PRINCETON, 1914: IN DEFENSE OF POETRY OF PRINCETONAT A TURNING POINT THE HUMANITIES PROTEST ALUMNI WEEKLY REUNIONS AND COMMENCEMENT 2014 JULY 9, 2014 PAW.PRINCETON.EDU PRINCETON VARSITY CLUB Education Through Athletics Congratulations Class of 2014! Scenes above are from the 17th Annual 2013-14 PVC BOARD OF DIRECTORS PVC Awards Banquet, which honors Current Members Mike Novogratz ’87 Emeritus Members Alan Andreini ’68 Kim Ritrievi ’80 Hewes Agnew ’58 varsity student-athletes, alumni and Caroline Buck Rogers ’77 John Berger ’74 Jim Blair ’61 supporters of Princeton Athletics. Y.S. Chi ’83 Rod Shepard ’80 Janet Morrison Clarke ’75 Frank Sowinski ’78 Gog Boonswang ’96 Bill Ford ’79 Terdema Ussery ’81 Ralph DeNunzio ’53 To learn more about how the Stu Francis ’74 Frank Vuono ’78 Paul Harris ’54 Ed Glassmeyer ’63 Bill Walton ’74 Princeton Varsity Club supports Richard Kazmaier ’52 (D) Emily Goodfellow ’76 Mark Wilf ’84 Tara Christie Kinsey ’97 “Education Through Athletics,” or Julia Haller Gottsch ’76 Michael McCaffery ’75 Bert Kerstetter ’66 Ex Officio Members to become a member, visit Chanel Lattimer-Tingan ’05 Royce Flippin ’56 Richard Prentke ’67 www.PrincetonVarsityClub.org. Podie Lynch ’71 Gary Walters ’67 John Rogers ’80 Steve Mills ’81 Margie Gengler Smith ’73 2014 Banquet.indd 1 6/13/2014 10:41:43 AM July 9, 2014 Volume 114, Number 15 An editorially independent magazine by alumni for alumni since 1900 PRESIDENT’S PAGE 2 Before the P-rade, INBOX 5 Alexander Bustin ’08, left, and Will Harrel ’13 try on hats they’ll wear FROM THE EDITOR 7 as marshals, page 30 ON THE CAMPUS 13 Commencement 2014 Eisgruber calls for civic service Lakeside grad housing delayed A bar mitzvah for the president Dobkin tribute STUDENT DISPATCH: Four years in words and pictures SPORTS: Football’s Caraun Reid ’14 NCAA champion LIFE OF THE MIND 25 Imani Perry on racial arren Leffler; Wikipedia/Libraryarren of Congress surveillance Yael Niv on unlearning fears Atif Mian on a better mortgage system PRINCETONIANS 51 Eliza Griswold ’95 collects poetry of Afghan women Sam Hodder ’91 protects redwoods Boris Fishman ’01’s A Replacement Life CLASS NOTES 54 MEMORIALS 77 Reunions 2014 28 Their Princeton 45 Notes on a Crisis 48 It’s true: Nobody does Three students represented You’ve heard that the CLASSIFIEDS 85 it better. Princeton’s the changing University humanities are dying? annual bash takes over of a century ago. Not. THAT WAS THEN 88 the town. By Edward Tenner ’65 By Gideon Rosen *92 er; The Fifth Year Book of the Class of 1914; Evelyn Tu; Emily Trost ’13; W Emily Trost Tu; Book of the Class 1914; Evelyn er; The Fifth Year PAW.PRINCETON.EDU left: Beverly Schaef Class of 2014 Class of 1914 Voice of the P-rade Reunions Photos Wisdom Preserved A slide show of photos Browse archival images An exclusive video View additional Looking back at features this year’s of students and the look at the P-rade, images from PAW Adlai Stevenson ’22 graduates during campus a century ago. guided by emcee photographers and and his 1954 speech Commencement Week. Gregg Lange ’70. readers. to Princeton’s graduating class. Top right: Sameer A. Khan; from Top On the cover: Robbie Fazen Marchant ’89 takes a selfie at her class’s group-photo session. Photograph by Frank Wojciechowski. 01paw0709_TOCrev1.indd 1 6/24/14 1:37 PM THE PRESIDENT’S PAGE Commencement: Life’s Journey and the Value of Learning Capping nearly a week of joyous orange-and-black celebrations So what did Tommy do? Contrary to Dad’s advice, that included Reunions, Baccalaureate, Class Day and the Tommy went back to graduate school and got yet another graduate Hooding Ceremony, I had the honor of presiding over degree — this time, a doctorate in political science. my first Commencement as Princeton’s president on June 3. Fortunately, that turned out to be a much better fit for his Here are the thoughts I shared with our newest alumni about talents, and he made quite a success of himself. how to navigate the unpredictable and rewarding years to Those of you with degrees in history — or who are experts come, and about the importance of good teaching. — C.L.E. in what we lovingly call “Princetoniana” — undoubtedly know just how successful Tommy became. Tommy’s n a few minutes, all of you will march through Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, University Trustee FitzRandolph Gate as newly minted graduates of A. Scott Berg ’71, tells us that after graduating from this University. Before you do so, however, it is my Princeton, Thomas Wilson stopped using his first name. privilege, and my pleasure, to say a few words to you He switched to his middle name, which he thought sounded Iabout the path that lies ahead. I do so