College Seven

I see that the administration is struggling to find appropriate names for the two residential colleges scheduled for 2022 completion (On the Campus, September issue). 

For this “new neighborhood,” may I suggest an approach that’s both appropriately new and distinctly unorthodox? What about making one of the two colleges’ current arbitrary names, specifically number “Seven,” permanent? Now that might strike crusty conservatives as unimaginative and parochial, but sometimes what seems merely convenient or even pedestrian can actually achieve the special, the singular. 

This proposal offers two benefits: tradition and diplomacy. For one thing, the inaugural “lucky Seven” Class of 2026 will be only the first of successive generations of Princetonians who can lay claim to a lasting place (seventh) in the noble record of campus expansion. Even better, the policy would also avoid the embarrassment (disturbingly frequent, it would seem) when a generous donor’s liquidity proves, shall we say, irregular over time. Unlike Perelman College, College Seven would keep its name. Intact and forever.