The Street that leads to the Hill?

Princeton students are often accused of being apolitical, unable to look outside the infamous Orange Bubble and overly concerned with fun on the notorious Prospect Avenue. Yet in our defense, perhaps our dealings with the Street are actually preparing us for a future on Capitol Hill. Though separate from the University, the 10 privately owned eating clubs that constitute the Street are clearly a large part of student life and a hot topic for students and administrators alike. In addition to grade deflation, the four-year colleges and the new role of eating clubs on campus — the politics of Prospect — are among the most debated issues at Princeton.

Interclub Council (ICC) and Colonial Club president Marco Fossati-Bellani '07 paints a picture of an amiable working relationship between the club and the administration. "The ICC has a substantial and trusting relationship with [Mills]," Fossati-Bellani said in an email, referring to Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Studies Maria Flores-Mills, with whom the ICC meets once a week. "Only as a result of this mutual trust do club-University relations function fluidly."

Fossati-Bellani described a symbiotic relationship in which not only the ICC but also the graduate boards of clubs communicate with the University. The University, he said, "works with [the ICC] on a year-to-year basis. Some years are more productive than others depending on the composition of the ICC and of the issues the University brings to the table."

Fossati-Bellani explained that the purpose of these interactions is to maintain the status quo — a "relatively easy" task — and adds that even on heated issues like the implementation of the four-year colleges, "the University and the clubs both take everyone's interests into account." Fossati-Bellani said that he definitively believes that the University is not out to get the clubs. Instead, he says, both parties see merit in each other: The clubs "realize that [they] are a subset of the University community and are, above all, Princetonians," he said, while the University acknowledges that "a vast majority of Princetonians cherish the clubs deeply."

The back-and-forth is, in one way, born of necessity. The clubs are private institutions over which the University does not have power. "On occasion they ask us to change, but cannot declare such change upon us," Fossati-Bellani added.

USG vice president Rob Biederman '08 elaborated on the reciprocal relationship between the clubs and the administration. He notes that the administration's attempts to curb excessive underage drinking have met with little resistance, because it is in the "eating club's best interest not to have any alcohol-related incidents at their club." Similarly, Biederman cited the eating clubs "as welcoming the University's help with financial aid which helps to boost membership."

Still, Biederman said that the relationship is not always harmonious: "On every other issue [aside from alcohol and financial aid], it's a touchy thing." Unlike Fossati-Bellani, he sees four-year colleges as a problematic area in which the University and the clubs are "not necessarily in consensus." Rather than a relationship of mutual respect, Biederman sees the administration and the clubs as a strategic party ticket, in which candidates of differing values and appeals come together to meet the same objective — winning the vote.

Biederman said the administration is aware that "a significant portion of alumni would be displeased to see the eating clubs go" and that the clubs give Princeton a certain appeal both to current and prospective undergraduates. Biederman does not see the administration as an enemy of the eating clubs, but said that he thinks that the University is deeply worried about the "social implications of the clubs, the excessive drinking that goes on in them, and the fragmentation of the student body based on background and family economic status."

Andrea Pasinetti, who is Class of 2008 senator and an independent student, does not see the four-year colleges as such a controversial issue. He said the University is not attempting to draw students away from the Street, but rather to ameliorate the situation of those students who are already choosing not to be part of an eating club. This, he says, is "a well-founded concern when one considers the proportion of independent students." Pasinetti added, "As I have gathered from conversations I have had with a few administrators, the University values the kind of interaction, and the cohesive and diverse social networks the Street promotes."