Princeton University - Bric A Brac Yearbook (Princeton, NJ)

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molivdlmfi cip )li(:(J(i()iis Princeton, one of the last male strongholds, regarded as the acme of male superiority in a world struggling to at- tain feminine rights, at long last opened its doors to the better half several years ago, opening a new spectrum for the woman choosing the college most suited to her needs. What a decision, especially for the woman consid- ering braving the new world of the Princeton coed, a to- tally new breed. The question of why women choosi- Princeton baffles many, including the women themselves. However, some factors stand out as common motivations. Underlying ev- eryone ' s decision-male as well as female-is the unde- niable academic excellence of Princeton. As one coed states. You start from the top schools that you hope you ' ll be able to gel into, and then you work from there. looking at other extra factors, both pluses and minuses. Princetons scholastic qualities are unquestionable, and it is with this knowledg e that every coed works to narrow But why Princeton? Why not Harvard or Yale, similar in many respects, or perhaps one of the women ' s col- leges? Obviously, one of the major considerations for any woman thinking about Princeton is the coeducational factor, the ratio of three to one playing a big role, an un- deniable role. For a girl looking for a coeducational school, Princeton is well suited to her needs. However, as strange as the fact may seem to guys, being a girl at Princeton does have its disadvantages. For example. some girls find it difficult to establish close girl friends; others find that the reaction they encounter when they say they ' re from Princeton is undesirable-either that people think they ' re Princeton-bound simply bccau.se of the ratio, or that others treat them with a stand-offish air One coed, in desperation, has taken to extending her hand and saying. You can touch. I ' m human. Even with these problems, girls still flock to Pinci ' ton ' s hnilowed halls. In addition to hv. convfuitional consid- erations of size, location, and opportunity, one of the most common reasons for girls to choose Princeton seems to be exactly that element which some feared coeduca- tion would destroy-its tradition. Tales of cane spree, stealing the clapper, football games and party weekends create an aura of togetherness, a sense of a Princeton spirit hard to equal. As a Princeton baby born and raised on the Princeton tradition of football games and wild reunion weekends. I can testify that Princeton tradi- tion played a major role for me as well as for many other alumni daughters. However, the tradition manages to per- vade every aspect of Princeton life, making itself felt to even the most casual passersby. Why Princeton? Perhaps the one overriding reason lies in the people here, and the; alums which seem to fill every corner of the United States, and the sense of love and loy- alty for Princeton that they manage to create in even the most casual conversations. After all, where else do alums return annuuUy. submitting in 90° weather to outrageous costumes and a parade through the campus in wild array, flanked on all sides by cheering friends, family, alums, and undergraduates? These same undergraduates, while they may complain and fuss and often shake fists at the University, will be the first to say that even though Princeton has its faults, there ' s nowhere else they ' d rather be. Basically, then, the reasons for feminine interest in Princeton are the same as those of their male counter- parts. However, there is one change that most women would like to see. and that is in the prevailing alumni re- action to coeducation. That reaction alone remains a sore .spot in a campus that has succes.sfuUy integrated males and females-so well, in fact, that Amherst, an all-male school thinking of going coed, chose Princeton to study. Complaints of horrible, blue-jean-clad coeds destroy- ing Princeton life unjustly condemn a new breed of women, capable of adjusting to an all-male establishment with grace, femininity, and accomplishment. We only ask that we be given a chance to prove ourselves to these dis- gruntled alums, and that they wait to judge until they have experienced the Princeton woman. Only when this is accomplished will the last barrier to complete accep- tance at Princeton be hurdled, and only then will Prince- ton become the acme of a cniHlur.alionnI institution.

