Letters - October 6, 1999
Contrary to the headlines on the cover and inside of your July 7 issue, Stevenson Hall will not be closed in September 2000. A campus-wide debate on Stevenson's future took place late in the academic year. This culminated in a discussion at the May meeting of the Council of the Princeton University Community (CPUC) and a decision by the provost, himself a former Stevenson faculty fellow, to keep part of 83 Prospect available as a dining and social facility for Stevenson during the two-year space crunch resulting from the renovation of East Pyne. As a faculty fellow of Stevenson for 30 years and its current master, I applaud that decision.
The debate and the provost's decision recognized the continuing need for an alternative on "the Street" that offers a diverse, minority-friendly, non-alcoholic social and intellectual experience, bringing together faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates from a wide variety of fields, academic levels, and social and ethnic backgrounds.
Paul E. Sigmund
Professor of Politics
Master, Stevenson Hall
Princeton, N.J.
The article on the closing of Stevenson Hall (Notebook, July 7) does not mention the university's decision to keep the Stevenson clubhouse at 83 Prospect Ave. open for a minimum of three more years. Though the 83 clubhouse will share space with East Pyne faculties for the academic years 2000-02 (while East Pyne undergoes renovation), Provost Ostriker gave the Stevenson undergraduates his personal assurance that Stevenson 83 will remain viable.
Your article also overlooked the newsworthy events that led to the provost's decision. Within a day after the Prince published an article leaking a plan to close Stevenson, the undergraduate board gathered over 1,500 signatures to keep the club open-an average of more than a signature a minute for 24 hours. At the final CPUC meeting of the year, undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and officers were outspoken and unanimous in their support for Stevenson. In fact, there was general agreement about the need for more institutions where graduate students, undergraduates, and faculty can meet outside the classroom, where minorities feel welcome, and where socializing does not revolve around alcohol. As Professor Daniel Rodgers said at that meeting, "The university needs many Stevenson Halls, not just one." After 2002 it will be left to the Priorities Committee to decide the fate of Stevenson. If future members of the university community demonstrate a similar dedication to social alternatives, Professor Rodgers's vision will become a reality.
Joseph Bulbulia *93
Former Assistant Master, Stevenson Hall
Princeton, N.J.
At Reunions, several members of my class engaged in long-term speculations about the gender mix of the P-rade in the next century.
We know that women will enter the Old Guard in 2031. Anticipation of this herstorical event, enhanced by a bit of chauvinistic exaggeration, led one '74 alumna to carry a P-rade placard that read "Someday the Old Guard Will Be All Women." Prompted by this statistical absurdity, a '74 alumnus pointed out that the absolute number of men in the Old Guard will actually rise between 2010 and 2030-not only because of the increased longevity of the general population, but also because few of the Princeton alumni in the classes after 1950 or so died or suffered life-shortening injuries in major wars.
Although it's hard to project gender differences in longevity, Princeton enrollment, and P-rade attendance so far in advance, I doubt women will constitute a majority of the Old Guard before 2060. However, an alumna might be the oldest person in the P-rade as early as 2050. I don't expect to be around to see either of these events, but some of today's undergraduates could have fun making long-term friendly wagers about the exact year when each milestone will occur.
Martin A. Schell '74
Klaten, Central Java
I returned to Princeton to attend my 50th reunion. It was a marvelous experience, as usual. With great anticipation, I took my grandsons to see the Alyea Memorial Lecture with chemical demonstrations, "particularly, those popularized by the late Professor Hubert Alyea." Unfortunately, the closest this presentation came to anything Professor Alyea did was to show some ancient black-and-white film of the great man himself doing his famous turning the colors of Yale and Harvard to orange and black.
Three people, including the department chairman, bustled about doing experiments of some interest, but hardly with the flair of Hubert Alyea who would have done it all himself. Then, as a finale, they announced that they were going to replicate the famous orange-and-black demonstration. In violation of the cardinal rule of presentations, "Never do your dry run in front of your audience," the experiment failed to turn orange and then black. A second try failed as well. The Alyea Memorial Lecture ended with three professors disappearing behind the podium amid derisive laughter.
Not the proudest moment for Princeton's chemistry department.
Bill Webster '49
Laguna Niguel, Calif.
While attending recent Reunions, I visited Mudd Library to examine the papers of the late President John Grier Hibben. Expecting to find a large body of archival material on him, I was surprised to discover that there are only a few scattered fragments of his papers on file. Archivist Ben Primer advised me that this is the extent of the university's holdings on him.