knowing that, for many of more grown-up and dignified. His middle name was, of you, this morning’s ceremony will quite literally take you down course, “Woodrow.” Scott Berg suggests that Woodrow a path that you have never trod before. Campus mythology Wilson ultimately became “the most influential figure of the maintains that students who exit through Princeton’s big twentieth century.” Others have emphasized that Wilson’s front gate before earning their degrees will not graduate with character and policies had serious flaws. His legacy is their class. This superstition is of relatively recent vintage. both compromised and controversial. There is little doubt, When I was a student here in the 1980s, my classmates and I however, that Wilson lived a life of leadership, service, and strolled merrily through the gate in both directions, with nary consequence, despite — or, indeed, perhaps because of — the a second thought, and without, so far as I can tell, any adverse surprising twists and turns that his path took after he consequences. Traditions germinate in surprising ways on this stepped away from this campus. magical campus, and, when they take root, they quickly seem as There is a lesson for us in this story — and, no, the lesson old and venerable as Nassau Hall itself. is not that all of you should start using your middle names But whether you have honored the taboo of FitzRandolph (believe me, my own middle name is “Ludwig Maria”!). Gate or bravely defied it, this morning’s steps will be Your path beyond Princeton, like Tommy Wilson’s path, something new, the start of an adventure into frontiers is likely to take many twists and turns. Immediate success unknown. Today is a celebration of what you have achieved is rare. You have to here, but it is also — as the name of these exercises would “Twists and turns bring start somewhere, of suggest — a “commencement,” the beginning of a journey course, but it may that takes you beyond this campus. That journey promises to discovery, they demand take you some time be a challenging one, and even the first strides can be hard, new learning — and to find the right as you leave behind a place that has been the locus of special place. That is OK. friendships and personal growth. that is a good thing. You have emerged Perhaps you will find it reassuring that Princeton students Discovery and learning from this University have felt that way not just for years or decades but for with a liberal arts centuries. For example, John Alexander of the Great Class of help to bring joy and degree that prepares 1820 waxed nostalgic about “his jovial hours at Nassau Hall,” meaning to human life.” you for the long which he said he would always “consider [his] happiest.” term — that prepares Likewise, Thomas Wilson, who graduated with the Great you to adapt and to Class of 1879, said that he found leaving campus “harder confront challenges and to seize opportunities that you may than I had feared.” He remarked that “a college man feels the not now be able even to imagine. My colleagues and I could first shock of [adjustment] at graduation …. Of a sudden he not possibly teach you everything you need to know for your is a novice again, as green as in his first school year, studying path beyond Princeton. We have not even tried to do so. But a thing that seems to have no rules — at sea amid crosswinds, we have tried to teach you how to learn what you need to and a bit seasick.” know to travel that path and to flourish in the places that it Indeed, young Thomas’ life story, though he graduated takes you. from Princeton 135 years ago, sounds remarkably modern. Indeed, the twists and turns in the path beyond Tommy, as he preferred to be called, was not sure what to FitzRandolph Gate are not only inevitable. They are to be do with his life after graduation, so he went home to live relished. Twists and turns bring discovery, they demand new with his parents. After that he went to law school and was learning — and that is a good thing. Discovery and learning admitted to the bar, but he failed miserably as a lawyer. He help to bring joy and meaning to human life. That is one of attracted no clients and he felt sick all the time. His doctor the themes I hear frequently when I speak with Princeton diagnosed “liver torpor.” His disappointed and impatient alumni. They talk to me about how important continuous father offered a second opinion. Dad told Tommy that his learning has been in their own lives. You may be able to only problem was his “mental liver,” and the cure was to become very successful by doing the same thing over and over “choose a path and commit to it.” (I see several fathers in the again, and doing it very well.