Feb. 20, 1980: The University and the Ties That Bind

The following is an unsigned editorial published by The Daily Princetonian on Feb. 20, 1980, during the tenure of Elena Kagan ’81 as editorial chairman.

The former confidence of high-level university officials over the outcome of Sally Frank’s sex discrimination complaint has apparently turned to anxiety. As reported yesterday, University Counsel Thomas Wright believes that the Frank complaint, filed against the university and the three all-male eating clubs, stands a good chance of being upheld. As well it should. If Cottage, Ivy and Tiger Inn wish to continue excluding women from their membership, they must act as fully private institutions, cutting the umbilical cord which currently allows them free access to university services.

The list of club-university ties, never fully investigated before Frank filed her complaint, seems endless. The university provides all selective clubs with space for Bicker Central, cooperates in meal exchange and oversees interclub athletics. Centrex telephone service, cooperative food purchasing, proctor protection, snow plowing and the university’s assistance in the club’s annual alumni dues mailing further show the extent of the clubs’ dependence on Princeton. Nevertheless, the university contends that these interactions are legally irrelevant — that they do not require the clubs to follow the same anti-discrimination laws which govern the university.

The university’s position is unjustified. The services with which Princeton provides the clubs constitute a subsidization of discriminatory institutions. Limited time, effort, space and money should not be spent by the university on organizations that restrict their memberships in a manner that the university, as show by its own practices, condemns.

We belief that the all-male clubs’ proper response to Frank’s suit would be to coeducate; after all, the broader issue is sex discrimination, not particular university-club ties. The clubs should, ideally, change their membership practices out of a respect for women as friends and fellow students. But if they refuse to do so, the university should be forced to repudiate the links connecting it to Ivy, Cottage and Tiger. Only when this is done will the university be shown that it cannot condone sex discrimination.