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enlivening the classroom It was not so long ago that Princeton ' s male chauvinists apparently believed that the University ' s decision to be- come coeducational was made largely on social grounds, as if it were the Trustees ' desire to hold a sort of per- manent mixer here which would give Princeton men the opportunity of meeting attractive and intelligent women without leaving the comforts of their own dormitories: four or five years ago, a few may have even imagined that the Princeton female population was intended to serve in the capacity of slightly sophisticated call girls, energeti- cally committed to m(;eting the needs-social and sex- ual-of frustrated male scholars, but uninterested in pur- suing knowledge and truth for themselves. If pressed to the wall, even the most piggish of chauvinists would probably have concedt d that Princeton women might po- tentially make some; slight academic contributions, but these would certainly be limited, for the most part, to the donation of their feminine secretarial skills to the typing of the astounding scholarship of the Princeton male. By now, five years after coeducation came, the impact of the woman on Princeton can more accurately be gauged and, whatever one thinks of the heterosexual so- cial inter-action on the Princeton campus, one cannot help but be impressed with the performance of the aca- demic Tigress. While the actual figures are unavailable, I strongly suspect that the relationship between female ac- ademic success and male academic success at Princeton must be roughly equivalent to the relation.ship between the Princeton women ' s tennis team ' s athletic achieve- ment and the fading fortunes of the football team: those persons with the second X chromo.some appear to have won both rounds. That is not to .say that the Princeton woman iouiui smooth sailing on the University ' s academic .sea.s. Far from it. Until very recently, preceptors-some even in the more exact sciences— would predictably seek out ' the feminine view-point from the solitary woman in the classroom, as if she, like some sort of Congressional lob- byist, could speak only for the relatively narrow concerns of a special interest group. Just months ago, a modern lit- erature preceptor ' s blush almost matched the bright red crew neck sweater worn by the only girl in his class as he tried, for her benefit, to describe delicately the sexual im- agery in a D. H. Lawrence masterpiece. When an attrac- tive Princeton woman receives an attractive grade from a male Princeton professor, eyebrows are raised and know- ing smiles are exchanged as jealous male classmates fan- tasize how the interesting grade bargaining session must have taken place, dismissing, of course, the possibility that the grade was earned legitimately. A Princeton male who speaks up rather often or who dwells on his vast knowledge a bit long is dismissed as somewhat loqua- cious, at best, and perhaps pretentious, at worst. A Princeton woman whose classroom contributions are equivalent is an obnoxious bitch, pure and simple. As time goes by and as female enrollment climbs, one can begin to glimpse the day when Princeton women will be considered just as intelligent and stupid, just as in- triguing and boring, just as charming and annoying as their male counterparts. And, in fact, that day might ,il- ready be here. An early morning precept, held the day after the truste(!s announced an equal access admissions policy, b(!gan with a brief discussion of the impact true coeduca- tion might have at Princeton. The preceptor then turned to the lone woman seated at the long walnut table and a.sked, inevitably, for the coed ' s point of view. Without a pau.se or a smile, .she responded, Why look at me? We ' re all coeds now. jim lytic

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considered bv a senior With the advent of coeducation at Princeton in 1969, the university began to assume a new image. The all-male orientation of previous years began rapidly to deteriorate. It was not long before we had women engineers, women jocks and women bartenders. From Marsha Levy ' s acceptance of the Pyne Prize in 1973 to Wendy Zaharko ' s accomplishments on the squash court, we saw women excel in all areas of Princeton life. The change was accepted by some, welcomed by many and rejected by others. Certainly the sight of girls going into McCosh, East Pyne and the library was a strange phe- nomenon for men of the classes of 1969-1972. There was a lot of adjusting to be done. Unfor- tunately, to the women it seemed as if they were doing it all. One graduate of the Class of 1973 vividly recalls the stares and looks of astonish- ment that often preceded her into a classroom. During my freshman year the stories of coed experiences were continually floating around. Thinking back on them, I can ' t help but laugh, although much of the laughter comes from ex- amining my own experiences with Princeton women and from finding that even today the stories hold a certain amount of truth. To a degree coeds are still not accepted by some male members of the university commu- nity. The reasons for these views are for the most part subjective, but they still deserve to be heard.