A possible alternative to the Street?

At first glance, Princeton's newly established four-year residential colleges resemble those that have existed for years at Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale and scores of other institutions.

But, in trying to replicate its peer schools' systems, the University faced a unique challenge: the 10 eating clubs clustered near Prospect Avenue.

Almost as long as the clubs have existed, the University has periodically tried to replace them with a residential college system. In the first decade of the 20th century, then-University president Woodrow Wilson, Class of 1879, attempted to make colleges a permanent part of Princeton, envisioning them as hubs of academic study and social interaction. Other presidents have followed suit, creating a string of now-defunct dining and social alternatives to the Street. Those attempts culminated in the two-year, five-college system that has existed for a quarter-century — until this year.

With plans for Whitman College and a four-year-college system circulating for nearly a decade, some students and alumni speculated that the death of the eating clubs at the hands of the University was near. In public meetings and in interviews, however, administrators repeatedly denied any such intention, instead insisting that the four-year colleges –– Mathey and Whitman for now, and Butler beginning in fall 2009 –– would simply be another dining and social option for undergraduates.

Now that the system is in place, administrators continue to describe it as just one option among many. With residential colleges, eating clubs and independent housing, the administration intends to give students "choice" in where they live, eat and socialize, University Executive Vice President Mark Burstein said.

But, he added, the administration is not aiming for a comprehensive overhaul of the University's social dynamic. "What we're really trying to do," he said, "is create additional options –– a spectrum rather than individual paths that you have to choose."

At many institutions with residential colleges, it is normal for those colleges to be at the center of students' lives, even with the pull of fraternities, sororities or other groups. But Princeton's residential college system has remained different because of the unique and longstanding significance of Prospect Avenue.

While the Street continues to draw support from some students and from an active alumni base, it remains a symbol of elitism and exclusion for others. The number of clubs has steadily declined in the past few decades — though that trend may have temporarily halted with the planned resurrection of Cannon Club, slated to reopen in 2008 — making it appear that the University is approaching its century-old objective of closing the clubs.

Former Interclub Council (ICC) president J.W. Victor '05 told The Daily Princetonian last year that he believes some members of the administration "would like the residential colleges to replace the clubs," adding that such a plan would "present a Princeton that is no longer connected to the stereotype of being necessarily white and affluent."

But Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel said this spring that the University's residential plan "is still very dependent on the majority of undergraduates [being in] clubs," noting that no more than 250 upperclassmen will be able to join the four-year colleges.

Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Maria Flores-Mills said she believes the clubs will not suffer as a result of the rise of the four-year residential colleges.

"I think that the eating clubs have solidified their place in Princeton University culture," said Mills, who is the liaison between the administration and the clubs. "Quite honestly, I really don't think [the four-year college system] is going to hurt the eating clubs at all. I think they'll continue to be a primary focus of social life at Princeton."

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Joint meal plans, which let a limited number of students from each club divide their meals between their colleges and their clubs, symbolize the increasingly blurred boundaries between the Street and the University.

This unification of campus culture, in turn, diminishes "what is perceived to be a racial and economic divide" between those who choose to be in clubs and those who opt out, Vice President for Campus Life Janet Dickerson said.

Beginning this year, the University is assisting eligible upperclassmen with their club dues, offering them financial aid equivalent to the average cost of an eating club meal plan, which are more expensive than residential college meal plans.

Though many club members clamored to take advantage of joint meal plans for this year, some were turned down because of their clubs' caps on the number of plans offered.

Flores-Mills said the difference between the number of students seeking the split plan and the number of plans offered by the clubs "wasn't too disparate" but added that student interest in the arrangement may decline in the next few years. "Whitman's going to get older, and it won't be the brand new thing anymore, and it will become more equated with the other living options they have on campus," she said. "Students will have this experience firsthand of a shared meal plan, and it may or may not be what they wanted."

The split meal arrangement is only confirmed for the current academic year, but the University hopes to continue the system in future years, Dickerson said. "I think to a great extent, it'll depend on what the clubs can afford to do and what they would want to do."

But ICC president Will Scharf '08 said the future of the split meal plan system remains unclear. Though he said it is too early to know whether some clubs will drop out after this first year –– a decision that is ultimately left to the club graduate boards –– he noted that "there was some dissatisfaction" from the clubs regarding the University's organization of the plan.

"The University changed the way the plan is administered several times this summer," Scharf said. "Initially, the most attractive aspect of the plan was that the University would do all the administrative legwork, and we would pay them a bit on the side. That changed dramatically –– we've had to do far more work reconciling their management with our membership packaging than expected."

Burstein said those complications weren't the University's fault. "What happened over the summer was that some of the clubs wanted the University to bill students [for their split meal plans], and some clubs wanted to bill students themselves," he said. Consequently, he said, the University asked all the clubs to handle the billing separately.

"I don't see this as much 'work' — these are processes that have to happen," he said, adding that he felt that "the relationship between the University and the clubs is transparent."

Nonetheless, there is still some tension between the University and the clubs, Scharf said. Though the University "has tried to be as accommodating as possible," he said, "there has been a real lack of administrative foresight."

Burstein noted that with any large venture, behind-the-scenes administrative details can be complex. "It is a relationship between the University and 10 different entities," he said. "Sorting everything out and implementing them did take time. Some of the clubs were smoother and some were less so."

The University maintains that the goal of the four-year colleges is not to draw students away from the Street, but rather to create alternatives for students who opt out of the club system.

"What's going to be better served," Flores-Mills said, "is the huge margin of students who have either been independent because they just didn't want to join a club for whatever reason, but didn't necessarily want to prepare their own meals either, and those who were only joining eating clubs because they didn't want to be put in a position to cook for themselves."

She and Dickerson predicted that, as a result of the four-year college system, fewer students would choose to be independent.

But money and meals are not the only factors separating those who choose to join clubs and those who do not. Many students feel that self-segregation by race, age, socioeconomic status and religion is pervasive throughout campus, and that the club system helps further that fragmentation.

President Tilghman told the 'Prince' last fall that she "believe[s] that it is in the best interests of the University — and most importantly its students — if we could evolve a system for joining eating clubs, which I do believe play a positive role in the University's life, that is less anxiety-producing, painful and more inclusive of students from all backgrounds."

The four-year college system aims to do just that, Dickerson said, by striving to "help create pathways so that people can create connections with other students and members of the community who may not be in their 'natural' affinity groups." In this respect, she said, she hopes the colleges will foster social interaction among different groups of students instead of exacerbating their separation.

In the four-year colleges, with around 10 graduate students and 100 undergraduate upperclassmen interacting daily with underclassmen, a new social environment may emerge, Dickerson said. This arrangement, she said, may "help ameliorate the separation between graduate and undergraduate students" and close the divide between under and upperclassmen.

USG president Rob Biederman '08, who lives in Whitman and does not belong to a club, said that after living there only a few days, he realized he "hardly knows any of the freshmen and few of the sophomores." He added that he hopes upperclassmen who decide to live in the four-year colleges will develop a "more informal, RA-like relationship" with freshmen and sophomores in their colleges. "There's no reason you can't take an interest in them and help them out."

These interactions could take place in several new facilities unique to Whitman College, Dickerson said. "Photography labs and theaters, and other social gathering systems in a variety of settings, like the dining halls," she said, may transform the way students socialize.

"We're hoping that by having them live in common corridors, underclassmen and upperclassmen may develop natural connections across general lines and create bridges for groups who may feel like they're isolated from their peers, such as athletes or engineers."