Editorial: Occupy Princeton

Princeton has a reputation for political apathy that is perhaps unique among our peer universities. While elsewhere our fellow college students spend much of their time politically engaged with the wider world, we pass our years within our Orange Bubble, part of a campus culture that largely insulates us from involvement with the political issues that grip the nation. Recently, as part of a movement sweeping college campuses across the country, a group of Princetonians founded a local chapter of Occupy Wall Street, called Occupy Princeton. We applaud a shift away from the apathy that currently reigns on campus, and — regardless of our views on Occupy Princeton’s political goals — we are hopeful that its presence may help contribute to that shift.

An increase in the political engagement of students would be beneficial for two reasons. First, it would be more consistent with the explicit goal of the University — to guide its students toward “the Nation’s service and the service of all nations.” Of course, we do not mean to suggest that political activism is the only way to provide such service, but it is one important way, and a stronger culture of political engagement on campus would expose more students to practical political considerations. Students who are politically active in their formative years are more likely to remain so throughout their lives. Furthermore, even those whose interests are more theoretical would benefit from complementary interaction with activism.

Second, a shift in campus culture would provide more opportunities for interested students to participate in activism. Currently, there are countless campus activities, from academics to athletics to the arts, that make insistent demands on students’ already limited free time. By contrast, there exist very few groups interested in political activism, and those that do tend to be understaffed and to maintain an unnoticed presence on campus. In such a climate, it is unsurprising that even those freshmen who arrive on campus interested in activism find it much easier and more rewarding to spend their time on other pursuits. Our apathetic culture is self-perpetuating; the lack of ready opportunities for engagement, and the resultant greater effort required — compared to other activities — for students to participate, produces the next generation of apathetic students.

Given the inertia of indifference, we do not mean to suggest that Occupy Princeton will radically alter campus culture overnight. Nonetheless, because of the attention Occupy Wall Street has received nationwide, the inroads it has made so far on college campuses, and the broader national climate of political uncertainty out of which it emerged, we think it more likely than many other groups to have a meaningful effect. Furthermore, it comes on the heels of the foundation of certain other campus organizations dedicated to political activism, including Students for Education Reform and the Princeton Equality Project. This nascent trend is a welcome one, and we hope it achieves the potential it has shown. Political activism is not the only valuable way to spend one’s college career; we welcome the diversity of Princetonians’ interests and pursuits. It is, however, one prominent activity glaringly absent from campus. Our undergraduate years would be richer and our educations more complete were that absence filled.