It seems incredible to me that a president of Princeton serving more than 20 years, and a distinguished and widely published academician of his time, would not have accumulated and left a substantial body of personal correspondence and other memorabilia. Was there a larger John Grier Hibben collection, and, if so, what became of it?
Stuart G. Hibben '48
Bethesda, Md.
It always bothers me when a scholar fails to cite his source. The May 19 Notebook article about John Ma's Greek phalanx battle was encouraging insofar as it depicted students finding a way to enjoy learning about at least one aspect of ancient history. But is memory so short (or am I so veteran) that it requires an alumnus to point out that Ma is continuing a Princeton tradition begun (so far as I know) by Professor W. Robert Connor *61, whose popular survey course on Greek History regularly included mock hoplite battles waged on a nearby field? (Connor was even intrepid enough to arm some of the students with bamboo poles.) Kudos to Ma for continuing the tradition, but a more appropriate headline might have been "Greek warfare returns to campus."
Henri de Marcellus '86
Williamstown, Mass.
In his April 21 cover story, Wes Tooke '98 describes numbers of myths about Princeton, including the one alleging a connection between James B. Duke's money and Princeton. Readers may well know that the Duke myth occurs on other campuses as well, but they may not know that it is also associated with Davidson College, in North Carolina, my undergraduate alma mater. The story is stated in generally the same way, substituting Davidson for Princeton, and is repeated among generations of Davidsonians as fact. While I leave official comment concerning the facts to the college, it is clear that Davidson had, and continues to have, special ties to the Duke fortune, because the college has for 75 years received support annually from the Duke (not the university) endowment.
I had not heard the Princeton-Duke myth during my graduate student days at Princeton, but in another kind of linkage I remember Davidson students of my day alluding to their college as the "Princeton of the South."
J. David Deck *54
Charlottesville, Va.
Your cover story about Princeton myths omitted two of my favorites. One was that the designer of the stained-glass windows in the Chapel, an elderly woman, was brought to the Chapel in a wheelchair upon its completion, looked around, and said, "Darn! Too much blue!" The other was about university officials who approached Andrew Carnegie for money. He instead agreed to construct Lake Carnegie, prompting one to remark, "We asked him for bread and he gave us water."
John Wilheim '75
Wichita, Kan.
Editor's note:
According to University Archivist Ben Primer, Woodrow Wilson approached Carnegie for money, and he responded, "I have already given Princeton a lake." Wilson reportedly replied, "We needed bread, and you gave us cake." Did Wilson actually say this? The quotation does not appear in the various documents relating to the lake, and the first appearance of that statement, according to Primer, is in Ray Stannard Baker's eight-volume biography, in Vol. 2, page 156, which appeared in 1927 after Wilson's death. Primer adds, "It's legend, but I am not certain it is true."
Shades of gray
A column in the April 7 issue (Notebook) referred to research done by Penny Visser and Jon Krosnick regarding people changing their minds. As one of the "old people" to whom their research related (age 73), I question the conclusion that the reason we are more willing to change our minds than middle-aged folks is that as we age we "decline in cognitive skills." Let me suggest that actually it is because we have learned from experience that things are not as black-and-white as we once believed and that there are more shades of gray, leading us, in our wisdom, to be more flexible in our opinions.
Also, I take issue with the characterization of persons in their late 50s as "old people." Those of you younger than that will be there some day, and you will find that it is not so old at all.
Joseph Neff Ewing, Jr. '47
West Chester, Penn.
Given that Princeton is effectively fully coeducational at this point, I recommend that we adopt a change in the purely masculine term "alumni." In my class letters, I have been using "alumnae/i" to acknowledge both female and male graduates of the university.
Vincent P. "Vinny" de Luise '73, M.D.
President, Class of 1973
Woodbury, Conn.
The Princeton Project 55 Tuberculosis Initiative is entering its third year of advocacy in the global fight against tuberculosis, the second leading destroyer of lives (2-3 million worldwide per year) among all infectious diseases. The Initiative is making significant strides in increasing both public awareness of tuberculosis and government funding for the disease. Still, much remains to be done. Visit our Website (www.tbinitiative.org) to find out more about the Tuberculosis Initiative and what you can do to join this important cause.
R. Gordon Douglas, Jr. '55, M.D.
Princeton, N.J.
Ralph Nader '55
Washington, D.C.
The June 9 story "Trustees Promote Eight to Tenure" incorrectly described Professor of Classics Christian Wildberg's interests. They include the intellectual history of the 5th century b.c.e.
We failed to credit the photographs in the September 8 sports department. Bill Allen '79 took the photographs that appeared on pages 30-32.
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