Word: altmans
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...seven years of existence Wilson has undergone a metamorphosis. It has become as much a closed society as the clubs are. But ironically, the Wilson members are bound together by their fervent opposition to the isolation of the club system. Wilson's president, Dan Altman, says sarcastically, "To an outsider, this insularity is childish nonsense--to us, it is a way of life, 'the Princeton experience...
...Altman, an articulate senior with a Pancho Villa mustache, was one of the founders of an experimental college at Princeton this year. Again, its founding appears to be a reaction to Princeton insularity. About half the students at the experimental college are Wilson Society members. The Society last year withdrew from the Gentleman's Agreement, which governs club parietals and drinking. Altman says the Society withdrew "on the theory that, in return for a facesaving agreement for the University, which can wave around a piece of paper upon which is written, 'I will be a good boy,' it offers students...
...Altman is quite explicit. He says that there can be no real social and intellectual diversity at Princeton until: "1)there is a decent proportion of women students on campus and 2) the administration decides to muster up its courage and to spend a good deal of money on imaginative solutions to Princeton's social problems. There is no reason to believe that any such changes are in the works. The nation that students are going to come up with the answers to these problems in their spare time is at best an unrealistic expectation, and at worst, a surrender...
There are several reasons why the Bicker revolt failed this year. Altman mentions the administration and the alumni, and they are both a very large part...
...When Altman talked to President Goheen about the University spending more money to change the club system into something more equitable, he got the answer, "Well, you know we're a poor University." As absurd as it seems, Goheen has a point. He seems to be disillusioned with Bicker. He told a Princetonian reporter in November: "There are no valid ways to make sound judgments...people turn to extraneous, superficial things...Students lose their sense of fair play and good sense in Bicker." But Goheen is not willing to sponsor a wholesale change in the club system, or even publicly...