Tilghman and three past presidents gather in New York

NEW YORK, March 2 — President Tilghman and her three living predecessors praised the University for its racial integration and transition to coeducation, and reserved harsh words for Harvard and the Concerned Alumni of Princeton in speeches Thursday night at the Princeton Club.

Tilghman and the former University presidents — Harold Shapiro GS '64, William Bowen GS '58, and Robert Goheen '40 GS '48 — described their gathering before a crowd of alumni as unprecedented, but explained that they were by no means strangers.

"We all live within five blocks of each other," Tilghman said.

Tilghman said she was privileged to be able to draw on the experience of Goheen, Shapiro and Bowen.

"This has had a very profound effect on my presidency," Tilghman said. "Whenever I needed some advice, I would walk my dog and literally within a few minutes, I could be at Bob or Harold or Bill's house."

Before an audience of a few hundred alumni, many clad in orange-and-black Reunions attire, Goheen and Bowen condemned the Concerned Alumni of Princeton (CAP), a defunct conservative group that made headlines during the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito '72, a former CAP member.

"In the 1960s and 1970s, there were those of our fellow alumni who were vehemently opposed to racial integration and coeducation, not to mention many of our undergraduates who were sporting long, shaggy hair," Goheen, who sported an orange bowtie, said.

"I regretted that some of my classmates were among them," he added.

Bowen, who continued the reforms begun under Goheen, also recounted his struggles with irate CAP members.

"I did take some satisfaction in the demise of the organization," Bowen said.

Bowen said that when faced with difficult decisions on the future of the University, he relied on the words of University trustee and donor Laurence Rockefeller '32, who once said, "Whatever we do, somebody isn't going to like it. In that case, we should do the right thing."

Bowen and Shapiro both cautioned the University against complacency.

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Shapiro said his main advice for Tilghman was that "she ought to remember that there was nothing going on at Princeton that couldn't be done better."

Bowen said the University should not pat itself on the back for past progress, but rather move to address the more complex and crucial challenge of admitting students from all socioeconomic strata.

"The leading institutions of higher education in the United States have worked hard to make places like Princeton genuinely open to students of all backgrounds. Yet, truth be told, we've come up short. What happens to you in life is very dependent on how you grew up," Bowen said.

In addition to commending the progressive trend of University admissions, the presidents lauded the longstanding cooperation between the faculty and administration.

The "single faculty that comprises all academic departments at the University" is a feature of enduring value, Goheen said.

Goheen added, to loud applause, that the faculty and president at Princeton "tended to get along together," in contrast to the faculty and president at Harvard — a reference to the recent resignation of Harvard president Larry Summers, who resigned under pressure from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

On a similar note, Bowen described how "the recent turmoil in Cambridge" reminded him of collegial interactions with University faculty during his tenure as president.

All the presidents received standing ovations at the beginning and end of their remarks, but the audience was less enthused when Shapiro recalled one of his infamous decisions.

"I was convinced that we needed to ban the Nude Olympics," Shapiro said, eliciting a half-minute of hissing from the audience.

At the end of the night, the oldest alumnus in attendance, a member of the Class of 1936, led all present in an enthusiastic rendition of "Old Nassau."