11/27/2005

STOP MY PARENTS BEFORE THEY VITIATE PRINCETON'S ALUMNI BODY AGAIN

If you didn't know better, you might be concerned to learn that Samuel Alito touts his membership in a group which, based on its literature, seems to see the entrance of women and minority students into the academy as a threat to the university - at least if the university is Princeton:
"Currently alumni children comprise 14 percent of each entering class, compared with an 11 percent quota for blacks and Hispanics," [Concerned Alumni of Princeton] wrote in a 1985 fund-raising letter sent to all Princeton graduates..."Is the issue the percentage of alumni children admitted or the percentage of minorities?" Jonathan Morgan, a conservative undergraduate working with the group, asked its board members that fall in an internal memorandum. "I don't see the relevance in comparing the two, except in a racist context (i.e. why do we let in so many minorities and not alumni children?)," he continued. ...the group announced in an early fund-raising pamphlet that its goals included a less-liberal faculty and "a more traditional undergraduate population." A pamphlet for parents suggested that "racial tensions" and loose oversight of campus social life were contributing to a spike in campus crime. A brochure for Princeton alumni warned, "The unannounced goal of the administration, now achieved, of a student population of approximately 40 percent women and minorities will largely vitiate the alumni body of the future."...When the administration proposed a new system of residential colleges with their own dining halls, Prospect denounced the idea as a potential threat to the system of eating clubs. The magazine charged that, like affirmative action, the plan was "intended to create racial harmony."
One might be taken aback that in applying for a promotion in the Reagan Administration, Alito offered as a conservative credential his membership in a group which see students from group traditionally excluded from Princeton (like my parents) as "vitiating" the "alumni body." But lucky for Sam Alito, former Concerned Alumni of Princeton starlet turned conservative superstar Laura Ingraham is on hand to reassure us that any good conservative would see an influx of Blacks, Jews, and women as a threat to higher learning:
"Stop the presses!" she said. "Sam Alito, a conservative, was once a member of a conservative Princeton alumni group."
Feel better yet?

1 Comments:

Blogger alek said...

Not super-relevant, but Malcolm Gladwell's article in the New Yorker last month (you can find it on www.gladwell.com) was a terrific exploration of Ivy admissions techniques and the racial/economic underpinnings. I think it both validates and challenges our rhetoric of financial aid reform at Yale.

11/28/2005 01:44:00 PM  

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