Letters to the Editor

U. bonfires always slower than wildfire

Regarding 'The bonfire next time' (Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2006):

This is pretty much the funniest thing I have read in a very long time. Jason Gilbert '09 writes how I think. I am sorry, however, that Gilbert feels that Danger missed the study bus back from Yale. I actually think that it was a sweet bonfire, though I showed up a half hour late as usual because I knew these things are unfortunately always slower than wildfire.

Susan Lyon '09

An open letter to the Athletics Department

Each week members of our Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department have a pickup game of soccer on Poe Field, usually on Friday afternoons but sometimes on Sunday. We decided to play on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving as there were quite a few of us still around, working in labs and grading undergraduate precepts. When we turned up to play soccer, the goals we usually use were locked to the fence at the edge of the field. Oh yes! I'd almost forgotten, we're members of the University community, we pay our dues to the Athletic Department, but as far as Athletics facilities goes we're second-class citizens! If the undergraduates aren't around, the goals are locked away for the weekend. How thoughtful! And how pathetically cautious of the grounds staff. Did you really think someone would steal them? But of course they do the same thing over the summer, when the goals are completely removed and the grass, at the peak of its growing season, is "allowed to recover." And, of course, apart from the faculty and over 1,000 graduate students, the campus is athletically deserted.

This exclusion comes particularly hard. Last year I had the great honor of being the senior thesis advisor of the two students who were awarded "Spirit of Princeton" Awards for their work as scholar-athletes. It's a shame this spirit doesn't extend to graduate students and faculty who try to combine spontaneous athleticism with the longer term scholarly road.

I enjoy mentoring athletes. I can't remember the last time an exam or thesis deadline wasn't extended for some athlete or other. We're also massively constrained on when we can run labs and classes by athletic activities.

It would be nice if we could occasionally take advantage of these sumptuous athletic facilities by borrowing the goals for pickup soccer games, but maybe this is the sign of an athletic culture that takes itself far too seriously.

Professor Andy Dobson Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

U. bonfire dangerous and big enough as is

Regarding 'The bonfire next time' (Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2006):

Jason Gilbert '09 is obviously unaware of the real dangers with bonfires as illustrated by the tragedy at Texas A&M in 1999, when 12 students were killed constructing the massive Aggie Bonfire. To wish for more danger with ours seems cavalier and disrespectful, both to the memories of these other college students and to the context in which the Big Three bonfire takes place. I witnessed the bonfire at Princeton in 1985, and though it was not as large as the five-story A&M structure was, it seemed both big enough for the small space of Cannon Green and approachable enough for the relatively small group of students and alumni who came to enjoy it (the ring of people had to inch away from it as it grew hotter and hotter over the course of the evening). I do not think anyone should reasonably wish it to be anything other than what it is. If Gilbert seeks a racing pulse from fire dangers, I suggest that he volunteer with the crews who work on the West Coast and other parts of the world controlling wildfires and saving lives and property. That should satisfy his wish for danger and do considerably more good than a larger or riskier Princeton bonfire would.

David Barndollar '88