Viewbook deception

When I first arrived at Princeton a few short weeks ago, I felt more than mere excitement: I felt a sense of fulfillment. As a nervous freshman stepping onto the campus that would become my home for the next four years, I was relieved that the University's Gothic architecture proved just as beautiful and real as it had been in the viewbooks I had received in the mail, that the sprawling fields and lush trees really did exist and that Princeton was indeed every bit as amazing as it was made out to be.

But it turned out that even Princeton was too good to be true. When I reached my dorm in 1938 Hall, Wilson College, I found not the Gothic architecture of Rocky or Mathey, nor the newly renovated buildings of Butler, nor the private-bath-equipped doubles of Forbes and certainly not the grandeur of newly constructed Whitman. I found, rather, seven disgruntled suitemates who were already lambasting our bad luck, as well as a considerable number of ants crawling across the floor. The sight reminded me of one of the dorms I had visited this past spring at Yale.

In the days that followed, I learned that not only was our room more cramped and in worse condition than most other rooms on campus, but also that the food in the Wilcox dining hall was worse than that of its peers. Any Wilsonite can confirm this: There is good reason that we pass by half-empty Wilcox on a daily basis, walking across Elm Drive for the gourmet food served at an overcrowded Whitman instead. And though the University has plans to renovate both Wu and Wilcox by 2009, many of my fellow Wilsonites will be taking their meals elsewhere (eating clubs, independently) at that point. It's simply too little, too late.

It's true that the pictures I had been seeing in the viewbooks, on the website, in the brochures and on the postcards represent real landmarks. Firestone Library, Blair Arch, Holder Courtyard, the Rocky and Mathey dining halls — those were the things that came to mind when I thought about Princeton, not a room overlooking a dumpster or the bulldozers at the Butler construction site waking me up every morning. A few weeks into my Princeton experience, I feel deceived — deceived by the colorful pictures, deceived by the cool-looking buildings, perhaps deceived by the institution to which I had entrusted four years of my life. It was as if I had clicked on the "You have won $1,000! Click here to claim your prize!" link, only to realize that I had not really won anything. It was making that click after having submitted my credit card number.

I guess I have to admit that living in Wilson College does have its perks. It does, after all, have the best location on campus; its proximity to just about everything, including Frist Campus Center and many classrooms, is the envy of many students, especially the Forbesians. The Wilson Blackbox is the place to be on Friday nights, and the J-Street Library has already become my favorite place to study. So despite my complaints, I am grateful for the wide range of things Princeton does offer, which together surely outweigh the disadvantages of living in 1938 Hall.

But that isn't what I'm arguing. I would be lying if I said my Princeton experience so far has been anything short of breathtaking, and I would be unrealistic if I asked that enormous changes be made to the current system. I could go on and on about the amazing people I've encountered, the depth and breadth of things I've learned, the incredible range of resources available on campus, the opportunities open to students, etc. I am simply asking that a few things here and there be modified.

I know I'm a freshman. I know that I'm probably unaware of many of the things that go on at Princeton. I know that there are many things I have yet to learn. But none of these things change the undeniable fact that there exists a great deal of inequality between the residential colleges, an issue the University needs to address sooner rather than later. As my suitemate said when we ate at Whitman for the first time, "It's just not fair." George Xing is a freshman from Edison, N.J. He can be reached at rxing@princeton.edu.