As students return to campus and settle back into the grind of writing papers and preparing for exams, the board urges students not to forget what they saw at home. As we start the new year, the board would like to propose a New Year's resolution for Princeton students.
Remember that there is a world outside of Princeton and that when Princeton students graduate they can make a big impact - good or bad - on the world. And when we go out into the world we must resolve to remember that to achieve long-term success, both for ourselves and those around us, we must make responsible decisions based on our potential to impact others.
Michael Lewis '82 and David Einhorn have attributed the collapse of major financial markets in part to the skewed incentives that drive many people on Wall Street. Despite the obvious dangers of the credit and housing bubbles, competition with other banks and shareholder demand for profits forced investment executives to eat the forbidden fruit of toxic derivatives. To have done otherwise would likely have cost these executives their jobs. As a result, investors and bankers pursued their short-term interest at the expense of the long-term health of the financial markets and the entire economy. The shortsighted goal of scoring a fat bonus resulted in the loss of thousands upon thousands of jobs - most of them outside the financial sector.
What's important to remember is that many of the people who caused this crisis were not unlike ourselves. Many had the same sorts of intelligence, skills, experience and ambitions as Princeton students do. At Princeton, we are immersed in a culture that encourages risk-taking and minimizes personal responsibility to others. So what if we dash off a paper or phone in an analysis, or take on a position of responsibility for which we are not qualified, just to pad a resume?
Princeton opens doors, and Princetonians, for better or worse, may well be accorded large amounts of responsibility early in our careers. And so when we go out into the world, we must take with us the understanding that we hold a responsibility not only to think about ourselves but our impact on those around us.
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