Letters to the Editor
For the U-Council, a test of convictionTaking a cue from David Brooks's critique of the Stephens-Center-toned, Street-frequenting, Econ-trained, McKinsey-bound, but, alas, discourse-shy Princeton undergrad, the U-Council recently published an open letter which lamented the dearth of deep conversation among undergraduates."Students," the Councilors wrote, "complain that dinner conversations rarely shift to intellectual topics." The Council took this predilection for banal chitchat, coupled with unused office hours, undergrad-free public lectures, hesitance to challenge authority, and ? worse still ? a workload that leaves undergrads without the time even to read a newspaper, as symptoms of chronic intellectual atrophy.Such a public proclamation is both unprecedented and quite necessary.