicky Olives hummus. I remember going with friends for "Two-for Tuesday" at T. Sweets. I remember eating Hoagie Haven by Woody Woo fountain before sleeping on Poe Field during the first night of O.A. Looking back on my Princeton experience, I do not remember all the expensive food from Mediterra that I missed out on, but I can certainly tell you about how much fun I remember having while lingering at Sunday brunch in Wu. Alison Fraser '03