A Matter of Background

After Princeton's once exclusive eating clubs had taken in every eligible sophomore for four years in a row, old grads freely said that the democratic dreams of Princeton's onetime President Woodrow Wilson had finally come true. Last week, fingering their old club ties, they read the Daily Princetonian and began to wonder.

After all, said the Princetonian, there are some Princeton men these days who just are not the old eating-club type. "It was clear that of the eligibles who had difficulty this year [getting into clubs], almost every one came alone from a high school in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area. These men, though they had excellent high-school grades, did not have a social background which would fit them into the Princeton system.

"Was it fair for the University to admit them? Were they informed of the nature of the club system? . . . In other words, is the University . . . admitting some men who would definitely be happier at another university? . . . It would seem advisable," concluded the Princetonian, "to create more Alumni screening committees in the metropolitan area, where so many of this year's 100% problems came from."

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