100 Years of PAW - May 17, 2000


Princeton Alumni Weekly remembers
Selections from our first century of publication

Clubs... death of a president... going to the chapel... sour notes... campus sit-ins


May 7, 1986

"On the cover: A stack of old class reunion beer cans, the individualized kind that are rarely made any more. Photo by John W. H. Simpson '66." In this issue of paw, Bill Christensen, a collector of beer cans who did not attend Princeton, recounts some of his experiences collecting customized Reunions beer cans. According to the article, the first can was designed in 1937; unfortunately, during the '70s the practice faded as can makers demanded larger and larger minimum orders.


May 2, 1903

Club elections

The annual frenzy over the upperclass club elections has come over the campus like a blight, destroying sleep and friendships. Most of the undergraduates have lost, for the time being, their becoming spontaneity. They are seen walking or standing in nervous little groups, whispering mysteriously, like conspirators-some of them are, according to certain reports from excited rivals. The worst of it is, there seems to be no prospect of abolishing or abating the nuisance. Perhaps time will show us a way: Evolution is more likely than revolution to remedy the evils of our undergraduate social system.

 

May 19, 1920

Up in flames

The fire which destroyed Dickinson Hall and Marquand Chapel last Friday night was the most extensive in Princeton's history, not excepting the burning of Nassau Hall in 1855. The property loss is estimated at $400,000, which is partially covered by insurance.

 

May 19, 1933

Death of former president Hibben

John Grier Hibben '82, fourteenth president of Princeton, was killed in an automobile accident near Woodbridge, N.J., at about 4:30 on the afternoon of May 16. Mrs. Hibben was injured-just how seriously cannot be determined as this issue goes to press.

 

May 11, 1951

Compulsory chapel

Princeton's most time-worn undergraduate complaint, compulsory chapel, raised its head last month as the Daily Princetonian took its traditional anti-compulsion stand in a three-day series of editorials, interviews and features.

The Prince asked editorially whether compulsory chapel was not actually hurting religion on the campus by giving rebellious undergraduates the impression that the University was trying to cram religion down their throats. Virtually every organized religious group on campus is opposed to the present method of compulsory chapel. The undergraduate body, according to a poll, is three to one in registering disapproval. Yet compulsory attendance will apparently remain.

 

May 15, 1959

The draft

The members of our generation appear to have accepted the draft as a fact of life. They do not like it, but they will not crumple before it. They will muddle through. This is the attitude which seems to prevail on this campus, as the senior class is about to shed its deferred status and face the realities of the military. . . . Once graduated, a senior can escape the draft by getting married and having a baby quickly. . . . He can probably escape the draft by hiding out in a graduate school until the age of 26 is reached.

 

May 25, 1965

Bradley falls short

Bill Bradley's Achilles heel has finally been discovered. At Houseparties he was drafted as a member of a new singing octet known as the "Nassouls." Despite his customary assiduous practice, dedication and old college try, according to one colleague, he was "awful." Can't carry a tune.

 

May 30, 1972

unrest on campus

During the last month or so, antiwar sentiment on this campus has found an exceptional number of outlets. There has been a sit-in in Nassau Hall. Dean Rudenstine's office has been forcibly entered. President Goheen has been confronted by an angry crowd of several hundred. Classes have been picketed. The Wilson School has been occupied. President Nixon has been burned in effigy on the lawn of Morven, New Jersey's governor's mansion. Nassau St. has been the scene of a silent vigil. Countless mass meetings and rallies have been held. The Institute for Defense Analyses has been blockaded, and well over 120 Princeton students have been arrested. Some 270 students and faculty organized a week-long fast, vowing to win public support by the demonstration of self-sacrifice.


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