Changing the Motto

I understand that Princeton’s new informal motto, “Princeton in the nation’s service and the service of humanity,” means to suggest a broader mandate than its more euphonic predecessor. To me, it does the opposite. Every year in the United States alone, more than 9 billion farm animals are confined to unnatural and often abusive environments before slaughter, millions of adoptable dogs and cats are “euthanized,” and hundreds of thousands of animals are subjected to painful, disfiguring, and ultimately fatal experiments in laboratories — all in the service of humanity. For those of us who focus our service efforts on helping nonhuman animals, Princeton’s new motto is myopic.