Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1907-07-05
PRINCETON REFORMS
President Wilson Would Abolish
Clubs al the University.
TO ESTABLISH QUAD SYSTEM.

New Residential Plan, He Believes,
Will Eradieats Many Existing Evils
Considers Present Club Life oemersl-
ling, UnysheIssoms-vis~s Of Prince
ton Alumni.
President woodrow Wilson Of Prince
ton university. who recently told OF his
plan for the social reorganization Of
the university. declares that at present
cliques and factions dominate the uni
yersity. He will abolish the clubs and
these combinations and have an equal
number of students from each class
room In what he calls a quad. His
suggestions have been adopted by the
board of trustees aud will soon be put
in operation. says a Princeton IN. j.
dispatch to the New York Times. Mr..
Wilson says In part:
Under our present social organiza-
ton there is a constant, even an In
creasing dlsconnection between the life
and the work of the university. The
social activities of the place not only
have no necessary connection with any
of its serious tasks, but are besides
exceedingly complex and absorbing
and. in fact. absorb the energies Of the
most active undergraduates In purely
unacademic things.
1T has become common for sopho-
mores as the end of the academic year
approaches to ask the advice Of their
instructors NOW that there Is some
intimacy of counsel between them as
to which career they shall choose for
the remainder Of their course. the stu
dous or the social.
"The last two years have seen influ-
ences of this kind increase In strength
at an extraordinary rate and gain a
momentum which makes this the im-
perative time Of action. 1t Is clearly
evident to any one who lives in Prince
ton and intimately touches the life Of
the place that these influences are split
ting classes into factions and endan-
gering that class spirit upon which we
depend for our self government and
for the transmission of most Of the
loyal impulses Of the university.
"The politics Of candidacy for men,
bership in the upper class clubs not
only produces constant and very de-
moralizing distraction from university
duties in freshmen and sophomore ca
reers, but enforces all sorts Of ques-
tionable customs.
Group rivalries break the solidarity
of the classes. The younger classes are
at no point made conscious of the in
terests of the university. Their whole
thought is concentrated upon individ-
ual ambitions, upon means of prefer
ence, upon combinations to obtain self
ish individual ends, and the welfare of
the university as against any particu
lar bad custom which will serve that
purpose is ignored. labor as the upper
class men may to point 1t out and en-
force it.
mot only do men in all classes fee
that too great absorption in study will
involve virtual disqualification for So
cal preferment; they also feel that
the chief objects of their happiness and
their ambition are connected with theil
social affiliations. not with the genera
interest of the university.
'If for nothing else than to keep the
classes undivided in spirit, the new
quad divisions would be preferable tt
the present club divisions"
President Wilson tells of his plan Il
avoid these things.
ut is our purpose" he says, "to draw
the undergraduates together into resi-
dental quads, in which they shall ca
as well as lodge together and in which
they shall, under the presidency Of .
resident member Of the faculty. regu
late their corporate life by some sim
pie method of self government. Fo
this purpose it would be necessary t,
place all future dormitories I'm such re
lation to those already erected as t,
form close geographical units. Ever!
undergraduate would be required ac
tually to live in his quad-that is, t
take his meals there as we'll as t,
lodge there. The residents of eacl
quad would be made up as nearly a
might be of equal numbers Of seniors
juniors, sophomores and freshmen.
'"The object of this arrangement
would be to put unmarried member
of the faculty in residence in the quad
in order to bring them into close. ha
: bitual. natural association with the I'm
dergraduates, and so intimately tie tn
Intellectual and social life of the plac
into one another; to associate the fou
classes in a genuinely organic man
ner and make Of the university q rea
social body. to the exclusion of clique
and separate class social organizations
to give to the university the kind o
common consciousness which appaI
emily comes from the closest sort 0
social contact to be had only 0utsid
the classroom, and most easily to b
got about common table and in tn
contacts Of a common life.
81 cannot imagine service to tn
university which would bring more dis
tinction, more eclat, throughout the en-
tire university world, or which woul'
give to, our present clubs position o
greater interest and Importance in tn
history Of academic life in America"
Among Princeton men in New Yorl
the announcement made by DR.. Wood
Cow Wilson, president of the universe
ty, that, with the aid of the trustees
he intended to abolish the college clubs
formed the liveliest topic that has bee
under discussion since the preceptoris
system was launched, says the Ney
York Herald
DR.. Wilson's plan was debated Wig
orously as to its wisdom, but through
out the discussion there was ten
perate note. 1t is. not at all likely an,
organized spposrtion TO the plan D,
fhp alumut will dovoIon