Maynard '88: Wilson 1879 battled to get rid of clubs

Barksdale Maynard ’88, a visiting lecturer in architecture who wrote a book about Wilson’s time at Princeton, spoke to a group of students in Wilcox dining hall Tuesday night about Wilson’s battle against the eating clubs and how his Princeton experience affected his politics and future presidency.

“It’s a 25-year love-hate relationship,” Maynard said of Wilson’s time at Princeton. “At first love and, at the, end hate.”

Students were expected to read a section of Maynard’s book, “Woodrow Wilson: Princeton to the Presidency,” before attending the dinner discussion, and Maynard read aloud passages that related to Wilson’s battle with the eating clubs and the discourse it created by the end of his time at the University.

“Wilson was convinced that the clubs were going to destroy his ideal Princeton,” Maynard said.

The extremes to which some students would go to join the eating clubs concerned Wilson, Maynard explained, adding that the Bicker process left students dejected at a time when eating club membership belonged only to the elite.

“Why did this esteemed university president, in the heat of his crusade, make inflammatory public statements that portrayed his school as elitist?” Maynard asked.

He said that his book advances the thesis that “the reason Princeton gets this snob reputation is largely because Woodrow Wilson stood up so loudly and said ‘This place is full of snobs.’ ”

In discussion, students agreed with Maynard that Wilson’s battle was futile.

“I’ve always had a huge bone to pick with this Woodrow Wilson guy, and this talk confirmed everything that I thought about him,” Raphael Balsam ’11 said.

Wilson felt that the clubs were too discriminatory, and instead desired the institution of a “quad plan,” where students could learn from one another, Maynard explained.

“The ideal is what he called ‘mind and mind interaction,’ ” Maynard said. “Freshmen would be educated by the sophomores, sophomores would be educated by the juniors, and the juniors would be educated by the seniors.”

Maynard said that the quad plan that Wilson desired is now best represented by Whitman College, a place where students from all four years can live and interact with one another.

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While his dream came to reality nearly a century later, there were no such alternatives to eating clubs during his Princeton presidency.

The battles over the eating clubs were where Wilson’s “politics” came out, Maynard said.

“Some thought that Wilson began to show his true colors as a fanatic,” Maynard said, reading from his book.

“It was the first time we see the man under intense scrutiny and pressure, and we begin to see the patterns that would follow him right into the White House.”

Maynard explained that Wilson was a man with huge temper but said that he may have had a small stroke while still at the University that could explain the temper that lasted into his presidency.

“Patients who have a mini-stroke can become hasty and reckless in their actions, even as they disregard details,” Maynard said, explaining how a stroke could have affected Wilson’s personality.

“They ignore contradictory viewpoints; they withdraw into a citadel of self-importance,” Maynard said.

“All of that sounds like Wilson fighting for the quad,” he explained.

While he noted that the medical description does fit Wilson’s behavior, Maynard added that this explanation robs Wilson of his volition and that he had been proud of his personality.

A Princeton graduate himself, Maynard asked the students their opinions of the eating clubs today to see if anything had changed since his time as an undergraduate.

Students said they felt that the administration comes down harder on eating clubs than the students do and that there would still be bicker clubs at their 15th Reunion.

One student present said that the clubs have a positive effect because they create a sense of home away from home.

“I love Princeton, and I love history, and so the history of Princeton is very cool,” Kati Herrera ’11 said. “I’m just wondering what it will be like 100 years from today.”