Seventy-six-year-old Bicker system has seen harder times
The year 1904 marked the birth of Bicker. Since then, the annual selection process has become so much a part of Princeton's social history that life without it has been long forgotten, and, until recently, a future without it has been unimaginable.Much has changed in the 76 years since Princeton's eating club system ? and its selection process ? provided an ideal social situation for the school's students.For Princeton's gentlemanly student body, the clubs offered a congenial atmosphere without the crudities purportedly offered by the banned fraternities.There was a day when Bicker was such a time-consuming process that it frequently threatened sophomore's academic survival.An "Upperclass Choice Committee" would have been unthinkable in those days: Upperclassmen could eat only at the clubs, and there was no alternative to Bicker.Since the turn of the century botht he clubs and the Bicker process itself have seen considerable change.New eating clubs have been built, some clubs have closed, and many have gone non-selective. Slow Change ComingThe clubs have had to change as the University changed.